GoI70

If you are coming home from the mountains along I-70 this Labor Day weekend, you can skip the rush hour traffic and be in bed at a reasonable hour if you just remember this simple motto. “Leave after 6, be home at 8.”

Wherever you are along I-70 on Labor Day, the traffic will clear around 6 pm and you will have a quick trip home. The highway may be a little crowded, but unless there is extreme weather or an accident, it will move well near the speed limit. We suggest you have dinner in the mountains and enjoy your weekend for just a little longer.

Are we sure? Nothing can be predicted with 100% certainty, but the historic record of traffic speeds along I-70 is remarkably predictable. On holidays like Labor Day, I-70 fills up and slows down according to a pattern.

The Labor Day weekend began with the eastbound flow of traffic on Saturday morning. As vacationers from the Denver metro area headed to the mountains the highway filled up and slowed down. A traveler leaving Denver at noon would spend 21 minutes extra getting to Vail. This is an additional drive time of almost 25% over normal conditions.

The charts below compare last Saturday to the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend 2008. Traffic speeds on these two days were for all practical purposes identical.

[A little help with reading our graphs: These graphs show the TOTAL DELAY along the highway from Vail to the Morrison entrance/exit at the point where the Rockies rise from the plains. So if you leave your starting point (Denver) after noon you can expect to spend and extra 20 or 30 minutes on the hour and a half segment from Morrison to Vail. This is very accurate history, but no two days are alike, so don't think you can beat the rush unless you head out much earlier. Historically, the end of congestion/delay has been much more reliable.]

COMING HOME FROM THE MOUNTAINS

So what do we have to look forward to coming home from the mountains?

On Sunday, travelers coming east toward Denver on I-70 will experience a moderate slow down similar to the delay going west toward the mountains on Saturday. The delay will begin around 3 pm and will last until 6. The beginning of the slow down is harder to predict than the end, so anyone wanting to beat the rush will want to leave well before 3 pm.

Here is last year’s DELAY from Vail to Morrison:

There will be moderate slow down beginning sometime around 3 pm. If you leave Vail at the peak -more or less 4 pm – you will spend as much as an extra half hour making the hour and a half trip from Vail to the plains. Of course, if anything goes haywire then the delay might be much longer, but this is what you should expect.

LABOR DAY will be a different story. If you leave anytime much after breakfast you can expect to spend a lot of time on the highway. Traffic will begin to slow down by 10 am and will slow to an average of perhaps 40 miles an hour for several hours. It will probably test your good humor as at times the traffic will come to a halt and then speed up, only to slow to a crawl a mile or two later.

If you must travel during these hours expect that the 89 minute trip will take you two or two and a half hours. (If the weather goes gnarly or someone plows into the car in front of him as he tries to make up for lost time, then it may be worse.)

Here is the graph for Labor Day 2008.

There you go. Now if you take this, check the weather and the oil and tires on your car, you have all the information that you probably need to plan your return trip from the mountains. Have a wonderful weekend.

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