Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
People should understand the traffic situation in Colorado before making a decision on moving here. It seems quite a few potential movers ask about traffic. Is traffic as bad here as Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, etc.? No, not yet. But things are getting worse and quickly. I am not exaggerating. All of the outrageous developments, especially in the last 10-15 years have really made an impact on traffic. As an example, things are already bad on Parker Road near the e-470 during rush hour, and development in the area is still growing. Sure, the next 5 years might be OK, but you must think long-term before making an investment on real estate property. As for me, this makes a huge difference as I do a decent amount of commuting. It affects the overall quality of life.
Yes, Colorado roads are very poor, especially compared to California. And planning ahead is unthinkable here. If you ask others who have spent a good amount of time in places like California, they would probably agree.
I know it seems like I'm dwelling on the negatives about Colorado, but I think most of the positives have already been covered by other posters.
You want to see poor roads? Go to NYC and hop on the BQE, better known as the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. You will be without your fillings within 5 minutes and I'm not exaggerating. While there, be sure to sit in traffic on one of the bridges and feel it move continually each time traffic starts and stops. Kind of amazing how much flex they have, but eventually, one will fall into the water just like the one in MS. I drove through Wyoming this summer and they had fanatastic roads... but no people. How does that work? Who pays for those beautiful roads?
hm. this is interesting - i've noticed that police can be especially..."vigilant", at least around denver and boulder, even to the point of "what the?".
what have you seen or heard?
This I have to agree with. Within the first two months here, I was pulled over twice and both resulted in a ticket regardless of what rationale was provided. There is no such thing as a "courtesy" here as one would have in NY as a relative of a police officer. When relaying this story to a buddy who is a cop in Suffolk, he told me that while on a training mission, one of his buddies got pulled over out here with three other policemen in the car.... and the trooper gave the driver a ticket! Imagine that happening in NY or any other major city.. Never.
I attribute this phenomenon to the relative lack of crime and the need to offset low taxes with income that subsidizes the aforementioned low taxes. Where else would they get it if there weren't moving violation income..? One thing that was a pleasant surprise is that you can plea the ticket via mail for only a few dollars. Can't do that in NY!
Oh, has anyone ever been to a DMV in a major city? That factor alone is worth the cost of moving. Here's the scenario:
Walk into a bldg where 25 people are outside smoking only to see perhaps 300 people inside. Take a ticket from the machine which says ESTIMATED WAIT TIME: 1:52. That's one hour and 52 minutes only to be greeted by staff who have the worst job in the state of NY- dealing with idiots who cannot understand why they need an insurance card to register their car.
I have two kids who learned to drive here in Colorado, and neither (to my knowledge) have received a ticket for a moving violation. (One seems to be continually getting parking tickets in Denver.) That says more about law enforcement than it does about their driving, IMO! In short, I do not think law enforcement is too harsh, at least not in Louisville/Boulder. One of mine would probably be in jail if she were actually stopped every time she exceeded the speed limit! I rarely even see police cars in Boulder.
We drove through the entire state of Wyoming without seeing a single policeman off of a major highway. Amazing!
The vigilant presence keeps the kids safe and if that costs me a few bucks, so be it.
We drove through the entire state of Wyoming without seeing a single policeman off of a major highway. Amazing!
The vigilant presence keeps the kids safe and if that costs me a few bucks, so be it.
It's true that most counties in Wyoming don't have very big sheriff's departments. Given that there are only about 515,000 Wyoming residents (most of them living in incorporated towns), that shouldn't be any surprise. Outside of the few wildly growing "energy" counties of the state (that are having significant growing pains, including some crime), most of Wyoming is relatively crime-free. Wyoming's biggest city, Cheyenne, is pretty low-crime compared to most places, too. Casper is a little worse, but it is being heavily impacted by the energy boom. Most small towns in Wyoming are pretty crime-free. There isn't a huge visible presence of local law enforcement in much of Wyoming because it simply isn't needed. Most Wyomingites obey the law because it's the right thing to do and they care about their neighbors and communities. They don't need Big Brother around to make them do it.
As to state law enforcement, my experience (from living in Wyoming) is that the Wyoming Highway Patrol is pretty vigorous about patrolling the many miles of roads in Wyoming. Unlike Colorado, they actually seem to have enough troopers to cover a lot of territory. Driving a great deal in both Colorado and Wyoming, I found it much more likely to see a trooper patrolling in Wyoming than in Colorado--notwithstanding the fact the Colorado has about 8 times the population.
Also, contrary to the "urban legends," mostly perpetrated by nonresidents of Wyoming, the Wyoming Highway Patrol has about a zero tolerance for speeding and traffic violations. Most Wyoming residents know this and obey the traffic laws. In driving in Wyoming, if I saw some bozo exceeding the speed limit by 10 to 30 mph, it almost always was an out-of-state car--most usually a "greenie" (as Wyomingites refer to Coloradans by the color of the Colorado license plate). Utahns, Idahoans, and South Dakotans also seemed to regularly think that Wyoming was a race track. Those drivers regularly get to "pay the price" of a Wyoming traffic citation--cha ching!
I've lived in both states. If safety from crime were the only criteria for picking which one to call home, I would pick most places in Wyoming (excepting maybe Rock Springs or Gillette) over most anyplace in Colorado just about every time.
jazzlover - no offense (hehe) you seem to run around the CO forums in the need to deter people from Colorado.
I haven't had a ticket for any traffic violation since 1990 although I was pulled over for expired tags but got my tags the next day so they threw that out.
All I am saying is that if you don't drive like a dumba$$ you aren't going to be pulled over. I drove my first truck (1994-1995) for a total of about 45,000 miles in the state of Colorado, yeah, in one year as I was a sales rep and somehow managed to stay free of even getting a parking ticket. I traveled all over the state! Grand junction to Steamboat to Aspen to C Springs to Alamosa...you name it, I was all over the place.
Do I love Colorado? You bet. Is it perfect? Naw but no place is. If people drive stupid, they get tickets. If people act in ways that may endanger others, they will be called upon to appear at the local jail. It's not that hard to figure that out.
Would I live any place else? No. My roots are firmly planted in this great state called Colorado. I would live in most areas in the state...next stop, Cañon City. Need to find some rental property down there though that allows me to have a cat and a dog. Can't be without my "babies".
I got pulled over in Boulder once, while riding my bicycle. I was NOT using the dedicated "bike lane". Wow, I didn't even know they existed (I told him that) ... but in Boulder, they do. Actually, Boulder is very bike friendly and there are lots of bike underpasses ... I just wish Boulder was still affordable.
I've also seen someone get pulled over by some kind of "smog police" in boulder ... and it was actually pretty gratifying, because it was one of those cars which leaves a fog bank (of pollution) behind it that you can hardly breath ...
I LOVE Colorado, but have found that we sort of do things 'the hard way' a lot of time. Maybe thats just how government works at all levels -- but they often don't look around at what the rest of country has already learned first before doing things. That can be frustrating.
I watched for what seems like 10-15 years for them to build the HOV lanes down the middle of N. I-25 ... and to this day, they are seriously underutilized. They probably spent well over a billion dollars on them. Now they have made one of the two lanes a "lexus lane", which you can pay to use it ... since the whole HOV thing wasn't getting utilized enough. It's rarely open and even then only in one direction or the other. It's frankly a little confusing. Its amazing that we stilll pay to use our billion dollar lanes, 20 years later. Even when I'm with the family, my wife says "why bother" ... but sometimes I use them just to get some of my "moneys worth" out of these lanes.
Actually, the T-Rex project has made I-25 on the S. side of town "much better" overall. Now there are new jamming points. But some of the older underpasses which used to flood easily are now much better and we also have light rail on this corridor, which at least gives us "options".
I got pulled over in Boulder once, while riding my bicycle. I was NOT using the dedicated "bike lane". Wow, I didn't even know they existed (I told him that) ... but in Boulder, they do. Actually, Boulder is very bike friendly and there are lots of bike underpasses ... I just wish Boulder was still affordable. ...
We've acquaintances in Boulder, the husband got a $100 ticket for speeding - on his bike!
We've acquaintances in Boulder, the husband got a $100 ticket for speeding - on his bike!
Good! Believe it or not, I've attended two different funerals for pedestrians killed by cyclists. And when I lived in northern California, it wasn't unusual to see a newspaper article about someone who was critically injured in a bike collision. Don't even get me started on motorcycles...!
While walking across Flagstaff, I was nearly hit by a cyclist doing at least 40 in his spandex gear which would not have saved him from the road rash a spill at 40 would have caused much less if he hit me. He crossed behind me and I didn't see him until he was upon me. My child is usually right behind me, so I just imagined what would happen if he had hit .... The end for certain.
This has happened in several parts of the state- another was at independence pass. This guy was doing about 60. I would certainly have died and he couldn't have avoided me if he wanted to.
The bikers have significantly greater rights than an automobile's operator and I wonder how this is when they don't pay a dollar to ride that bike as opposed to the taxes we all pay to drive. It's certainly a lopsided part of the code of the road...
I love to ride my bike as well, but in our area, they do not have bike lanes, so I keep to the side as tight as possible. It appears that the increased rights in Boulder have caused them take the proverbial foot when given an inch. They jump across the road without and concern as to your distance from the crossing lane and the ability to bring 3000 lbs of steel to a halt in 9 feet., This upsets me to no end!
Good! Believe it or not, I've attended two different funerals for pedestrians killed by cyclists. And when I lived in northern California, it wasn't unusual to see a newspaper article about someone who was critically injured in a bike collision. Don't even get me started on motorcycles...!
My wife used to work in downtown DC, and those bicycle messenger dudes are suicidal kamikaze's or something. She almost got clobbered several times by them.
I *think* bicycles are considered *vehicles* and subject to the same set of laws as would a driver of a motorized vehicle, i.e., you are required to NOT strike anything with your vehicle, especially people on foot.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.