A road sign you really want to pay attention to

August 31, 8:25 PMMotorcycle ExaminerKen Bingenheimer

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Do you pay serious attention to traffic messages on the signs above highways? Or do you just take note and go on your way just the same? I have to admit, I pay some attention but I generally don't let these warnings deter me. For one thing, if it's up on the sign, the accident or whatever probably happened quite awhile ago and by the time I actually reach the scene it's likely to have been cleaned up.

I learned a lesson this weekend, however, and this doesn't apply only to motorcycles, it applies to any traffic. When CDOT puts up a notice telling you to "Expect Major Delays," you had better take a different route.

Like about a million other people, we were headed out Friday afternoon for a weekend in the mountains. We were headed up U.S. 285 and just past C-470 there was a sign telling us there was an accident 37 miles ahead and that we should . . . da dum . . . expect major delays. Now, where we were headed, we could have taken I-70 just as easily, and we could have turned off through Morrison and gone to I-70. But no. We were boneheaded, just like about 200,000 other people.

So we cruised along and sure enough, just at the top of Crow Hill we came to a dead halt. There were cars going the other way, though, so we figured it was a situation where traffic going one way would get to go and then the traffic going the other way would get to go, and we'd get there in reasonable time. Wrong.

An hour later we had made it down the 1.5 miles from the top of Crow Hill to Bailey and we stopped at the convenience store to ask what the problem was. The fellow told us there was a semi wreck at Santa Maria. Santa Maria, in case you don't know, is 11 miles west of Bailey. So the tie up extended for more than 12 miles when we hit it.

We turned around and headed home. And man, oh man! By this time the back-up extended all the way to Pine Junction. Which is to say, this traffic jam extended for more than 20 miles and there were cars bumper to bumper the entire way.

So take it from us, if CDOT ever tells you to expect major delays, believe them!