Roadtrippin' Colorado Style

Just in case you were unclear if you're entering Interstate-Interstate 25 or Interstate-US Highway 25, CDOT decided to help us out.

When M$ Windoze attacks at the sign shop.

Words fail me as to the fugliness of this arrow. At NB 25 and Thornton Parkway in Denver.

This is on the ramp from NB 25 to Thornton Parkway in Denver. Yeah, there's a third lane that adds on up the hill, but that's not too clear here.

This VMS along with two others on this stretch of SB I-25 didn't get a level installation. It's really obvious when traveling the other direction. This also marks the return of the third-mile signs to Colorado.

Southwestbound 270 is finally accessable from southbound 25 now. And, so the sign handlers don't hurt themselves, they cut off the corners of the signs. This is seen throughout this stretch. This really makes the exit tabs look wrong, doesn't it? Also, it looks like Westminster is afraid of Boulder!

Where to begin? First, the lane is not exit only. Next, what's with the separation on the sign, considering Platte does not end here. Last, what's with all the arrows? Funny thing here, this is the third version of this sign. The first one was correct, the second one had the separation, this one added the exit only part.

The MUTCD specifies how many signs can be on a sign bridge. It doesn't specify how much information is allowed on the sign, I see. And the addition of the VMS here leads you to major sign overload. And itty bitty text.

Well, that's a nice arrow you've got there. The interstate shield is quite... well... interesting, too.

Now this is unique. Nevada Avenue intersects I-25 a little over half a mile to the north from this point, and the business route goes north from that. Yes, the sign says business loop, not spur. And if you're traveling north on US 85 towards Denver, be warned: this is the last US 85 shield you'll see until I-25's exit 184: about 45 miles away. Why doesn't Colorado sign US routes when they're cosigned with interstates again?

What in the world is this? This intersection was recently restriped so that the merging traffic wouldn't be just dumped into a travel lane (hence the plastic whiffle ball bats planted in the asphalt), and these "signs" were installed. Shouldn't those be on diamond blanks or something of the sort?

So I guess somebody else thought those signs from above looked like poop, too. Those signs didn't last two weeks.

I'm loving the curved arrow, which is not a mistake. I'm putting this pic here to have another look-see at the craptacular square sign in the background.

Mixing and matching as necessary to keep us from speeding on a straight road.

Take a look at the sign. Then take a look at the stripes. What's wrong with this picture?

Can somebody tell me what the point of the mid-lane median is?

A closer look at the mid-lane median. Oncoming traffic only has one left turn lane. Originally, it was striped as two left turn lanes plus a through lane for the oncoming lanes, but the lanes were simply too narrow for manageable traffic flow. (read: people kept sideswiping each other)

Okay, now really. The "Meadows" part of this sign is so small you almost need binoculars to read it from across the intersection. (I was right under the light pole when I took this.) I suppose this wouldn't be an issue if the word Cheyenne only appeared once on city streets. It doesn't though. We have a Cheyenne Road, Cheyenne Boulevard, Cheyenne Avenue, Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard, and a Cheyenne Meadows Road. Only the avenue one isn't in the same geograpic area of the city.

So how fast do the buses have to go then?

US 24 hasn't been on Cimarron Avenue east of I-25 since 1992. Coincidentally, that's when this sign was installed. The inset shows this isn't the only time you see this along Cimarron.

No, I-25 isn't to the left. You turn left to get to the interstate, which is what the blue sign says in the background.

Now that's advanced warning for a curve. There's nothing stopping CDOT from placing this sign before the intersection, either.

Technically, the I-70 sign should be a Business Loop sign, unless the branches are hiding a "to" sign.

I guess the guy who centers the text on the signs was off on the day this one was made. I also dig the catwalk on the sign bridge and how it zags over to the other side to service an empty sign slot.

Gotta hang the sign right. You do that, the sign doesn't end up on the r-dub oops page. Simple as that.

When you can't find any other sign blank, a spare county road sign blank will do!

Now why can I see a bunch of workers standing there with this arrow sign, trying to figure out how to make it work without driving back to the shop to get the right one?

If you're going to borrow a sign, can the orange-out parts at least fit the sign?

A double oops! First, directionals go on top. Second, we've been traveling on US 6 up to this point. Where does US 6 go? If you answered straight (since it's not marked otherwise), you'd be wrong. Hang a right.

No, it's not 16' 45", it's 16' 4-point-5". What happened to the ½ symbol?

Just in case you didn't understand what the symbol means, COS Streets decided to put it all together for you!

Now that's a different arrow. And we're still missing the "to" parts to the trailblazer signs

Looks like we lost a town between here and Castle Rock. (The top line used to say: N. Entrance AFA - 3. Guess the Air Force Academy doesn't count on this sign.)

Seriously. How hard is it to hang this sign correctly?

Not as much an oops as overkill on the red lights. This doesn't show the two overhead traffic lights for the right-turn lanes, the one pole-mounted light on the left side, and the one pole-mounted light on the right side. All together: 9 traffic lights for a four-lane offramp.

In order to keep cross traffic from going straight across Academy Blvd. (As if they'd want to do that...), city "planners" installed this median in the intersection. No, there's no good spot to either turn around or enter the opposite side's shopping areas within a reasonable distance.

Close up on that intersection median. Make all the short bus jokes you want.

Colorado Springs has recently been upgrading all their street name signs to backlit signs. Only problem is what happens when there's multiple road names at the same intersection. They haven't figured out a perfect solution yet. (And don't get me started on how many roads change names in this city...)

Yeah, it's not a state or city sign, but I couldn't resist putting it here.

This sign is a gem because most CDOT signs nowadays don't include mileage on them, but there's a problem: we're currently on SH 105. Looks to me like we're intersecting it ahead. In reality, 105 only turns right.

Is it a bad thing that the county roads department can't even center their own boundary signs?

There's a story here. This sign was originally installed without arrows at all. This made no sense to any traveler, since we're actually traveling on SH 115 at this point. So CDOT came out and pasted the arrows on the sign instead of placing an additional sign under this one. Oh, one more thing: there's another "Cheyenne Mountain Blvd." sign 500 feet ahead that's been there for quite some time...