Driving in Denver - Good / Bad / Agressive (home, to live)

[LBear]

I took a weekend trip to Denver and I must say that the people drive like maniacs on the highways!

It was snowing and their was ice and snow accumulating on the streets. People were doing 70MPH + ! Nobody seemed to care for the bad weather conditions. They were driving aggressively with sudden lane changes and tail-gating.

Needless to say, there were AT LEAST 4 serious wrecks that I seen MYSELF. The news reported a 6 car accident with numerous fatalities. That comes as no surprise with the type of driving. Denver has some VERY serious aggressive driving...

It must be all those SoCals who moved there....

[Colomonter]

Just a microcosm of the society that we live in today. You will hear pretty much the same story from drivers in any large metro area in the country. I agree that driving in Denver can be a zoo, but from my experience I don't see much difference in any metro area of two million plus people trying to get from point A to point B with limited time and patience.

[2bindenver]

I think it was all the folks here from somewhere else.

The Easter service at Red Rocks was cancelled...so we stayed home until 3 when all was clear

We got 3 inches of here today, gone today snow. And yes, I saw a lot of cars that slid off the road Saturday evening. I was worried about my newly licensed 16 year old out there with the stupid people driving.

[jazzlover]

Well, there are plenty of aggressive drivers everywhere (more of our self-centered hedonistic mindset showing through), but the Front Range does exhibit some of the worst anywhere. A lot of people blame the congested roads, but Front Range drivers tend to be aggressive even when they drive out in the sticks.

The other factor is lack of enforcement. The number of State Troopers on the roads in Colorado has barely changed in 30 years, even though the traffic counts and vehicle miles driven have doubled. Many times I have driven hundreds of miles across Colorado and never seen a Trooper. In much of Colorado, there are no troopers on duty from around midnight to 6 AM.

Colorado needs more troopers, and it needs to raise traffic fines to the point that they are painful enough to discourage dangerous driving--say $1,000 or so for exceeding the speed limit by more than 10-15 mph. Also, like many states, Colorado has pretty much ended regular testing of drivers once they secure their adult license, so bad driving habits never get discovered by a driving examiner during a driving test, anymore.

People tend to forget that driving is a privilege, not a "right."

[chilaili]

Originally Posted by Pettrix

I took a weekend trip to Denver and I must say that the people drive like maniacs on the highways!

It was snowing and their was ice and snow accumulating on the streets. People were doing 70MPH + ! Nobody seemed to care for the bad weather conditions. They were driving aggressively with sudden lane changes and tail-gating.

Needless to say, there were AT LEAST 4 serious wrecks that I seen MYSELF. The news reported a 6 car accident with numerous fatalities. That comes as no surprise with the type of driving. Denver has some VERY serious aggressive driving...

It must be all those SoCals who moved there....

I have to say I find Coloradoans driving infinitely better than where I used to live: Minnesota! Maybe it's because of the 6-8 months of snow and ice that makes them think they're brilliant drivers but I've never seen so many outrageous examples of idiocy, inconsideration and downright dangerous driving habits. Tailgating seems to be a requirement there, even when there's 3" of ice on the road, driving too slow or too fast in the wrong lane, never using a signal light, or (my personal favourite), driving really really fast only to realise at the last second that the car in front is not going to get out of their way or go any faster and having to slam their brakes on.

[Vision67]

Lot's of folks with 4X4s think they're invincible in snow.

But then they end up rolled over!

Remember, the average IQ is just 100.

[BigCheeze]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Lot's of folks with 4X4s think they're invincible in snow.

But then they end up rolled over!

Remember, the average IQ is just 100.

Actually most of the people around here I see driving like lunes are in smaller foreign type cars. Generally are younger (as in 18 - 25), and are about equally male and female.

I've seen at least 2 - 3 times with my own eyes people in 4-byes cut off in bad weather by these drives and almost wreck. My wife in a 4-bye got ran off the road during the 06 December of weather by some women talking on her phone driving a BMW type car. So don't blame most of the people with 4x4's.

[TinajaCo]

I have to say though that the SUV observation is a valid point.... it seems to me that, especially in inclement weather, SUV drivers seem to think they are impervious to the road conditions, that their 4WD will save them from whatever may be coming down the road. They forget that it's 4-Wheel-drive, not 4-wheel-stop. And as a result it seems the bad weather accidents I see predominantly involve SUVs. Again, I'm not saying that all SUV drivers drive like this in the weather, but it seems to be a more dominant issue when people have SUVs.

[Mike from back east]

1. Many drivers seem to ignore 2 truths: 4-wheel drive doesn't equal 4-wheel stop; and no vehicle is safe on ice.

2. Sciences find that crowded conditions beget aggressive, territorial behaviors, whether lab rats or people.

s/mike

[LBear]

Yes, thank you...

It was completely insane! There were people in SUVs and 4x4s riding my bumper (I was in the SLOW lane doing 50MPH) and I did NOT have 4WD. In some areas the speed limit was 55-65MPH and people were still driving 75-80MPH in the snow, ice and FOG! Visibility was only a couple of feet in some areas on Saturday and people did NOT slow down. They were driving like it was a sunny day and dry roads.

No turn signals! I would say 8 out of 10 drivers do NOT use their turn signals. It was insane. I have driven Chicago, Phoenix, L.A. and I must say Denver is by-far the worst aggressive driving I have seen. If it was DRY, I would give them some slack but it was snowing, icy and their was fog everywhere!

I remember seeing NUMEROUS accidents all over the highways.