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There's a lot of dangerous infrastructure in America. This is far from the only road that causes accidents and deaths on the regular because it is in inherently unsafe or was designed for different kinds of traffic than it has now.
The fact that this road was built in the previous century makes it part of that second category.
In general, we seem unwilling to invest in American road infrastructure. I'd be willing to bet that potholes, the unexciting normal kind you don't even notice in a car, cause more loss of life and loss of money than any particular dramatic road.
If they fix the potholes, imagine the damage to the mechanic economy for no longer needing to replace tires/wheels, fix suspensions, etc. The mechanic lobby is never going to let this happen!!
They do fix potholes. However new ones happen all the time so there are always plenty to find with a little working.
At least where I live potholes are the natural result of freeze-thaws cycles.
not all infrastructure should be maintained. I'd personally prefer rail infrastructure prioritized over car roads.
But maintaining current infrastructure in the meantime while we build better things is good too. Let's just not lose the plot on what needs to happen next.
Driving through the rockies is _terrifying_. It's not just this one road.
It's also a bit dizzying. Really easy to just get lost in the spectacle of the mountains.
Driving the Trans-Canada through BC was absolutely terrifying in the 80's; today it's a completely different experience. Twinning it took 25 years (1979 to 2014).
I remember driving several scary roads out in Colorado. The 210 out to Snowbird in a blizzard and a few others legit made my palms sweaty and I wasn't even driving. As a great plains Midwestern kid, seeing my buddy (who was well familiar with the roads) drive as well as he did in those conditions at least helped a little.
It just reinforced I didn't have the constitution live out in CO and drive those roads in those conditions.
Before clicking, I thought this would be about the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Did that every year visiting family all through the 70s and early 80s from age 5 through 15. Left an indelible mark.
Leave colorado alone
Don't worry, nobody but Colorado is ever going to try to, or even think to, fix this one.
Smart person, I would never travel on that road even if the long way is 8 hours longer. And driving in winter ? You have to be crazy.
Do this one weird trick to summarize the entire article. Trim the headline:
"Fix One of America's Scariest Roads?"
Not as scary as this: https://dot.alaska.gov/highways/dalton/
This is a semi-local road to me, what is amazing in the article is the difference between Switzerland and the US in how they actually care about their citizens.
America is great and fun but also brutal in how the government will actively go out of its way to deny basic living standards. From healthcare to minimum wage, they want you to die just before you reach social security age.
My family was driving this road south from Ouray to Durango one morning when I was about 20. We got stuck in a traffic jam. Eventually we made it to the place where a car had gone over the edge the night before, and they were trying to winch it up about 1000 feet. Papers and belongings were scattered down the mountainside. It was very sad and sobering. Driving back that night in light rain was terrifying.
From the Drone angle it looks scary. But from auto drivers pov, it may not look that scary.
If it's anything like Independence Pass or Trail Ridge Road, it's definitely scary while driving too.
It's nothing compared to the Aspen side of Independence Pass. That stretch is terrifying.
"The motorized tourist, reluctant to give up his back-assward view of the world, demands that the park administration pave the trails, clear out the brush, and put up guard rails... he wants luxury and convenience, and he gets it—at the cost of the wilderness."
--Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
If that strikes a chord with you, please take a moment to consider the following message:
https://morethanjustparks.com/roadless-rule/
I drive this road regularly in the winter for backcountry skiing and I truly think there are scarier roads. Sure there is a terrifying cliff but in general it's not bad if you simply drive to the conditions.
The ten miles or so on the Aspen side of Independent Pass, when leaving town, is so much worse. It feels like a true single lane road at points with a huge cliff on one side that has the road caving in.
The highways are never a problem. However "scary" the highways are in any given place the local roads are worse and people's driveways are worse still.
So of course nobody cares about two cars a year going off a cliff on the federal highway when ten cars a year go off a cliff on the road that's the local shortcut between the center of town and Walmart in the next valley or whatever.
I've driven sketchy roads all over the world and the stretch just after you break out of the aspen outskirts on Independent Pass is genuinely terrifying at parts. For a while there it was not uncommon, if two large vehicles were passing, to have a section of your right front wheel barely over the cliff.
Probably because it doesn't need to be fixed. Not every complaint requires government intervention, which we've often see is more expensive and problematic then anything it actually solves.
Pro tip: Take a different route, or drive 15mph.
Everyone is already driving 15mph on it because for so many people it's a tourist attraction.
I used to live in Colorado. This road is awesome, utterly beautiful. It’s also not even remotely uncommon, in the sense that the central high Rocky Mountains are crisscrossed by roads like this.
In other news the ski resorts have cliffs and you can ski right off them. Also the snow is deep and it gets suddenly cold at night and that will kill you too.
Maybe they can just have a pull off where you sign a waiver.