Colorado Highway law (Denver: dangerous, moving, light rail)

[otowi]

I am someone who usually drives the speed limit - not under or over. I am continually passed by people going 10-15 mph faster than me on any road. People really seem to ignore when the speed limit is lowered due to construction, etc. - they charge on through at greater than the original speed limit let alone the reduced one. I occasionally run into people going 5-10 under, usually for brief stretches, but from my perspective, the people who think they need to speed everywhere are the more numerous and more dangerous.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by donnab300

In Colorado we have a state law the slower traffic needs to merge to the right hand lane this law was passed in 2004 I wish the state police would start enforcing this law!!! Driving from from Denver to Colorado Springs I have to drive in the right-hand Lane then, when I need to get over to the left lane to pass the slow driver, I get honked at by the people that are hogging the left lane ( illegally ) they start flashing there lights and tailgating and causing road rage.
I believe it's time to educate the new arrivals to Colorado everybody who came here to live here for our recreational marijuana please learn law.
---LEFT LANE IS FOR PASSING ONLY---"""COLORADO STATE LAW""""*CSP (*277).

And on the other hand, I'd like to see people passing in that left lane to not break speeding laws.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

The problem is that the person in front of the bunch might be passing someone but doing so slowly. As a result, a line of cars forms in the left lane, all of them wanting to go faster than they are. They aren't using the lane incorrectly. I am often in the left lane but doing only 75 because the guy in front of me is doing 75 and the guy in front of him is also doing 75. If I get in the right lane, I'll be stuck doing 65.

It pisses me off when I am in the right lane in a steady line of cars, wanting to go faster than I am, and someone passes me in the right lane, only to squeeze in front of me, forcing me to make room. I am not the reason we are all doing 75 in the left lane!

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Originally Posted by donnab300

Colorado Native Born and raised here!!!

What does this have to do with anything? There is nothing unique about Colorado traffic laws. Many states have a similar law, and many states have a similar problem. Colorado's population is growing by less than 3% per year. I highly doubt transplants are as responsible for this phenomenon as you seem to think.

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by Wittgenstein's Ghost

Colorado's population is growing by less than 3% per year. I highly doubt transplants are as responsible for this phenomenon as you seem to think.

Perhaps state wide, but there are areas along the Front Range that are closer to 5-10% increases annually.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Originally Posted by TCHP

Perhaps state wide, but there are areas along the Front Range that are closer to 5-10% increases annually.

Yes, that's probably true. But I think the assumption that bad drivers are transplants is probably a product of a confirmation bias. There is nothing unique about our highway system here, so there's no reason to think that out-of-staters would be worse drivers in CO than "natives" would be.

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by donnab300

GOI70 :: Left Lane Travel: Etiquette or Law?

This says "highway", so is a road like Powers a highway?

[otowi]

Originally Posted by DrDog

This says "highway", so is a road like Powers a highway?

I think if the speed limit is 65, on that portion I would opt to consider it a highway.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Originally Posted by TCHP

Perhaps state wide, but there are areas along the Front Range that are closer to 5-10% increases annually.

I was curious about this, so I looked it up. I would have thought 5% was within the realm of possibility (see my above post), but it turns out that 2-3% has been the growth rate for Denver over the last few years. This "invasion" of out-of-staters isn't such an invasion. It's more like a trickle. The entire state has actually only been growing by somewhere around 1.7%.

Denver population boom slows down -- a little -- as the city nears 700,000 residents

[TCHP]

US Census 2010 counts put up against 2015 estimates for the 10 counties of the Denver MSA show growth ranges from 1.8% to 13.2% over that 5 year time frame. So yes, 10% annual is a bit much, 2-3% annual is probably more like it. But that is still a pretty fair clip overlaid against he lack of road development. That is adding close to 100,000 people over the 5 year duration of the I-25 and light rail expansion through Denver. That is a substantial burden when you figure the infrastructure process of plan, review, approve, bid, and build is best at serving growth rates at fractions of a percent.

IMO the driving issue in not a transplant or native issue, so much as an inconsistent driving method. So many poeple here are from somewhere else, even further back than recent numbers show, that there is no consistent local driving habit that dominates. We are a mash of of SoCal high speed, Boston don't flinch, midwestern laid back, and southern polite that you never know what exactly you are running up next to and how to react to that driver's methods. Even at a growth rate of only 1%, taken over 30 years, is A LOT of people who bring a host of different skills, experience, and habits into a concentrated corridor like the Front Range.