Friday, August 31, 2007

A Few More Denver Road Shots


An odd mile marker, but at least it has the correct shields

A few posts down, I showed a mile marker on Interstate Highway 76 that incorrectly bears a U.S. 76 shield. I see my buddy, R-Dub thought the mistake was worthy of his road geek blog as well, so I am glad he was able to get a picture of it too. You never know how long such goof ups will stand before they eventually get corrected. A few miles before the one in the previous post, there is this odd one. The shields are correct, but this one bears what seems to be tenths of a mile numerals, but rather than matching the white type on green, the tenths are black on white.


An unusual sign for a sweeping loop exit

This 30 mph exit sign caught my eye, but even more unusual is the exit number. It is more clearly caught in the closer photo below. The first exit on a highway is usually Exit 1, but here we have Exit 0. Almost sounds like a good title for a sci-fi story . . . Terror Off Exit Zero!


Seldom seen Exit 0

Lots of freeways now have the high-mast lighting with an array of beams to cover large areas of the highway or interchange. These are so high that the typical man in a cherry picker can't change the bulbs. How do they do it? They bring the bulbs down to the man.

This bulb array was lowered, but no crew was in sight. Still, it afforded the rare opportunity to capture the array at near ground level. In the background are the same arrangement with the beam array fully elevated to the top of the mast.


Low Beams!

Finally, here it the answer to how the tolling authorities differentiate between free carpool traffic and tolled single-occupancy vehicles when a HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lane is also made into a HOT (High Occupancy - Toll) Lane. These are also commonly known as "Lexus Lanes", as they give a class distinction in that those who can afford to avoid traffic tie ups can use them, while the rest of us stay stuck in traffic.

On I-25 on the north side of Denver, single occupant cars may now make use of the old HOV lanes by paying a toll. There are no toll booths, but require a transponder to decrement the toll amount from the driver's account. I have wondered if someone with a transponder who happens to have an extra occupant ends up paying a toll anyway. Apparently the problem is solved by signs directing HOT traffic to a transponder-reading lane under the structure in the photo below, while free HOV traffic goes through on a lane that doesn't read the transponder. Skeptic that I am, I am not sure I would trust it not to charge me anyway!


HOV/HOT Tolling Gantry

So, what better way to finish off the month of August than with yet another road geeky post! Now, it's on to September!

Nesting Owls


Owls nesting on an office building in Englewood, Colorado

Yes, I know this is a pretty sorry excuse for a picture, but it is the best shot I could get so far. This photo was taken with a telephoto lens, hand holding the camera, and shooting through the dark glass of my office building that is next to the one where these birds are nesting. Still, I wanted to put this up, because these are such beautiful animals.

This pair has found a safe perch in the eaves of the rooftop of one of the buildings on the campus where I work. You can see that they are situated down behind the girder, with just their heads peering out over the top. They appear rather docile during the daylight hours, as they are nocturnal creatures. Still they watch out over the landscape on and off during the day. I am curious to see if we have some baby owls making their appearance in the near future.