Uugh, I really don’t like this photo radar speed trap that the city puts on North Broadway. The Boulder police locate their van just above the hill on Broadway past the intersection of Broadway and Linden drive as you head out of town going north.
It bothers me for a number of reasons:
1. Broadway transitions from 4 lanes to two lanes where the speed trap is. Thus you have people trying to position themselves to merge which may involve temporarily either slowing down or speeding up.
2. Where they place the temporary photo radar warning sign.
You can see the recent placement from this picture I took earlier today.
(click on picture to enlarge)
Do ya think they could put the sign any further off the road so it isn’t visible? Well, yes I suppose they could. 😉
What bothered me is I knew the trap was there, having seen it going into town and I did not see the warning sign as I left town. I had to turn around drive back and retrace my steps to look for the sign a 2nd time. The reason I didn’t see it was the placement of the sign. In the past they have put the sign further up the hill, closer to the actual van. I suspect revenue was decreasing so they moved the sign so it was harder to see and further away.
Regarding placement, I paced the distance from the sign to the photo radar van. It was around 590 paces, assuming 3′ per step, that puts the distance between the sign and the van at around 1800′ as in 1/3 of a mile. This lead me to the Colorado state law governing the placement of photoradar signage. It states…
The state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality may not use an automated vehicle identification system unless there is posted an appropriate TEMPORARY sign in a conspicuous place NOT FEWER THAN THREE HUNDRED FEET before the area in which the automated vehicle identification device is to be used notifying the public that an automated vehicle identification device is in use immediately ahead. THE REQUIREMENT OF THIS SUBPARAGRAPH (I) SHALL NOT BE DEEMED SATISFIED BY THE POSTING OF A PERMANENT SIGN OR SIGNS AT THE BORDERS OF A COUNTY, CITY AND COUNTY, OR MUNICIPALITY, NOR BY THE POSTING OF A PERMANENT SIGN IN AN AREA IN WHICH AN AUTOMATED VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION DEVICE IS TO BE USED, BUT THIS SUBPARAGRAPH (I) SHALL NOT BE DEEMED A PROHIBITION AGAINST THE POSTING OF SUCH PERMANENTS SIGNS.
The way I read this, the sign must be greater than 300′ from the van. I assume this is so the driver has time to react. However, there doesn’t seem to be any verbage limiting the distance from the van to the sign. So technically this appears to be a legal photo radar speed trap. I will follow up with the Boulder Police department on Monday, but I believe this is the case.
Still, it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I have no doubt that there are speeders that need to slow down. However, when I see a setup like the one described above, it’s very hard to believe the speed trap is about safety and very easy to believe it’s all about the money.
Speaking of automated vehicle identification systems… Is there a temporary sign not fewer than 300' from the 28th Ave & Canyon red light cameras? I only saw one about 75 or 100 feet from them last night when I got my picture taken.
J….
Unfortunately, the 300′ distance is for photo radar, not red light cameras. The next paragraph (follow the link) states:
(II) This paragraph (d) shall not apply to an automated vehicle identification system designed to detect violations for disobedience to a traffic control device SIGNAL.
I actually complained about the sign location to the proper authorities. It took about a month but they called out of the blue one day and said that yes the sign was positioned incorrectly and said they would place it where they had previously.
One of the big issues is that it’s possible for cars to turn on to Broadway and not have the opportunity to see the sign. So in essence there is a limit to how far the sign can be away from the radar van and that would be the next preceeding intersection.