Roadtrippin' Colorado Style

First up, an END! This is the northern end of CO-115. US 85 takes over from here. Aerial Picture

US 85 picks up the name Nevada Avenue about 1/4 mile from the last pic. We're on that now, approaching I-25. Aerial Picture

Just after I-25 on Nevada. Welcome to Colorado Springs, obey the speed limit. Here's a question about that sign: the bottom line reads "Except Alleys." So there's no speed limit in the alleys? Aerial Picture

Heading under the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. Check out the way the sidewalk has its own "tunnel" and the age on that streetlight. Aerial Picture

Colorado Springs has been updating all of its traffic signals downtown. Sometimes, a whole new mast arm is installed. Other times, new lights. This would be option 2. Aerial Picture

The japanese arch in the middle of the median is to commerate our sister city, Fujiyoshida, Japan. It's one of many sister cities this city has. Also, check out the Downtown logo on the street sign. There's actually text in that design, but you can only read it if you're walking under the sign. Then people think you're weird for stopping in the middle of the road and looking up. Aerial Picture

And here's the best way to clusterfu*k an intersection. A downtown intersection, at that. Left turns are still permitted from every direction, and there's no left turn lanes on Platte at all. This gets conjested more often than not, but is not on the top ten lists of dangerous intersections in the city. Scary. There's been repeated discussions about moving the statue, but nothing has happened in over 20 years to solve this. Oh, that dude chillin' on the horse? Gen. William Jackson Palmer, the founder of the city. Aerial Picture

Here's a closer look at the statue. The horse is anatomically correct, by the way. Every year, the senior class at Palmer high school (which is the two story brick building you see to the right in the previous picture) paints the horses cajones some flourescent color. It's tradition now!

That's a really tall warning beacon on that school sign. People still ignore it. If you're ever traveling this way, make sure you're in the right lane for the next signalized intersection. A recent curb cut installation actually lowered the road a bit after the cut. There's one helluva fun dip that catches you offguard (and possibly bottoms out your car if you're not careful). Aerial Picture

About to take our leave of Nevada Avenue. We're going to follow the old way out of town for a bit now. First step, turn right on Fontanero. Aerial Picture

Now on Fontanero. Once a major thoroughfare, it's now been reduced to badly patched asphalt. At least in this section.

Nice 5-way intersection. The arrow sign across the intersection from us is at least 20 years old. It's been there since I moved here in 1985. Aerial Picture

After turning on El Paso, we take a quick curve to the northeast and end up on Templeton Gap Road. This used to be the main thoroughfare to the northeast El Paso County community of Black Forest and points beyond. Now, it's heavily broken up by a more modern street grid. Here's proof from Google Maps (heading northeast from this location): Templeton Gap at Union. There's a wall separating the west side of Union from T-Gap. T-Gap at Austin Bluffs. There's even a semi-abandoned bridge to the north of Austin Bluffs (open to Emergency Traffic) Austin Bluffs and T-Gap (again). Austin Bluffs pretty much follows T-Gap's routing for about 4 miles. This is where it veers off again. T-Gap at Powers Blvd. You can see the abandoned roadway to the right of Powers and a bit of a recent abandonment just to the west of Powers. T-Gap at Woodmen. This image is out of date now. T-Gap curves to the east before hitting Woodmen and connects directly to Black Forest Road, the next intersection to the east. (The road lines are correct on the map, not the image) Aerial Picture

An abandoned railroad signal. There's even a height warning sign a few paces back. Aerial Picture

Approaching Fillmore Street now. Traffic continuing north turns right here, makes a dangerous jump to the left turn lanes, and turns left on Union. That's what we're going to do. Aerial Picture

This barn has always had some sort of inspirational message painted on it. Today's no different.

Now on Union Blvd., we intersect the next segment of Templeton Gap Road. Aerial Picture

Union Blvd. and Austin Bluffs Parkway is destined to be upgraded to an interchange. Good thing, too, since the rush-hour backups can stretch to one mile in each direction from this intersection. Aerial Picture

I glanced down just in time to see this. *sniff* Seems just like yesterday we were celebrating 100,000. He's growing up so fast...

Just before Academy Boulevard, Union goes through some serious traffic calming curves. I've only seen one time where the fence was hit, so I assume these curves work. Aerial Picture

Seen at the intersection of Union and Academy. What are they doing? Planning their next shooting? (Sorry, that was in horribly bad taste.) Aerial Picture

So we've now turned north on Academy Boulevard, a.k.a. CO-83, a.k.a. Colorado Springs' "White Elephant". This is heavily traveled, tons of traffic lights, even more intersecting roads, and a general mess. This is a typical shot. Aerial Picture

Hmmm. Traffic is not only heavy, it's at a standstill. This is not a good thing. Let's start timing this mess, shall we? Aerial Picture

Yeah, this is going to take a while.

Just up the hill in the distance in the previous two pics lies this intersection. This intersection usually gets backed up, but that's not what is causing this mess. The timer is at 5 minutes. Aerial Picture

About 750 feet from the intersection. The timer is now at 8 minutes. We also see a little orange sign in the distance: our first clue as to what is causing this.

Just outside our field of vision in the previous pic lies the next intersection. The timer is now at 12 minutes. Aerial Picture

Some people just can't read. Timer is at 14 minutes, and I have to wait through two light cycles of this light before there's room for me across the street. Mostly because this moron blocked up the cross traffic.

At Woodmen Road and Academy Blvd, we see the source of the jam. Crews needed a place to store this light. The right lane was blocked off for 10 feet either side of this signal. There are no crews anywhere around, and there's no visible reason for that lane to be closed. We just wasted almost 20 minutes for nothing!!! Aerial Picture

Academy and Briargate/Kelly Johnson intersection now. I love the double-right turn. Unfortunately, most drivers in the left-hand right turn lane either a)don't know they can go right on red, or b)try to turn into the right lane on Briargate. It's messy. Aerial Picture

The Chapel Hills Mall is our next stop. The Department of Motor Vehicles office is in the mall. Convenient, eh? And the guardrails there protect wayward drivers and pedestrians from falling about 20 feet into a drainage ditch.

Great shot of Pikes Peak from the parking lot of the mall.

On the way out of the mall's lot, I notice this. Not too shabby considering it's a private sign.

I used to live by the mall, so I thought I'd drive by the old homestead. It's at the end of this residential street. This is the more mature part of Briargate, with the homes being built in the mid-80's. If you keep heading north and east from this part, you get into the newest development. Those houses are anywhere from one day to five years old. Aerial Picture

Until very recently, there was an unannexed part of the county completely surrounded by the city. This is where developed met undeveloped. Aerial Picture

Now we're on Union again, this time heading south. This is the intersection at Woodmen. We're going to head east on Woodmen. Aerial Picture

This is a fun hill in the snow, let me tell you. It's got about a 8% grade, and Woodmen is a highly popular road. Aerial Picture

Here's an abandoned stretch of Taos Road. This was just recently closed off because of new development to the right of the pic. You barely could see west(left)bound traffic before; the new building made it impossible. Aerial Picture

Look closely at the oncoming traffic lanes. When the city widened Woodmen through here in the late 80's, they added a right turn lane here, expecting a development to use this as an access point. When the land finally did get developed, the developers decided against using it. Did the developers have to fix the road? Nope. They just had to add the curb across what the city left open for the supposed road. Aerial Picture

Wanna see a pictorial definition of sprawl? Here ya go! Aerial Picture

This hotshot and his buddy decided to be cool and do wheelies, pass between cars, and pass on the right in the shoulder area. They then sped off at about twice the posted limit. As much as I hate saying this, I hope they got in a wreck. (Maybe I'm just jealous because I can't make the r-dub-mobile pop a wheelie)

I turned off Woodmen to head south on Powers Blvd (future CO-83) and came across this happy sight. This pic doesn't really show how much that truck is listing to the right. I got stopped at a light ahead and he pulled up next to me. I could hear the shocks squeaking. I didn't stick around long enough to see what happened next.

Powers has been built as a limited-access expressway, which is one of the reasons CDOT wants to make it the new CO-83. There's one problem spot, though: this right turn. It's on both sides of the road, but the cross traffic can only turn right. Problem is there's no right turn lane for Powers: there's been more than a few rear-enders here. Aerial Picture