BECAUSE YOU ASKED
Q: I was recently informed that there are signs in the Aspen Grove shopping area that warn pedestrians to yield to cars and that they can get away with this because it’s private property. Doesn’t this go against state law that requires just the opposite, that motorists must yield to pedestrians?
A: State law says that pedestrians do not have the right of way unless they are in a crosswalk and that they must yield to approaching vehicles.
There are signs at an intersection at Aspen Grove that tell pedestrians to yield to cars but also signs that tell motorists to yield to pedestrians.
At one intersection, the sign on the sidewalk says pedestrians must yield to cars; the sign facing the street says cars must yield to pedestrians. They are posted that way so that both motorists and pedestrians will pay attention to each other in an intersection that is highly traveled and potentially dangerous.
There may eventually be a four-way stop at the intersection, but as of now, there is not enough traffic to warrant it. The minimum volume standard recommended for a four-way stop is 300 vehicles an hour for any eight hours on Aspen Grove Way, and 200 units on the side street, which includes vehicles and pedestrians per hour for the same eight hours.
Sources: Craig Faessler, Littleton city traffic engineer; Jill Kobe, general manager of Aspen Grove Lifestyle Center
Q: This question comes up frequently, especially around the beginning of football season:
Why is the University of Colorado called CU? The University of Washington is not called WU, nor is University of Florida called FU, nor is University of Georgia called GU, etc.
A: It was not documented why the University of Colorado was called CU. “U of C” was used initially, then in the early 1900s, both U of C and CU were used interchangeably. Beginning in 1923, CU became the established nickname. It is speculated that it was used to avoid confusion with the University of California.
The Colorado Buffaloes website has this to say: “The same applies at Kansas-KU, Missouri-MU, Nebraska-NU, Oklahoma-OU and Denver-DU.”
“Midwestern casualness,” says former CU historian Fred Casotti. It has always been this way at Colorado, for whatever reason, and at the other five listed above – but seemingly nowhere else in the U.S.
In the 1950s, there was a concerted effort to eliminate the use of “CU” on the Boulder campus, both as a symbol and in speech, but Casotti said that no one would buy into it.
Sources: Denver Post archives; Colorado Buffaloes website (cubuffs
.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&KEY=&ATCLID=28035)
COMPILED BY BONNIE GILBERT
Have you ever wondered how to register your child for school? What a political caucus is and how to get information about one? How many “fourteeners” Colorado has? If you’d like information about something in the state outside Denver, send questions by e-mail to becauseyouasked@denverpost.com or mail to Because You Asked, Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, CO 80202. Include your name, city of residence and phone number.
