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Are we guinea pigs for newfangled traffic devices?

Configurations and signs may be unusual, but CDOT says everything you see is in standard manual

The point where U.S. highways 550 and 160 part ways at the DoubleTree Hotel in Durango is the only continuous-flow intersection on the state highway system.

The configuration reduces three traffic cycles to two to move vehicles more quickly through the busiest intersection on the Western Slope – up to 46,000 vehicles a day.

“The CFI is compact,” said Colorado Department of Transportation Region 5 communications manager Nancy Shanks. “It fits where there is no room or no budget for a more expansive project.”

But the CFI isn’t the only one in Colorado – the city of Loveland beat CDOT to it – and the pattern is used elsewhere in the country.

Taking a broader view, no traffic-control pattern or device that has popped up in Durango recently is on its maiden voyage. All have been approved by the Federal Highway Administration after proving themselves elsewhere, Shanks said.

Durango is not a new-gadget guinea pig to test a traffic engineer’s ideas, local opinion to the contrary. It takes years for a device to be included in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which indicates they are in standard use across the country.

“We at CDOT were not part of any request to experiment on new devices in Durango,” Shanks said.

Durango, although alone with its CFI distinction, is in only slightly less exclusive company when it comes to HAWKS (High Intensity Crosswalks) such as at 12th Street and Camino del Rio where pedestrians trigger a red light in order to cross. Emergency vehicles also can activate the light.

The city of Boulder has the only other HAWK. But at least three more are planned for CDOT’s northwest region next year.

It’s a different story at Seventh Street and Camino del Rio, where the Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacon, referred to as a RRFB, alerts drivers to pedestrians crossing. There are 44 RRFBs in the state, with 11 in Region 5 – two each in Durango (Seventh Street and the Dog Park on U.S. Highway 160) and Buena Vista, three in Pagosa Springs, and one each in Cortez, Dove Creek and Del Norte.

Ignacio will receive two RRFBs, and Mancos and Blanca, one each.

As for flashing yellow arrows, which means turning is permitted if it’s safe, CDOT has 56 of them statewide. Eighteen are on U.S. Highway 550 from Elmore’s Corner to Animas View Drive.

A variant of the continuous-flow intersection is the Diverging Diamond Interchange, or DDI. The only difference is that the DDI involves a grade separation while the continuous-flow interchange is on one level.

CDOT has two DDIs – in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs – and one on the drawing board for Boulder.

Parenthetically, the twin flashing signs on either side of southbound South Camino del Rio just north of Santa Rita Park don’t count as traffic devices. They simply caution drivers that they’re entering a 35 mph zone, Shanks said.

Durango has one Bike Signal Head, a high-tech system that allows a bicyclist to turn from northbound Highway 550 to westbound Highway 160. When a camera detects the cyclist waiting in a marked spot on the shoulder of Highway 550, all traffic lights turn red to permit the cyclist to turn onto westbound Highway 160.

Bike boxes are those bright-green sections of pavement that give bicycle riders a haven at the head of turn lanes. There are four on Durango streets and four two-stage bike boxes on Highway 550 at College Drive and Ninth Street.

Durango is the only city on the state highway system that has bike boxes. Denver and Fort Collins have them and Boulder is planning to install them.

Durango didn’t get shortchanged in traffic devices. From the stoplight at the CFI lane on Highway 550/160 to 14th Street, a distance of 1 mile, a driver finds five stoplights, in addition to the Seventh Street and 12th Street pedestrian-aid devices.

Traffic-control devices and patterns become standard across the country by approval from the Federal Highway Administration.

Only after the agency grants permission to test traffic solutions, and research provides satisfactory results, does the agency include it in the manual. All devices in Durango are in the manual or are approved for inclusion in the manual.

daler@durangoherald.com



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