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Flashing Lights, Not Pace Cars, To Wrangle Holiday I-70 Traffic

Used with Permission of the Colorado Department of Transportation
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Flickr - Colorado DOT

Christmas may be over, but the holiday traffic will continue.

With traffic along the I-70 corridor expected to be heavy Saturday, the Colorado Department of Transportationwill be using multiple methods to help moderate speeds and flow.

“We'll be using active ramp metering. So you know those lights that let you on and off the highway at certain times to moderate traffic,"  said CDOT spokesperson Amy Ford.

"And we’re also working with our ski resorts to ease the flow of traffic out of the parking lot so we can sort of spread the traffic and make sure that they travel sort of smoothly on the corridor,” she said.

One unpopular traffic program will not be returning.

Credit Colorado Department of Transportation
The Christmas Holiday weekend is historically one of the worst weekends for traffic along I-70.

"We did run the pace program last year, and it actually had some good success. It helped us moderate the speeds of the traveling public there in the corridor. But at the same time the traveling public didn’t always like the pace car program. They certainly wanted to be able to drive the way they wanted to be able to drive in that corridor," said Ford.

"So we are actually using other methods that will helping us moderate speeds this winter, so some very aggressive messaging on our variable message signs to encourage people to look differently about when they travel along that corridor, during those peak hours,” she said.

There will also be increased DUI enforcement through the Colorado Department of Transportation's The Heat Is On impaired driving enforcement campaign.

Over 6,500 drunk drivers have been arrested in Colorado this year.

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