Denver: 9th Worst Traffic in the Country (Lakewood, Boulder: maintenance, tax)

[awarren09]

I recently found an article about the 10 worst cities in America for congestion based upon annual hours of delay lost per average commuter. I was suprised to find Denver at #9 with 47hrs, ahead of both Atlanta and Seattle. Sure Denver traffic can be pretty bad at times, but there are several cities I think have worse traffic. 47 hrs is not that much and seems to be a reasonable figure for Denver, but for Atlanta ans Seattle to have 44hrs smells a little fishy . What do you think?

http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congestion_data/tables/denve.pdf (broken link)

Cities with the worst traffic congestion - Mar. 4, 2011

[CO_Transplant]

I believe it! When you have an urban area with almost 3 million people that still has two lane freeways, what do you expect? Couple that with constant lane closures and accidents and you have chaos. People here will say that our traffic isn't nearly as bad as LA. I would hope not seeing as the LA area has 5 times the population of Denver. The fact that people are willing to mention LA traffic and Denver traffic in the same sentence tells me that there's a problem!

There are no major plans for freeway widening, so as people continue to move here, the problem will only worsen. The Denver area is expected to have 4.5 million people in less than 25 years. Something needs to be done! Just adding light rail lines will not do.

This town desperately needs more rail lines and to at least double freeway capacity on the C-470, the 270, the 36, and the portion of the 25 through Thornton and Northglenn!

[bhcompy]

Denver's traffic is child's play compared the LA. When my realtor took me out during rush hour in Denver I was worried about a 90 minute drive to go 20 miles.. I soon found out that what Denver calls bad traffic is the same as the 405 in offpeak hours

[iknowftbll]

Washington D.C. traffic makes Denver traffic look like a small town. Denver traffic doesn't even compare. I'm not saying that Denver isn't bad, but it really is not more than to be expected for a city of its size.

[TechMike]

Originally Posted by CO_Transplant

There are no major plans for freeway widening, so as people continue to move here, the problem will only worsen. The Denver area is expected to have 4.5 million people in less than 25 years. Something needs to be done! Just adding light rail lines will not do.

No major plans? Have you not seen the East I-70 EIS? This is a huge plan to do some major upgrading of the I-70 viaduct. A viaduct that continues to cost C-DOT millions a year in maintenance costs and desperately needs replacement. The issue is funding.

Originally Posted by CO_Transplant

This town desperately needs more rail lines and to at least double freeway capacity on the C-470, the 270, the 36, and the portion of the 25 through Thornton and Northglenn!

You can't just add more lanes to freeways and expect capacity to increase. There are congestion points and bottlenecks that need to be relieved. For example, much of I-270's congestion could be relieved by upgrading the substandard Vasquez Blvd interchange.

A friend of mine was working with a civil engineering firm on widening C-470 to six lanes (that's three in each direction). The issue again was funding. The replacement of bridges cost too much.

The Boulder Turnpike needs more done than just more lanes. Managed bus lanes the whole length to Boulder are in the works. This is necessary due to the huge amount of bus traffic along the corridor. Turn it back into a toll road and we might be able to afford widening.

I'm hoping Fastracks helps relieve some congestion, or at least convinces some folks that sitting in traffic isn't worth their time. After all, it is the only major infrastructure project going in the area right now.

[Count David]

This has to factor in snowstorms, like when it takes two hours to go up Santa Fe from Hampden to I-25.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by TechMike

No major plans? Have you not seen the East I-70 EIS? This is a huge plan to do some major upgrading of the I-70 viaduct. A viaduct that continues to cost C-DOT millions a year in maintenance costs and desperately needs replacement. The issue is funding.


You can't just add more lanes to freeways and expect capacity to increase. There are congestion points and bottlenecks that need to be relieved. For example, much of I-270's congestion could be relieved by upgrading the substandard Vasquez Blvd interchange.

A friend of mine was working with a civil engineering firm on widening C-470 to six lanes (that's three in each direction). The issue again was funding. The replacement of bridges cost too much.

The Boulder Turnpike needs more done than just more lanes. Managed bus lanes the whole length to Boulder are in the works. This is necessary due to the huge amount of bus traffic along the corridor. Turn it back into a toll road and we might be able to afford widening.

I'm hoping Fastracks helps relieve some congestion, or at least convinces some folks that sitting in traffic isn't worth their time. After all, it is the only major infrastructure project going in the area right now.

The key word here is "funding", and a lack of it. We're in a low tax state and you get what you pay for. So we get very little in infrastructure upgrades. I doubt they'll widen the 70 east of downtown in the next ten years, since that will cost so much. I think they're still struggling to find the funding to widen the 225 from Mississippi to Iliff, so leaving that bottleneck basically makes all the widening north and south of it worthless.

[skins_fan82]

Still being kinda new to Denver, I made the mistake of taking 6th ave (from Lakewood) to I-25 south around 5:30 PM. Whoops, won't make that mistake again. LOL

Denver's highway system seems pretty screwy. Plenty of east/west highways, but not many choices for north/south. it's almost like you're forced to sit in the parking lot that is I-25 during rush hour it you want to get from downtown to the southern suburbs.

And I definitely don't miss good ol' 495, capital beltway, in DC. Anybody who has lived/visited there knows what I'm talking about LOL.

[el borracho]

i posted this in another thread ,but i think it should also be in this one.Texas U-turn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[awarren09]

@skins_fan82 The first time i took that route the ramp from eastboud 6th ave to southbound I-25 took 15 min.