I25 Fort Collins south to

The section around the Loveland/Ft. Collins exits gets pretty nasty too, but those are also getting to be pretty big bergs anymore.

This ^^^^^

The interchange at Exit 257 is insane and getting worse. Loveland, Windsor and Johnstown all have active presence here, as all have annexed the entire area in recent years.

In particular, Johnstown has been very aggressive in annexation and building along the US 34 corridor east of I-25. And even Greeley is getting in on the action, having annexed and extended their city limits to within a mile of the Larimer/Weld county line.

Weld County is poised to overtake Larimer County in population within the next few decades, as figures I've seen project a population of over 800,000 by 2030. And I-25 will probably still only be 2 lanes north of Longmont.

brooks379 wrote:

fanrgs wrote:

Expyinflight wrote:
We have friends in Littleton. They have lived there for over 25 years. They are saying the same thing. Loved it...until now. Too congested, and people are moving to the Denver area in record numbers. Traffic is bumper to bumper any and all times of day. The POT law is bringing too many newcomers. Housing prices are soaring.

I've lived in the Denver metro area for 54 years and my wife is a native of Golden. The pot laws have absolutely nothing to do with our population growth. Our growth rate is the same now as it was in the 1990's and 2000's.

But, yes, I am very glad to be retired and not have to commute every day in the current Denver traffic, which BTW, T-REX and light rail were supposed to take care of. :R

Tell that to the residents of Durango. All the pot smoking, homeless transients is crazy.

I agree with fanrgs here. People aren't moving here just so they can buy pot. We do get a fair number of tourists who travel here for the experience. If there's an economic growth factor to the legalization of marijuana, it's been that the industry has hired thousands of employees, greatly helping the economy. Those people in turn go out and shop, eat, etc, further expanding the economy. I do joke that much of the growth is due to the construction boom, where housing is being built to house all the people moving here to work in construction. ;)

As for the experiences in Durango, it's been that way for decades. Heck I remember camping up at Maroon Bells above Aspen several times in the '70s and having a guy come up to the CG and go from campsite to campsite, asking if anyone needed to buy pot. Used to get on the covered chairlift at Copper Mountain back then and often found the remnants of a joint when one put down the cover.

But yes, Denver traffic isn't much fun. We plan our trips down there to be going down when everyone else is coming up to the mountains and vice versa. I find the segment of I-25 from Castle Rock to Monument to be the worst considering one isn't even near many houses. The section around the Loveland/Ft. Collins exits gets pretty nasty too, but those are also getting to be pretty big bergs anymore.

fanrgs wrote:

Expyinflight wrote:
We have friends in Littleton. They have lived there for over 25 years. They are saying the same thing. Loved it...until now. Too congested, and people are moving to the Denver area in record numbers. Traffic is bumper to bumper any and all times of day. The POT law is bringing too many newcomers. Housing prices are soaring.

I've lived in the Denver metro area for 54 years and my wife is a native of Golden. The pot laws have absolutely nothing to do with our population growth. Our growth rate is the same now as it was in the 1990's and 2000's.

But, yes, I am very glad to be retired and not have to commute every day in the current Denver traffic, which BTW, T-REX and light rail were supposed to take care of. :R

Tell that to the residents of Durango. All the pot smoking, homeless transients is crazy.

Expyinflight wrote:
We have friends in Littleton. They have lived there for over 25 years. They are saying the same thing. Loved it...until now. Too congested, and people are moving to the Denver area in record numbers. Traffic is bumper to bumper any and all times of day. The POT law is bringing too many newcomers. Housing prices are soaring.

I've lived in the Denver metro area for 54 years and my wife is a native of Golden. The pot laws have absolutely nothing to do with our population growth. Our growth rate is the same now as it was in the 1990's and 2000's.

But, yes, I am very glad to be retired and not have to commute every day in the current Denver traffic, which BTW, T-REX and light rail were supposed to take care of. :R

Thom is right as per usual for that area.

We have lived many places and travel lots in the 5er - traffic situations have escalated everyplace. Fast. Lane swerving all over. Inconsiderate.

Just the norm these days. The ones I love are the ones racing up the left lane on a freeway and then cut three lanes to take a right exit. While the rest of us hit our brakes and pray we don't get rear ended.

It ain't gonna change anyplace.

I used to watch the Colorado yuppies fly by me at about 90 + mph from Denver to Cheyenne bumper to bumper, to dang stupid to back off a little. When there is a wreck on 25 it is usually a good one. After driving all roads in the country for over 35 years for a living CO I 25 is one of the worst or should I say dumbest stretches of interstate I have ever seen.

Ahhh, the joys of NOT living on the front range! Though sometimes I wished I lived further west.

RAS43 wrote:

Colo Native wrote:
I was born in Colorado back in the 50's and it is ridiculous the traffic and it is because everyone moving here and bringing there bad driving habits with them. And yes I blame some of that on the POT law. Sorry had to vent a little.

X2 We have been here since '71 and thought traffic and drivers were so much better then our former home-Illinois. Now it is too congested and many have no patience.

We have friends in Littleton. They have lived there for over 25 years. They are saying the same thing. Loved it...until now. Too congested, and people are moving to the Denver area in record numbers. Traffic is bumper to bumper any and all times of day. The POT law is bringing too many newcomers. Housing prices are soaring. They are seriously considering selling their home, and leaving soon.

i guess the old adage if you don't like the way i drive stay off the road applies here and most any state in the west.it has taken years to get the highways back to reasonable speed limits after the 55 mph gas crunch.i don't drive my rv that fast just stay i the right lane.

linnemj wrote:
We will be heading from Rocky Mountain NP to Colorado Springs in a few weeks on a Friday. Any tips on routes or best time to travel through Denver?

I would suggest taking US 36 down to Lyons, and in Lyons take CO 66 east to I-25, the north Longmont interchange. I-25 SB all the way through, if you can make it between around 10am and 2pm. If you can make these times work, it's really not too difficult going straight through. Try to stay in the 2nd from the right lane if possible, the far right lane gets congested in places. I even sometimes get in the middle lane (3rd out of 4), but prefer the 2nd lane. But that's just me... ;)

There's construction on the north end of the metro area, around 136th Ave and 120th Ave. There's also a repaving operation going on currently in the area of I-25/E-470 interchange on I-25, with milling/grinding work going on, making for uneven lanes. This may or may not be completed by the time you're going to be travelling.