Road trip notes

[US 89]

Over Thanksgiving I went on a road trip from Salt Lake City to Albuquerque and back, and have a few things to share from it:

1. Utah's pathetic concurrency signage has not changed along the I-70/US 6/50/191 multiplex. At Green River, there is this sign which indicates that US 191 should follow I-70 east (but no mention of US 6, which also goes that way from that road.) I was also pleasantly surprised to find this sign referencing US 50. At Crescent Jct, signage indicates that US 191 should follow I-70 west, and there is also this mention of US 6. No other mentions of the concurrent routes, and every reassurance features only I-70.

2. There is a 50 & 6 Cafe near Wellington (I think), that is no longer in business, presumably dating from before 1976 when US 50 was routed up that way.

3. Overall, US 491 is a crappy road in NM. Going south from Cortez, you know when you enter NM not because there is a sign (there isn't for about a mile), but because the road quality drops dramatically. Even the parts that have been 4-laned (which is now the whole way from Shiprock to Gallup) are extremely bumpy. 550 is a much better choice. (On the other hand, I did clinch 491 on this trip, my first mainline US highway clinch).

4. NM has these "safety corridors" where they tell you to turn on your lights, speeding fines are doubled, and sometimes the speed limit is lowered. Is there a story behind these, beyond NM's problems with drunk driving?

5. Horizontal signals in NM. Is there a reason why almost all signals in NM are horizontally mounted? I had figured it was some sort of state law, but there was one vertically mounted signal on US 64 between Farmington and Shiprock.

6. Passing lanes: CO seems to have more passing lanes than UT does, but they also are shorter. Is there an advantage in using one setup or the other?

[mwb1848]

Your first mistake is in assuming that there's any sort of reasoned, consistent decision-making process undergirding anything you see on New Mexico's roads.

[J N Winkler]

NM has these "safety corridors" where they tell you to turn on your lights, speeding fines are doubled, and sometimes the speed limit is lowered. Is there a story behind these, beyond NM's problems with drunk driving?

These have been mentioned before, but I don't know that anyone has come up with a good explanation for them.  They are used on Interstates as well--I-40 Gallup bypass, I-10 past Gage, etc.--including on segments with noticeably better alignment than others not so designated.  US 64 through Farmington is a fairly rare example of an urban safety corridor.