Distance from Boulder to Denver?

[Neditate]

Originally Posted by ANAPA

Why is the traffic so horrible? Do the highways need to be expanded?

More people moving to the area = more cars on the road. US36 is a 4 lane highway. When they planned it they never expected this volume of traffic.
Thanks for the link, Livecontent.

[car06j]

does the air quality in Denver affect people in Boulder...we have a son with asthma and are considering moving to Boulder but concerned about this.

[tfox]

Originally Posted by car06j

does the air quality in Denver affect people in Boulder...we have a son with asthma and are considering moving to Boulder but concerned about this.

Definitely. You'll see Denver smog go all the way up to the Wyoming border. When I lived in Fort Collins I'd often see Denver smog creep along the foothills and affect air quality there. However, in practice the smog problem is far less north of about Longmont. Boulder most definitely is affected.

Colorado Springs and points south are actually better, since the smog gets blocked by the palmer divide north of monument. So Colorado Springs just has to deal with its own pollution, which is much less than Denver's. There is no equivalent to the palmer divide on the north side of Denver, as it's fairly flat.

[tfox]

We were talking about how growth has occurred along the Boulder Turnpike (US-36) corridor. Take a look at this pic from when the turnpike first opened. Note the complete lack of development -- I'm guessing that the picture was taken somewhere near the storageTek Dr exit today, though it's tough to tell for sure. (Note you can still see Long's Peak from the pic, which is a clue as to exactly where you are in the picture)



Now you understand why growth has affected congestion levels on the turnpike.

[POhdNcrzy]

Well, Tfox sure gave some wonderful input there. Always keep in mind that regarding Boulder's air quality, 65% of the time (at least) a good fairly stiff western breeze is blowing down out of the mountains and pushing the bad air out east. For me, the air quality in Boulder is a concern but a fairly minor concern in terms of personal health or quality of life.

The understandable concern of a parent for the health of a child already diagnosed with asthma in moving to the Boulder Valley certainly should not be dismissed. No physician or even scientist could provide a theoretically "correct" answer for these parents, other than to suggest moving somewhere else with cleaner air would be the safest thing to do.