I've been living in the Denver area for 12 years, and I had no idea...

...that you can't get onto eastbound I-70 from westbound 6th Ave. Are you f'n kidding me???? What f-tard designed this road system??? Apparently I have never had to take this route in over a decade of living here, until finally today it happened. Well, TRIED to happen anyway. I just don't get it. 6th Ave is for all purposes an interstate. It's a divided highway with a 65mph speed limit, yet they didn't put a ramp to I-70? That would be like I-25 and I-70 just crossing over each other with no way to get from one to the other.

I ended up having to take 6th west to Colfax, and then go back east on Colfax until THAT allows you to get onto I-70. But only after sitting at a completely useless red turn arrow to get onto the onramp. I am guessing that the proper route (had I known ahead of time) would be to get off at Denver West Pkwy and crawl through the Colorado Mills traffic and then get onto westbound Colfax and then get on I-70 at the same ramp I approached from the west.

Holy hell that is stupid.

Ok, carry on.

Good rant about a stupid design. There are two ways to do it though.

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That would be like I-25 and I-70 just crossing over each other with no way to get from one to the other.

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You have no idea how much fun the mousetrap was 25 years ago. [LOL][Flower]

Maybe if I-70 and 25 did just pass each other it would help with the flow of traffic.

They are currently working on that transition aren't they?

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Originally Posted by jerrymrc

You have no idea how much fun the mousetrap was 25 years ago. [LOL][Flower]

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Oh yes, it was a peach.

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Originally Posted by Irving

They are currently working on that transition aren't they?

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There was not one single iota of evidence of road construction when I passed through. So really, considering the speed at which road construction occurs, you're right, they're probably six months and $30 million into it already.

I've long heard tales of the old mousetrap. Share your wisdom!

6th ave to Indiana,
Indiana to Colfax
Colfax to I-70.

Shitty, but that is how it is.

Torpedoes in the Mousetrap!!!

Score of 3 on the rant, you didnt used enough f-words, call names or use bold text.

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Originally Posted by Doc45

Torpedoes in the Mousetrap!!!

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Yup, I remember that day/night very well.

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Originally Posted by BPTactical

Yup, I remember that day/night very well.

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I missed that jam by about 15 minutes. I was working in Aurora and living in Lakewood at the time...

I like the rant. But there is lots of dumb traffic design around here. I've been bit by the 6th Ave/I 70 thing more than once. I'm a slow learner.

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Originally Posted by jerrymrc

You have no idea how much fun the mousetrap was 25 years ago. [LOL][Flower]

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Was that about the time the torpedo fell off the truck?

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Originally Posted by SNAFU

Was that about the time the torpedo fell off the truck?

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I think 84 is when it fell off. I was in Europe at the time. My first meeting with the mousetrap was in the fall of 1980. The new interchange started in 87-88 and for 4-5 years one wanted to avoid it at all costs.

Next time stay on westbound 6 to CO 58 on the north side of Golden. On ramp for east and west bound 70 there about five miles east.

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Originally Posted by jerrymrc

You have no idea how much fun the mousetrap was 25 years ago. [LOL][Flower]

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That is an undeniable fact.

My favorite thing about the old mouse trap was the air traffic control tower they built in the middle. Traffic was so bad they felt the need to put somebody in a tower to stare at it. I have a real beef with the new "improved" I-225 south to I-25 now you go from four lanes on I-225 down to two lanes before you even get to I-25.

They need to do to 6th Ave what they did with I-70 east bound on to 58 west into Golden, build an over pass.

The torpedo incident was a primary driving force in the HazMat placard in system we have today.

The Mousetrap, also known as "Malfunction Junction" was fun. I was driving a tow truck back then and I made a good amount of money from that interchange.
It also used to be known as "Tower One" from the traffic control tower that used to be there. At one point in time DPD personnel used to man it and it served as a "substation" for the highway cops that were assigned to I-70.
Waste of money, it accomplished nothing.
6th and I-25 was known as "Tower Two", there was to have been a tower built there but it never was.

Anybody remember driving by there and seeing the tow trucks sitting there on the east side of the highway?

There was also talk of building "Tower Three" at Alameda and I-25 but that's all it was, talk.

Little known trivia- Quebec at I-70 reached an illustrious pinnacle in the late 70's. It was always in the top 5 intersections in the nation for traffic accidents.
Quebec Street was stupid for accidents when Stapleton airport was still in operation.

Edit- beat by BigE on the tower.

I just use GPS whenever in the metro area. I'm too old for dream navigation anymore.

Denver is the nexus for stupidity in this state. The mousetrap used to infuriate me back in the late 80s/early 90s and is probably one of the main reasons I don't even like going within 10 miles of Denver city limits.

It's all relative.

Denver is much easier, relatively to drive in than LA, Chicago, NYC, Philly, DC, and my personal nightmare...Boston.

Then again, I would drive in any US city rather than drive in London, Paris, Rome, or Moscow. I once had a driver in Cairo that convinced me that the actual moment of my death could not be as scary as the 30 minutes that preceded the impact.

Now to quote my father; "If you would just leave yourself a little extra time, little things like this wouldn't be much of a problem, would they? You are largely responsible for most of your own problems." I just wished he had given me that gene for wisdom. [Coffee]

[QUOTE=Big E3;1938980]My favorite thing about the old mouse trap was the air traffic control tower they built in the middle. Traffic was so bad they felt the need to put somebody in a tower to stare at it. I have a real beef with the new "improved" I-225 south to I-25 now you go from four lanes on I-225 down to two lanes before you even get to I-25.

The best part of that one is that they rebuilt that whole area fro light rail and left that huge bottleneck in the new design. "Hello, I are a traffik enginear."

It has long been obvious that CDOT hires from the bottom half of the civil engineering class.

Someone needs to buy the OP one of those bumper stickers that says something along the lines of, "Not a native, but close enough. "

[QUOTE=glenncal1;1939230]

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Originally Posted by Big E3

My favorite thing about the old mouse trap was the air traffic control tower they built in the middle. Traffic was so bad they felt the need to put somebody in a tower to stare at it. I have a real beef with the new "improved" I-225 south to I-25 now you go from four lanes on I-225 down to two lanes before you even get to I-25.

The best part of that one is that they rebuilt that whole area fro light rail and left that huge bottleneck in the new design. "Hello, I are a traffik enginear."

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Be prepared for more of this type of cluster f*ck. All of the CDOT uppers are for this type of "Design / Build" project. In other words, the contractor designs & builds on the fly. C470 is next....

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Originally Posted by spqrzilla

It has long been obvious that CDOT hires from the bottom half of the civil engineering class.

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They aren't exactly hiring many people these days. My dad's going to retire soon (really, it should have been now, but he keeps working because he likes work I think...my mom keeps pushing him to leave :P), and they don't really have anyone set up to replace him.

If he ever DOES retire, they'll lose a strong asset. He works for them all the damn time, probably, I'd guess, at least 70 hours/week. I think they take him rather for granted.

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Originally Posted by Irving

Someone needs to buy the OP one of those bumper stickers that says something along the lines of, "Not a native, but close enough. "

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I've seen many of those mountain background stickers with a witty comment on them that I've considered getting over the years. Decided they're too tacky and too cliche.

I have to say, I'm fairly well traveled and grew up on the east coast. The traffic engineering here is terrible. Just terrible. It's like the traffic engineers here go out of their way to make it worse. I honestly believe that 'Traffic Engineer' should be an elected position. Make candidates campaign and articulate what they plan to do with the traffic grid on their watch (even if they're as FOS as other politicians). I would probably be a single-issue voter. Ok, a two-issue voter. Guns & green lights for everyone!

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Originally Posted by sic_semper_tyrannis

green lights for everyone!

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Yeah, right.......... That would last about 30 seconds and there would be total gridlock for the entire metro area...........
land by the way, don't lump my profession in with the engineers.........[Tooth]

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

Yeah, right.......... That would last about 30 seconds and there would be total gridlock for the entire metro area...........
land by the way, don't lump my profession in with the engineers.........[Tooth]

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Or the editors!

:p

I often think that my sprinkler timer could do a better job of timing traffic lights. I would think by timing some of the lights to cascade at the speed limit they could move high volume traffic in certain directions at rush hour. I imagine with the use of an actual computer they could do it in multiple directions. There are a number places you can drive 15 mph over the speed limit and make most of the lights. So I know it can be done. Way back in the day you could drive Colfax at 5 over the speed limit in either direction and make almost every light.

I had this discussion with one of the engineers in my office and he told me they required him to take a traffic class in college. In this class they taught that you should stop traffic moving in any direction at every light. They basically assume all traffic comes on all roads at one end and travels all the wall to the other end of said road. If you let them cascade through green lights without stopping they will all end up at the end of the road in a giant congestion. So until they teach that people come on and off of most roads at random locations we are stuck with red light gridlock.

Big E3, Don't question the government, no matter how big or small. They know what is best for you. Now move along to to the next Red traffic signal........

[QUOTE=SideShow Bob;1939359]

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Originally Posted by glenncal1

Be prepared for more of this type of cluster f*ck. All of the CDOT uppers are for this type of "Design / Build" project. In other words, the contractor designs & builds on the fly. C470 is next....

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The 6th Ave and I-25 interchange was one of the design build projects. I swear they paved and tore up each lane 3 times. That's how it is on Sante Fe under I-25 right now. Pave a lane. Move traffic over to new pavement. Pave another lane, move traffic back, tear up first newly paved lane...rinse and repeat. Build new exit from I-25 North to Sante Fe, tear down old one, build another new exit, tear down first new one. Insane.