Highway speed limits that differ depending on the time of year – in this case in an effort to reduce nighttime collisions with wildlife – add to the already-existing challenges of safe driving. That they are being eliminated, after greatly mixed results in western Colorado, is good news. Gone, too, will be the doubling of fines for any infraction within wildlife-rich sections of highway where lower speed limits already existed.
Colorado Department of Transportation survey results statewide do not show a consistent benefit to the lower speeds or to the increased penalties, and the change in the number of citations issued varied wildly depending on whether they occurred in the spring or the fall.
The reduced speed, from 60 or 65 mph to 55 mph, was required beginning at dusk during the late fall through the early spring months in locations of unusually large numbers with game. On U.S. Highway 550 north of Durango in the Animas Valley was best known to La Plata County drivers, along with a stretch of U.S. Highway 160 between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs.
According to CDOT surveys, which began in 2010, when the legislation requiring the lower speeds was passed, reduced speed on the segment north of Durango proved to be very successful: The average number of spring auto-wildlife accidents was reduced by 60 percent, and in the fall by 49 percent. But not so along U.S. Highway 160 toward Pagosa Springs. In that location, auto-wildlife collisions increased by 19 percent in the spring and 344 percent in the fall.
As to extremes, in a highway segment south of Meeker, there was a decrease of 71 percent in accidents. In another, between Kremmling and Vail, accidents increased by 59 percent.
On the Western Slope, in the aggregate, the results were similarly mixed. Eight of the 14 study areas showed a reduction in accidents, six an increase.
The Legislature had good intentions when it mandated the lower speed limits for a portion of the year and the doubled fines, but in reality, the challenge of reducing auto and deer and elk interaction proved to be more complex. The fluctuating number of game in the state and their local habits surely played a role, too.
It is also easy to imagine drivers new to the state being unfamiliar with the existence of seasonal lower speeds, and even locals being uncertain as to what months the changes occur. Yes, that information was on the conventional black on white highway signs, but predictability when driving is helpful.
With the lower speeds and doubled fines going, common sense again prevails. Slow down at night, and constantly be alert at the outer perimeter of your headlights. Game are also more apt to be moving in the fall when hunters are active, and some observers believe that game travels when there is more moonlight. Anecdotally, deer move in twos and threes. If one deer trots across the highway in front of you, he may well have a buddy who will do the same.
Watching for deer and elk is part and parcel of driving in Western Colorado. Now, there will a few fewer highway signs to encourage you to remember.
