Harmony Road Headaches? Crammed on College? Here’s Why!

I sit in traffic everyday in Fort Collins. I personally complain about just about everything that pertains to traffic; from people going under the speed limit to not using their turn signals to daydreaming front runners at a green light.

Holy Harmony now that I have seen the numbers I know its not just me. I went on this great mission to see how many people on are the roadways. Yes, I have a life, but this traffic stuff really gets me going. I don’t think that I ever get in the car and not say something about the amount of traffic or the failure of so many to follow the elementary rules of the road.

My James and I discuss the amount of traffic… often. He always says something about rush hour traffic, either it is or “and it isn’t even rush hour”! I have felt more and more that there is no set ‘rush hour’ anymore like when I was a kid. Many people work many different shifts anymore. I will be stuck in a slew of traffic on my way to work, hello, I have to be to work at 9:30 am, shouldn’t you already be where you need to be? No really I say that to myself, where are you going at 9:15 in the morning. I hear about people being at work at 7 or 8 in the morning, I though I was unique and would have the road to myself-NOPE! Then on the way home… any traffic relief, no, just the same as it was earlier in the day. You think that I would get used it, I can’t… and its not consistent. I used to think okay this is just the way it is on Wednesday’s, not the case; sometimes traffic is crazy on Thursdays and sometimes its all week. I think we all should have to wear car signs like ” I’m off to work” , “I  am meeting friends for coffee”,  “I am off to DIA”… the nosy, I mean inquisitive parts of me just want to know.

The real numbers for the roads:

(from the city of Fort Collins website)

• Harmony Road between Boardwalk and Lemay on any given day could see nearly 38 thousand drivers
• College Ave between Prospect and Stuart there will  likely be 43 thousand drivers today
• Lemay Ave between Drake and Swallow there could be 23 thousand drivers
• Mulberry Street between Lemay and Link data shows there has been 36 thousand drivers on any given day
• Prospect Avenue between Center/Centre and College 30 thousand
• Shields Street between Elizabeth and Lake there has been 33 thousand recorded drivers on that stretch of the road

That’s it in a nut shell. There is just a lot of traffic. As our city continues to grow, I think that it is even more important that we try our best to follow the rules of the road.

Simple rules of the road to follow:

• If the light is green, go (don’t wait 30 seconds before reacting as there are some lights in town that will only allow as little as three cars in a turn lane to go, so its important to really pay attention-a stop light isn’t an opportunity to check your emails or text)
• Red light means stop
• Yellow light isn’t an opportunity to speed up and run the RED light (which we both know if you are a block away and gun it, its gonna turn red and you are going to affect the oncoming traffic waiting their turn)
• Speed limit signs are posted along the roadways and they exhibit numbers like 30, 45 and 50… that number should match the number on (in most vehicles) the round display on your dash just behind the steering wheel, it usually lists numbers in increments of five)
• The protruding stick like object coming out of the steering wheel on the left hand side of said steering wheel is a turn signal indicator, this is what you use to let others know that you are changing lanes or turning-you push it up to turn right and down to turn left and this should, ideally, be done before you’ve changed lanes or turned. (not as you are doing so)
• Emergency vehicles need to get to their emergency, pull over to the far right and stop. Do not stop in the middle of the road, do not race the emergency vehicle and when in doubt pull off onto a side street. Bottom line, get out of the way-in a safe manner.
• Bike lanes are for… wait for it… BIKES, PERIOD!!! I know, they kind of look like turn lanes but they are not. The resemble the fast track lane at Disney, I know, but they aren’t… they are lanes for bikes to be safe in traffic situations with motorized vehicles (that would be your car or truck)
• Parking lights are to use when parking-nuff said.