Dear Action Line: Why does the Twin Buttes neighborhood have its own traffic light? Westbound traffic on U.S. Highway 160 is often stopped (killing momentum for the climb, I might add) for a single vehicle turning left out of Twin Buttes. There are no other lights helping other neighborhoods off Highway 160, some who arguably need it more. Why only the Buttes? – Eyeing My Gas Mileage
Dear Eyeing: Traffic lights are so 20th century. Shouldn’t we just put a roundabout there? The more roundabouts we have, the more likely people are to actually figure them out, right? Anyone else had to honk at someone entering the roundabout against traffic flow? Think of this as a honk of love and understanding. Like when you spank a child. (Or did Dr. Spock tell us not to do that? Or was that Mr. Spock? So confusing …)
Speaking of Spock, the sci-fi Vulcan, we’re going to have to reverse-warp-drive back to the past to answer this one. This light was installed in 2017, just as the first houses in Twin Buttes were inhabited.
Here’s the explanation, courtesy of time-traveling Colorado Department of Transportation regional communications manager Lisa Schwantes:
Back in 2016 and 2017, when Twin Buttes was first being built, the developer was required to file for a highway access permit through CDOT’s Office of Traffic and Safety, Schwantes explained. The permit required the developer to safely accommodate U.S. 160 traffic entering and exiting the subdivision at Tipple Avenue.
So the intersection was rejiggered. Construction included shoulder work, installation of retaining walls, lane widening, lane reconfiguration, installation of a raised center median and the installation of the light signal. This was funded by the developer, taking CDOT and us taxpayers off the hook.
Schwantes said that traffic engineers use the Federal Highway Administration’s MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices – there’s one in your bookshelf, right?) to “help bring uniformity” to federal and state roadways. The manual provides standards that help determine if traffic control devices (signals, signs and road features) are needed, or need to be changed, to provide safe travel, reduce crashes and congestion, and improve efficiency. The process includes research and a thorough analysis of the location.
“A traffic signal is installed when studies indicate that the signal will improve the overall safety and operation of the intersection,” Schwantes said. “Another key point is that a traffic signal won’t be installed if it will seriously disrupt progressive traffic flow.”
As for killing a car’s momentum, Action Line agrees this is annoying, but in practice has only had to stop here a couple times in the seven years the light has been in place. Granted, this could change as more people move in.
Schwantes pointed out that the speed limit in the section between Wildcat Canyon (County Road 141) and what is now Tipple Avenue (the Twin Buttes entrance) has been below 65 mph for decades. And, in fact, she admitted to being ticketed for speeding in this very same section a bunch of years ago.
“The trooper politely informed (me) that the rate of speed did not increase to 65 mph until well past Wildcat Canyon and at the location of what is now the Tipple Avenue intersection,” she said.
Her point is that we drivers, which includes a guilty Action Line, who were accelerating to 65 or 70 in this stretch have always been jumping the gun. (She did not mention anything about paying a penance for this sin. Action Line feels terrible and hopes that’s enough.)
Now, the speed limit is 45 until about a quarter-mile past Tipple Avenue. It rises to 55 mph for about half a mile, and then, a couple hundred yards past Lightner Creek, it finally climbs to 65.
And as far as the other subdivisions along U.S. 160, “current data shows that the access points and junctions do not warrant the need for signals.” For example, Schwantes said, placing a signal at either of the Durango West intersections would force traffic going 65 mph to come to a complete stop when red. And that would definitely disrupt progressive traffic flow.
We haven’t even really talked about downhill traffic on U.S. 160, which follows the same speed limits in that stretch (in reverse, of course) as uphill traffic. Action Line recalls back in the day when it was a two-lane highway with no turn lane at the Lightner Creek intersection. Coming down from Hesperus, and slowing to make a left there was so dangerous, especially during snowy winter days, that Action Line is now getting the heebie-jeebies and would rather not talk about it anymore, OK?
Last week’s column discussed a potential location for a Durango Conference Center, and how the spot J.C. Penney used to fill at the Durango Mall was not on the radar.
Reader Lulu Why (maybe not her real name?) says, “Let’s get Hobby Lobby in that dead space. Lots of jobs, tax revenue and shopping for all us hobby enthusiasts. Plus keep the money local instead of driving to Farmington. Just saying. Thx!”
Action Line would rather bring back J.C. Penney, but Hobby Lobby is fine, assuming the Picklemall suggestion doesn’t take hold. The mall’s owners might have a say in this, too.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Seriously, everyone has moved beyond Dr. Spock’s “Baby and Child Care” (1946) by now, right?
