Denver chosen top city to live in

There's nothing you can do about it, "The Liberals" have infiltrated AZ quite a bit too. It seems to be spreading. I think their comming from CA and the East Coast mainly. What can we do to stop them?

PRRose wrote: So you're an advocate of driving dangerously , unlawfully (since lane straddling is improper and obstructs legal traffic), and counterproductively (since optimum traffic flow requires smooth merges and the use of all lanes, not jerks playing speed bump), all because you're jealous of someone getting ahead of you.

Nah.
Illegal? Doubt it. Often it happens even after the merge lane line stops, and cars blast by in the wide part before it tapers to one lane. So, doubt it's illegal for me to swing wide there.

Counterproductive? Nope. It's counter productive for the rushing mergers to shoot past the gaps and clog up the last 50' in a pile-stop.

Jealous they're getting ahead of me? Nope. Irritated because they're passing openings only to go clog things up and slow everyone down.

Shawn Mitchell wrote: Nah. Illegal? Doubt it. Often it happens even after the merge lane line stops, and cars blast by in the wide part before it tapers to one lane. So, doubt it's illegal for me to swing wide there. Counterproductive? Nope. It's counter productive for the rushing mergers to shoot past the gaps and clog up the last 50' in a pile-stop. Jealous they're getting ahead of me? Nope. Irritated because they're passing openings only to go clog things up and slow everyone down.

I HATE that Colorado habit of merging half a mile back. There are actually places in the world where the merge occurs where the constriction occurs and people politely alternate. It's probably 6 of one, half a dozen of the other as to flow volume.

rmsusa wrote: I HATE that Colorado habit of merging half a mile back.

I nearly flagged the hate speech. But if it's provoked by me doing something Colorado-ish, well, that makes me feel better about my shady California past.

My Great Grand Mother said "you're not allowed to hate anyone or anything but Hitler and Mussolini." Peace and love brother, peace and love.

Harold Lampasso wrote: I think all the bad drivers are from Texas! LOL!

Awww bite me! LOL!

I thought the Californians took the heat off of us years ago.......

The only time I have to deal with traffic is during morning rush hour when I'm heading into the mountains to climb. Then I hit evening rush hour when I'm heading home from the mountains.
I guess that's my punishment for climbing when everyone else is at work.

Our standard to obtain a driver's license is way too week. In Sweden they have a difficult driving and written exam including controlling a car in a skid ( they use oiled track in the summer and ice in the winter). Imagine that, you have to know how to handle a vehicle before you get a license to drive one. That country has the best drivers I have ever seen. I wonder if we could lower our insurance rates by having a tougher standard?

It's funny how a post about Denver being a place many people want to live quickly devolved into a rant about traffic. Many of my suburban friends have the same complaint.
Here's the secret: If you live and work in central Denver, you only need to drive when you are leaving town. The daily commute involves walking, biking or public transportation.

Shawn Mitchell wrote: Nah. Illegal? Doubt it. Often it happens even after the merge lane line stops, and cars blast by in the wide part before it tapers to one lane. So, doubt it's illegal for me to swing wide there. Counterproductive? Nope. It's counter productive for the rushing mergers to shoot past the gaps and clog up the last 50' in a pile-stop. Jealous they're getting ahead of me? Nope. Irritated because they're passing openings only to go clog things up and slow everyone down.

Let me get this straight: you think its ok to "swing wide" into the path of another car merely because you're irritated. Dangerous, and possibly prosecutable as assault (with a deadly weapon, too) or reckless or careless driving.

BTW, wasn't swinging wide what Larry Craig claimed he was doing? What is it with you Republicans

patrick wild wrote: Hanky, a little birdy told me you were recently in TX, F-YOU for not looking me up!

Dude, I was on my Honeymoon and we just saw family.....and had massive amounts of Margaritas and sex.

Yo Pat,

Glad to hear you might be moving back this way. I heard through the grape vine theres a great job opening, in the GIS field, next to my ass.
Man I crack myself up. But for real, Doug Scott and a matty T. are both in that field. You should talk to them, get my # from Fresh.

Late-a

kevin

Goddamn it! New york is a WHOLE STATE! drivers who think they are the shit because they "know how to drive" in congested traffic in The City (haha, The) are usually the first ones either driving ~20mph BELOW the speed limit as soon as a snowflake hits the road, or the first ones to run themselves off the road because they are too aggressive. As I said, a whole state, meaning that only New Yorkers that regularly travel the state North (St. Lawrence river north, not freakin Oswego) to South (Long Island) can drive. It's like climbing, an all around proficiency is generally more useful than being exceptional in one discipline.
Sorry if I was offensive, I am still working on suppressing the angry New Yorker in me. Kinda funny when I can remember always being the mellow one of the bunch back East.

Shawn Mitchell wrote: I nearly flagged the hate speech. But if it's provoked by me doing something Colorado-ish, well, that makes me feel better about my shady California past.

No need to feel bad about it. Despite their rep, I think LA drivers are among the better in the country.

Having been somewhat of a transient and having lived in cities with reputations for bad drivers (Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, and so on) I've gotta say that having been in CO for almost a year that it does indeed have a higher proportion of incompetent drivers. I don't know why this is but they don't know how to accelerate, merge, pass, or stay out of the left lane if they aren't passing. Anytime anything is happening on the side of the road everyone slows down 20 mph. I actually live in the Springs and only have to drive through Denver every once and a while but it sucks. That person weaving through traffic 20 mph faster than everybody else, that's me. Sorry I can't just sit there while the seemingly higher than usual SUV/Truck population blindly changes across four lanes of traffic while going under the speed limit. If I have to be aggressive to avoid being killed then so be it. Seriously, If thousands of Bostonians can drive to NYC doing 90 while six inches from the next cars bumper without causing major accidents then I'd say they're a lot better drivers than people who have to brake at every turn and lane change.

On another note, what's with all the trash on the sides of the road. I just had to replace my oil filter when a big piece of metal on the raod flew out from underneath someone elses car (they ran over it first and it looked like it would go to the side).

Ben F wrote: I'm mainly bitching about the people who zip past everyone else to get to the front of the line at the merge point. It figures that PR wants to argue with me. PR, are you one of those people saying "f-em" and trying to cut ahead right at the merge point in construction? .

I'm arguing with you because you're wrong.

Traffic engineers say that the most efficient way to merge in heavy traffic is at the merge point. The Minnesota DOT, for example, is trying to develop sign systems so that drivers will merge at the merge point:

dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng/…

Other highway departments, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, do something similar.

Edit to add: Tom Vanderbilt's recently-published book "Traffic" discusses the various studies. The figure that stuck with me is that there is a roughly 15% improvement in throughput in heavy traffic if late merging is adopted. As Derek Lawrence points out, Colorado DOT also urges drivers to merge at the merge point and drivers are ticketed for lane straddling.

Not that I expect that you will allow facts to get in the way of your prejudices, Ben.

Ben F wrote: BTW, traffic "engineers" have about as much credibility as lawyers (damn, I'm getting as vitriolic as PR - how's that for prejudice?).

Yup, no one, no matter their training or expertise, is a match for your smarts, Ben F.

You're quite a piece of work.

I like living in Denver, too.

Damn, I hate these surveys. Now, even more people will be moving here. Oh well. I'm still not leaving.

Can we stop talking about the traffic and change the topic to urban sprawl or how transplants (yes, including me) affect Front Range climbing?

Ben F wrote:we're all just speaking from experience. I guess what we've witnessed isn't fact, eh? Of course, I'm putting this in the context of the bad apples who drive like pricks. Merging at or near the merge point would be fine (and sometimes is) when both lanes are travelling at about the same speed. However, when @ssholes in the lane which is being squeezed-out whiz-by everyone else and try to cut-in at the merge point at the last minute(usually they fly up to the bottleneck, stop and then try to get into the continuing lane), they disrupt the flow of traffic. I'd like to articulate this better, but I think most folks get what I'm trying to say based on their experiences.

Agreed