Meg from Denver writes, “What's driving you crazy? Turning south onto Kalamath from 7th Ave there are two lanes for turning left. One is to get onto 6th Ave westbound. They are delineated by broken white lines as you get onto Kalamath. If you stay in the northernmost lane and stay within the lines, you often get honked at, or almost run into, by people who are in the southernmost lane and who want to get onto 6th Ave, but their lane does not have broken white lines that lead to 6th Ave. Theirs leads to Kalamath south. All in all, a rather confusing situation.”
I think the situation here, Meg, is less about a confusing turn than it is about impatient drivers who want to cut the line. If drivers would follow the turn lines on the road, they will easily get where they need to go safely. When I watched turning traffic there, I saw time after time after time, drivers not turning into the proper lane and moving over in front of other drivers.
The problem starts with those impatient drivers who want to get to westbound 6th Ave. It seems some are concerned they won’t make it through one light cycle and that leads them to get in the inside left turn lane, the southern lane, that is designed to be for drivers who want to continue south on Kalamath Street. What they should be doing instead is getting into the outside left turn lane, the northern lane, which is designed to get drivers into the proper lane to go westbound on 6th Ave.
Because more drivers want to get to westbound 6th Ave. from 7th Ave. than want to go south on Kalamath, the northern most left turn lane fills up more than the southern most left turn lane. That leads impatient drivers to use that inside left turn lane to eventually cut over to get to westbound 6th Ave. That cutover is what is bothersome to you and others who do it right.
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What might help here is thicker roadway line markings. The signs on the mast arm for left turning 7th Ave. drivers clearly indicates that you must turn left from the southern lane and can either go left or straight on 7th Ave. from the northern lane. Unless you are familiar with the area, you would not know that the right three lanes on southbound Kalamath are exit only lanes for westbound 6th Ave. traffic leaving the three right lanes to continue south on Kalamath. So it is possible that some of the cutovers could be from drivers who aren’t familiar with the area and need to go west on 6th Ave., but more likely are just impatient drivers who feel it is easier to just cut over.
As far as enforcement, don’t look to Denver police to curb the drivers who cut over several lanes at one time. DPD’s low-level traffic offense policy states that instead of conducting stops for a single infraction, officers must have a second reason to pull someone over — such as probable cause that a more serious crime is happening. That is not happening here.
My best advice is to give the gift of merge, swallow your driver pride and let them in. In the grand scheme of things, drivers cutting over isn’t the end of the world, even though it can be bothersome and occasional dangerous depending on how it happens.
Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.
