Avoid E-470 around Denver

[LaTundra]

Yikes! Going to Yellowstone last month, took I-70 to Denver, took E-470 to link up to I-25 north to Wyoming. Saw a sign that said this was a toll road, and how much per axle, there were no tollbooths. Kept on going, 10 minutes later, another sign, no tollbooths. Ten minutes later, another sign, then I exited to I-25. Same thing on the way back.

This week, I get a letter stating that I owe over $70. I was charged $10.35 for each gate I passed under. There's a gate every 10 minutes. They have cameras on every gate scanning licence plates. I don't mind paying a toll for a nice highway, but $31.00 to go less than 30 miles is a bit much! And again on the way back!

It's like getting an out of state penalty. Or a speed trap. I will pay the toll, but I'm never going back to Colorado again!

Shame on you, Denver!
:bm:

[chuckster57]

Reminds me of my trip through NY in "09. There were tool booths. One stretch was like 9 miles- $20 some odd. Then just 5 miles later another tool booth. Went 30 miles for $8.00 the topper was the upper deck of the George Washington bridge/$36.00. Nice lady said "dually?" I said yes she said counts as 2 axles.

NY was the only state the roads were bad enough to make my cat sick and broke 8 coffee mugs at one shot.

[koko]

I guess it just depends on whether you want to fight I-25 traffic through Denver and all the interchanges or have a smooth, low-traffic ride. We take it all the time when we're pulling our trailer to Santa Fe and back. It costs us $60, and we always feel it's worth every penny. We wish it would also by-pass Colorado Springs - we'd pay more. We also like the fact that we don't have to endure the confusion of stopping at toll booths. When we drove through New York and New Jersey with our trailer we were paying tolls at bridges and turnpikes right and left, and it seemed that there we had little choice in the matter!

[denverpilot]

Every "gate" has painted "no lane change" lane markers, and significant signage.

Those "price per axle" signs are also all over the place on that highway and very large and easy to read while moving.

And the camera systems aren't small or hidden for each lane.

And unless there's a safety notice on them, every four or five miles there's an electronic sign in the center median stating that stopping is not required, your license plate will be sufficient, and you'll receive a bill in the mail.

So...

I'm having a hard time believing the OP didn't understand that the "gates" we're the "toll booths".

If that's what he's saying...

That said, we've utterly lost control of our politicians and CDOT as far as selling off lanes of roadway that was built on public land (and in some cases, taken via eminent domain), to the for-profit toll road people.

Every major highway in the Front Range will soon have "HOV" lanes that double as "toll" lanes if you are traveling alone.

All with exorbitant pricing.

And yet we hear how taxes should be paid because they pay for "infrastructure we all share".

Apparently they spent that tax money elsewhere.

Apologies for losing the numerous battles against our politicians creating these abominations, OP. Most of us who have lived here our whole lives don't like it either, but the out of Staters moved in and think toll roads are normal - and they're starting to outnumber us natives.

We got overrun and there's no reserves to send in. ;)

[denverpilot]

P.S. C-470 on the south west side of the loop was also supposed to go all the way around and the northwest would have been W-470. And it was free back when it was built, unlike E-470 which was always a profit taking venture for a private investment firm.

You can thank the NIMBYs in Golden and Boulder for blocking it, essentially forever.

C-470 is currently adding toll lanes.

[BirchyBoy]

I live off of E-470, about 10 miles south of the airport. It is a great road if you're in a hurry and don't mind spending the money. The alternatives are generally very busy and slow, so it becomes time vs money. I'm moving my travel trailer down to storage in Colorado Springs this morning in preparation for a move there next month. I'm debating right now, in fact, on whether to go toll road or slow road!

[squeak93]

OP. Take one trip through the mousetrap (is it still called that?) at I25/I70 junction and you will be happy you spent the money. I hated driving through there at any time of the day, 8 am or 5pm, forget about it.. lol. I couldn't imagine how sucky it would be with a trailer of any length, trying to merge or find a hole to merge is difficult enough in a car.

That being said, I've always felt Denver did a nice job with the quality of roads compared to other parts of the country. They don't do a good job of planning and building for future growth. (T-rex project anyone lol).

I miss Denver with a passion and would move back given the chance, but I too would avoid E-470 if at all possible due to the charges (unless pulling a trailer as noted and not wanting to jack with traffic).

[gkainz]

You can thank the NIMBYs in Golden and Boulder for blocking it, essentially forever.

You're welcome, Nate! Keep the damn toll road out of my back yard (where they really, LITERALLY wanted it to run thru my back yard! Dirty rotten lowdown slimeball politicians giving away public property, built by tax dollars, and I'm sure getting their own pockets lined in return. However, the above is only sour grapes speculation, since I have no proof of same.

I see 36 HOV/Toll lane is up and charging, now, too. Somewhat ironic, since it started life as a toll road, got paid off quickly and has been public highway for many years. Now it's toll again.

Oh, and to the OP - I "could" use the NW Parkway for my escape out of town to the north, but the "per axle" charge is too steep for me to even consider it. I feel your pain.

To add to the pain, I left DIA early one morning after dropping off travelers, and headed south to Parker. I took the wrong exit and ended up northbound on the toll road. I think that little excursion added $7.25 or so to the trip, just to go one exit north and turn around to head south again.

[sourdough]

"Apologies for losing the numerous battles against our politicians creating these abominations, OP. Most of us who have lived here our whole lives don't like it either, but the out of Staters moved in and think toll roads are normal - and they're starting to outnumber us natives."

This is a little off topic and not intended to be anything political, start a political conversation or to hijack the thread, just an observation about the above statement.

45-50 years ago Colorado was my most favorite spot in the world; all of it; front range, north, south, west. Fast forward to today and I won't go anywhere near the front range. I spend my time in SW CO generally and even that is being overrun by out of staters. The difference in the "feeling" of the state between the old days and now is night and day. It is truly a shame:(. Sorry for going off topic but the above statement really strikes a chord with me.

[JRTJH]

In the early 70's we lived in Denver, just west of the I25/I70 exchange (off of Federal Blvd). Life was good, we were able to head to the mountains almost every weekend with our trailer in tow. We seldom saw much traffic except for the rush hour jams around Denver proper.

This summer we returned for the first time with a trailer in tow. From Central City to Aurora was "bumper to bumper" at noon on a Wednesday. Traffic was that "busy" everywhere we went regardless of time or route. I thought Denver was a "busy town" back then, today it's impossible. From Denver to Fort Collins was essentially "one metropolitan area" with very little "frontier" left between the two.

Nice to visit, we drove by our old house, the first one we ever owned. My DW's first comment was, "There's no way you'd get me to move back to this 'rat race'." Now, Craig, Steamboat Springs, Estes Park... That's a different story :).

[gkainz]

case in point (or maybe further piling on)

Our group camped at Sylvan Lake State Park this last weekend near Eagle - our traditional end of season trip.

We headed west at 6:00 am on Friday and took us 2:30 elapsed.
Others in our group left later in the day and took between 3 and 5 hours.

On Monday we headed back home at 5:50am and took 2:20 elapsed.
Others left Sunday between noon and 3 pm and again took between 3.5 and 5.5 hours.

The traffic up the I-70 corridor has gone from bad to horrendous. Ski season makes it even worse.

[koko]

We were there this past weekend. Our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren live there. We were rolling down I-25 at 8:00 p.m. in bumper -to-bumper all the way to I-76 and then our jump-off on Sheridan - it was Thursday evening. We love our children and grands and we visit them often, but our happiest moment is when we reach the "Wyoming-Forever West" sign on the way home. Only then does the traffic subside. Even I-80 with all the trucks looks slightly better to us. Back to the original subject, we know what it's like driving in Denver, and that's why we take E-470 when we go to Santa Fe towing our trailer!

[Hideout17]

I lived in Colorado until 2000. At that point the front range was out of control. They would just rezone an area and have farms etc removed so they can expand. Like one said from fort Collins to Colorado springs is one continuous area. I went back 8 years ago and didn't recognize the area anymore. Even the mountains aren't enjoyable anymore as more and more build up there. I call it west California any more.5