Is this a case of five drivers following the leader, or does this Golden, CO intersection need a fresh set of road markings?
Colorado resident and Redditor /u/Bookmaster_VP shared dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit from earlier this week showing the potentially disastrous moment from Golden, CO when six cars inadvertently drove into oncoming traffic after following the leader turning left at what many agree is a confusingly marked intersection.
Check out his dashcam footage below.
[oc] DON’T follow the leader
byu/Bookmaster_VP inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened at the intersection of U.S. Route /Highway 6 and U.S. Route/Highway 40 in Golden, CO (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s dashcam footage shows, he and his partner are driving down the U.S. 6 and turn left onto U.S. 40 (Colfax Ave.)
To their left, they see a line of cars that turned before them except they entered the wrong set of lanes and can be seen driving towards oncoming traffic.
Thankfully, one by one they all managed to safely merge into the lanes they should’ve turned into.
For context, here’s a bird’s eye view of that intersection.
As the screenshot above and their dashcam footage show, this intersection does have lane markings pointing drivers toward the right set of lanes.
And, as this Google Maps screenshot shows, there are Do Not Enter signs too.
However, many other Redditors in that thread, myself included, agree that those two lines pointing in the correct general direction aren’t enough and, on their own, are insufficient which explains why six cars went into oncoming traffic (five cars followed the leader.)
“Not to discredit their stupidity, but that intersection seriously needs some guidelines,” /u/TabOverSpaces commented.
“I would 100% follow the leader if that was my first time navigating that junction. Horrible design. Needs lines,” /u/Beer-Milkshakes replied.
“I would bet a thousand bucks that intersection is probably known by nickname by some insurance company. I know the frame of view of the lens distorts it, but they did not mark that well. Yeesh,” /u/socialcommentary2000 added.
While, ultimately, it’s up to drivers to take heed of signage and lane markings, I can only imagine this is not the first time someone’s done this there.
Some additional lane markings extending those two initial ones should not cost the city all that much and should help to reduce confusion.
I wonder how drivers navigate this intersection at night.
