Boulder, please learn how to drive (living, moving, eat)

[Neditate]

Well, thanks for trying!
I totally understand your concern about your son driving the canyon. It would make me nervous too.
I am fine with people slowing down to appreciate the beauty of the canyon... but just PULL OVER! It seems that people rarely use their rear view mirrors. If you see more than a few cars behind you, PULL OVER and let them pass. (The LAW is 5 but it is never enforced). There are plenty of places in the canyon to safely pull over. What really gets me is the stinking trucks that won't. And I do mean STINKING. Going up and down, holding up many other vehicles while we have to breathe their stinky fumes. Grrr. I'm grateful I don't have to commute every day!

[chilaili]

Sometimes the problem with pulling over is that the cars behind you are so close together that if you brake or turn off the road they may end up rear-ending each other! I've seen that so many times. There's really no need to drive that close up or down the canyon even if you're in a tearing hurry.

[Scott5280]

While I love living in Boulder and think it's the cat's meo..IMO Boulder has some of the most schizophrenic driving behaviors I have ever seen anywhere..probably a lot to do with 420.

[Neditate]

LOL Scott.
Almost everyone I know in Boulder came from somewhere else. It is a terrible mix of vastly different driving styles from east coast to west.

[billeethakid]

Originally Posted by movementarian

10 over in a 30? That actually seems like bad driving.

And why don't people jack rabbit start as soon as the light turns green? - probably hesisitant and scared of being T-boned by one of the 13 other jackasses following the guy who just ran the red light.

Move,

I admit fault their but in context its much less worse than what other are not getting ticketed for. IMO, speed limits are for people that do not know how to operate a vehicle properly and have no common sense. Im not saying people should drive 75 on Arapahoe but you don't have to do excactly 40 or less..

[CCCVDUR]

Originally Posted by Scott5280

While I love living in Boulder and think it's the cat's meo..IMO Boulder has some of the most schizophrenic driving behaviors I have ever seen anywhere..probably a lot to do with 420.

The huge volumes of traffic, smart growth / infilling + lack of open space, and aggressive drivers are reasons why many of us who visited Boulder did NOT move there.

In my experience, the traffic congestion in Boulder is worse than Phoenix and even Las Vegas, NV.

Boulder drivers use their horns excessively, tailgate, and speed well over the limit without self restraint. It is very unsafe for bicyclists.

The most courteous drivers I've seen are in Flagstaff, AZ; South Lake Tahoe, CA.; Albuquerque, NM; and Seattle, WA.

The rudest drivers I have encountered are in Boulder, CO; Santa Fe, NM; Santa Cruz, CA; and the Bay Area, California.

In terms of traffic, so much for Boulder being the most livable city in the world, or whatever.

Flagstaff and South Lake Tahoe, CA. rank high for open space per person and livability, similar to the suburb where I grew up in suburban Seattle.

The "smart growth" and "infilling" has transformed Boulder, Santa Cruz, and much of the Bay Area into high density cities. Earliest humans were omnivorous hunter/gatherers, and did not live in 4 story condos on 4 lane boulevards. People in Boulder have been subjected to social engineering by way of Al Gore into smart growth developments. High density creates tension, and that's reflected by their driving habits. Just go up to Ft. Collins and people are much slower drivers.

If Flag and S. Lk. Tahoe can attract more Green businesses, they will be the #1 Green Cities in America, given that the People practice what they preach w/ their driving habits, unlike Boulderites.

[billeethakid]

Originally Posted by Tom Lane

The huge volumes of traffic, smart growth / infilling + lack of open space, and aggressive drivers are reasons why many of us who visited Boulder did NOT move there.

In my experience, the traffic congestion in Boulder is worse than Phoenix and even Las Vegas, NV.

Boulder drivers use their horns excessively, tailgate, and speed well over the limit without self restraint. It is very unsafe for bicyclists.

The most courteous drivers I've seen are in Flagstaff, AZ; South Lake Tahoe, CA.; Albuquerque, NM; and Seattle, WA.

The rudest drivers I have encountered are in Boulder, CO; Santa Fe, NM; Santa Cruz, CA; and the Bay Area, California.

In terms of traffic, so much for Boulder being the most livable city in the world, or whatever.

Flagstaff and South Lake Tahoe, CA. rank high for open space per person and livability, similar to the suburb where I grew up in suburban Seattle.

The "smart growth" and "infilling" has transformed Boulder, Santa Cruz, and much of the Bay Area into high density cities. Earliest humans were omnivorous hunter/gatherers, and did not live in 4 story condos on 4 lane boulevards. People in Boulder have been subjected to social engineering by way of Al Gore into smart growth developments. High density creates tension, and that's reflected by their driving habits. Just go up to Ft. Collins and people are much slower drivers.

If Flag and S. Lk. Tahoe can attract more Green businesses, they will be the #1 Green Cities in America, given that the People practice what they preach w/ their driving habits, unlike Boulderites.

Al Gore is a douche and people do not need to drive slower, they need to drive faster, and more alert. There are not as many cars driving around in Boulder as many think, its just that they are driving around with no clue on what they are doing, i.e. "head up their cell phone" as earlier stated. 2 years ago some truck driver was on the cell phone turning west on Pearl parkway on his cell phone. His trailer went up on to the curb and killed 2 older ladies on bikes.. No one drives in the moment much like life in general. How often are you doing something and thinking about something totally different. Same goes for driving. Drive on purpose, not by accident, drive as if you were on a mission and that mission is to arrive to a place, "your destination", safely, legally, and quickly. Not to have held up everyone else that was driving behind you. Also, people that do not know how to drive in the snow, which makes up about 90% of people in Colorado, go out to an empty, snow covered parking lot sometime and figure out how a car works in the snow. Learn how to brake, counter steer and accelerate effectively and efficiently and if everyone just tried this one or twice, Boulder would be a more pleasant place to drive in. Again, its not so much the congestion, it’s the mind f&%$ of Boulder as a whole. Or it might be the pot, I dunno : )

Thanks for your replies folks!

[seethelight]

Originally Posted by billeethakid

Al Gore is a douche and people do not need to drive slower, they need to drive faster, and more alert. There are not as many cars driving around in Boulder as many think, its just that they are driving around with no clue on what they are doing, i.e. "head up their cell phone" as earlier stated. 2 years ago some truck driver was on the cell phone turning west on Pearl parkway on his cell phone. His trailer went up on to the curb and killed 2 older ladies on bikes.. No one drives in the moment much like life in general. How often are you doing something and thinking about something totally different. Same goes for driving. Drive on purpose, not by accident, drive as if you were on a mission and that mission is to arrive to a place, "your destination", safely, legally, and quickly. Not to have held up everyone else that was driving behind you. Also, people that do not know how to drive in the snow, which makes up about 90% of people in Colorado, go out to an empty, snow covered parking lot sometime and figure out how a car works in the snow. Learn how to brake, counter steer and accelerate effectively and efficiently and if everyone just tried this one or twice, Boulder would be a more pleasant place to drive in. Again, its not so much the congestion, it’s the mind f&%$ of Boulder as a whole. Or it might be the pot, I dunno : )

Thanks for your replies folks!

From your moniker I assume that you still think you are living back in the wild west. You aren't. Speed limits are there for safety reasons, and when people think the laws don't apply to them that's being stupid and thoughtless.

I used to think that I knew everything, just like you do now, but as I have gotten older I know better. I can only hope you mature and gain wisdom as you grow older. It will be safer for the rest of us.

[chilaili]

Speed limits not only make life much safer for everyone, they help save on gas. Your car's consumption (no matter what model you drive) increases dramatically when you go over 65mph. I know it's great to drive fast and I am a speeder, I admit it, but I'm also thrifty and try to be considerate of other drivers. Those morons on the freeway or in town who think the speed limit doesn't apply to them and zoom in and out of traffic, tailgate, jam their brakes at the last minute and generally behave like total d**ks don't impress me - they're just an accident waiting to happen and the really tragic thing is, they won't just kill themselves .

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by seethelight

From your moniker (billiethekid) I assume that you still think you are living back in the wild west. You aren't. Speed limits are there for safety reasons, and when people think the laws don't apply to them that's being stupid and thoughtless.

I used to think that I knew everything, just like you do now, but as I have gotten older I know better. I can only hope you mature and gain wisdom as you grow older. It will be safer for the rest of us.

I was a wild ass when I was young, many of us were. I'm lucky, no wrecks and no injuries to anyone. But doing 130+MPH through west baltimore was as DUMB as it gets....never again.

Now I'm 61, with 43+ years and over a million miles of driving, much of it in the "combat commuting" region of the DC metro area. I can size up an impending situation before it occurs, like seeing way too many cars queued up nose-to-tail (like a rope of sausage links) at 75MPH in the left lane on I-25; so I'll get in the right lane until these accidents-waiting-to-happen situations move well ahead. When I see cars coming up the on-ramp, I'll move left if it's clear - I cooperate rather than compete with them. I do quick head-checks to the left/right before entering an intersection. I live near the three top-most accident prone intersections in COLO SPGS (along N. Powers at Old Ranch and Union and Briargate) and I slow down and do head checks as I approach them, even on green lights. I leave semi trucks enough space to make a lane change in front of me, I won't ride alongside one. I tend to keep to the left lane when passing through an interchange to avoid the on/off traffic and the frequent screwups which ensue as people fumble the simple act of exiting, entering and merging at interchanges. And NEVER do I drive now after a drink or two or four or six, like my younger years.