Colorado (Denver) Drivers (land, claim, travel)

[stricklandia]

Just adding one more person's perspective to this very long thread....

We just moved here from San Diego, and my observations are based on only one month in Denver. Aggressive drivers in SoCal were one of the things on the "Cons" list about living in San Diego. Drivers there are aggressive to the point of being downright dangerous. 80 mph is the norm on the freeways; many cars go faster than that, and you'll drive with white knuckles if you go much slower than that. Also all of the aggressive lane changes and other behavior listed here.

My observation about Denver: it's not quite as bad, but pretty close. As far as being a consideration to move/not move here (all other factors being equal), the difference is not significant enough to even consider. But the cause (from only my brief experience) seems to be less highway capacity here, which creates more frustrated drivers and more difficulty getting from Point A to B. San Diego has much larger (and more) freeways, so there I think people just love to drive fast and loose.

[zenkonami]

Originally Posted by downtownnola

Denver drivers are aggressive, especially on the freeway.

I just moved from Denver to Chicago. I have found Chicago to be interesting in that people drive like maniacs on surface streets around downtown, but drive fairly close to speed limit on the freeway (speeding fines here are ridiculously high, which probably has something to do with it). In Denver, it wasn't all that uncommon to be driving 15 or 20mph over the speed limit to keep up with the flow of traffic.

I guess everywhere has its own driving quirks and personality

Proving your point...I've never had anyone show me their gun on the freeway in Colorado because they disapproved of my lane change / my entry speed in to the flow of traffic / my speed / my existence on the road. I had this happen at least once a year while living in Phoenix. Now THAT'S aggressive driving

(NOTE: I swear I rarely did anything intentional to provoke such behavior, though we've all made mistakes on the road. When it happens in deadlocked rush hour traffic, though, the heart starts to race.)

[downtownnola]

Originally Posted by zenkonami

Proving your point...I've never had anyone show me their gun on the freeway in Colorado because they disapproved of my lane change / my entry speed in to the flow of traffic / my speed / my existence on the road. I had this happen at least once a year while living in Phoenix. Now THAT'S aggressive driving

(NOTE: I swear I rarely did anything intentional to provoke such behavior, though we've all made mistakes on the road. When it happens in deadlocked rush hour traffic, though, the heart starts to race.)

Wow, that's really scary! I never saw anyone wave a gun in Denver traffic, either. I saw a lot of aggressive driving in the form of cutting other drivers off, giving the "brake check," etc, but fortunately never witnessed any drivers threatening others with a gun.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by stricklandia

Just adding one more person's perspective to this very long thread....

We just moved here from San Diego, and my observations are based on only one month in Denver. Aggressive drivers in SoCal were one of the things on the "Cons" list about living in San Diego. Drivers there are aggressive to the point of being downright dangerous. 80 mph is the norm on the freeways; many cars go faster than that, and you'll drive with white knuckles if you go much slower than that. Also all of the aggressive lane changes and other behavior listed here.

My observation about Denver: it's not quite as bad, but pretty close. As far as being a consideration to move/not move here (all other factors being equal), the difference is not significant enough to even consider. But the cause (from only my brief experience) seems to be less highway capacity here, which creates more frustrated drivers and more difficulty getting from Point A to B. San Diego has much larger (and more) freeways, so there I think people just love to drive fast and loose.

Yeah, they really need to add lanes to most of the freeways around Denver. Only I-25 seems to have enough lanes.

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by denverian

Yeah, they really need to add lanes to most of the freeways around Denver. Only I-25 seems to have enough lanes.

C470 needs them badly.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by Timmyy

C470 needs them badly.

This is a story for another day.

Let's just say a former governor thought he could prevent urban sprawl by not building a beltway. When he lost that battle, he made sure the beltway had only four lanes.

Part of me hopes that when he dies, part of his eternity will be spent driving C-470 during rush hour as a punishment.

[SaxnFlutman]

Originally Posted by rushhournewb

This thread started in 2007...and Denver drivers are still nuts!

Just be grateful you're not driving in Atlanta, my friend. Doing only 5mph over the speed limit will get you run over by every vehicle out there! Unless it's just not moving, it's not uncommon for most traffic to be doing 70 in 55 zones, while the "fast" drivers go anywhere from 80 to 110! Sure, once in a while some get tickets, but usually you'll spot the blue lights, or a cop with a radar gun, traffic slows for about 90 seconds, then it's back to Indy 500 driving!

As my brother said upon a visit (& he grew up driving in Chicago, has lived in SF, and is now in LA), when he comes to Atlanta, it's both hands on the wheel, extra tight seatbelt, and both eyes always scanning the road!

[downtownnola]

Originally Posted by SaxnFlutman

Just be grateful you're not driving in Atlanta, my friend. Doing only 5mph over the speed limit will get you run over by every vehicle out there! Unless it's just not moving, it's not uncommon for most traffic to be doing 70 in 55 zones, while the "fast" drivers go anywhere from 80 to 110! Sure, once in a while some get tickets, but usually you'll spot the blue lights, or a cop with a radar gun, traffic slows for about 90 seconds, then it's back to Indy 500 driving!

As my brother said upon a visit (& he grew up driving in Chicago, has lived in SF, and is now in LA), when he comes to Atlanta, it's both hands on the wheel, extra tight seatbelt, and both eyes always scanning the road!

I know this thread is about Denver drivers, so I don't want to derail it. With that said, I think your statements are grossly over-exaggerated. I've driven in Atlanta several times and have never seen anyone doing 110mph... come on. If anything, the driving style in Atlanta is very similar to Denver. Atlanta drivers do drive fast, but not like you described.

If you want to see some truly crazy drivers, go to Miami.

[SaxnFlutman]

Originally Posted by downtownnola

I know this thread is about Denver drivers, so I don't want to derail it. With that said, I think your statements are grossly over-exaggerated. I've driven in Atlanta several times and have never seen anyone doing 110mph... come on. If anything, the driving style in Atlanta is very similar to Denver. Atlanta drivers do drive fast, but not like you described.

If you want to see some truly crazy drivers, go to Miami.

Well, I was in someone's car, as he was clocking 110, and read about a famous singer who mentioned doing the same speed on I-75 himself, so I'm hardly exaggerating, much less grossly. And I don't find the driving style in Denver (just spent 2 and half years there) similar to Atlanta's at all. It took me two weeks to make myself drive slower, especially as I read about all the speed traps in the area, since I found the general rate of speed quite a bit slower, much the way I had to ramp up my driving tempo when I moved to LA from Honolulu.

These days I know that there are times I'm doing 70+ and now & then a car will go whizzing on by me, as if I were standing still... It would be a very expensive ticket, but maybe they have state-of-the-art radar detectors (as my friend had), still I wouldn't risk the consequences by putting all my trust in an electronic box....

[SVTRay]

Originally Posted by denverian

Only I-25 seems to have enough lanes.

I'm not sure about this one. I've spent hours in bumper to bumper traffic on I-25 going to Colorado Springs. They really need to stretch that road out to 6 lanes and bump the limit up to 80mph.

As for Denver drivers, I've experienced about the same as mentioned above. People are generally trying to cut me off or doing 5-15 mph under the posted limit...almost tail gated a guy doing 10 mph on Speer yesterday. Things seem to change once you get outside the metro, people seem more pleasant.