Colorado's transportation planners are coming up with new traffic configurations to try to speed up the flow of congested roads and decrease the severity of accidents. Some of the new ideas are now ready for motorists, like roundabouts at highway exits in Metro Denver and Glenwood Springs. There's even a double roundabout -- which looks like two doughnuts stuck together -- in Denver at the Pecos Street exit of Interstate 70.
Another new pattern is called a diverging diamond interchange. There's one on the bridge that spans U.S. Highway 36 at the McCaslin Boulevard exit, south of Boulder. Colorado Matters host Nathan Heffel navigated that interchange, where traffic on the right-hand side of the road sweeps to the left-hand side and then back to the right, with the Town of Superior's public works director, Alex Ariniello. Then he spoke with Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Amy Ford about why new configurations are popping up around the state.
