GOLDEN — If your tires fail the “George Washington test,” the Colorado State Patrol, state highway officials, resorts and businesses along the Interstate 70 mountain corridor want you to stay home this winter.
The test is easy and was displayed Thursday as part of the state’s expanded efforts to ease from Eagle to Denver during high-volume weekend hours.
Place a quarter upside down into the tire tread, with Washington’s head going in first. If the top of George’s head is covered by the tread at various points around the tire, your radials are road-ready for a trip to Vail.
“But if the top of his head is visible at any point around the tire, you need new tires and you probably shouldn’t head on up,” said Amy Ford, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Encouraging people to do the tire check is one small but vital cog in CDOT’s plan for the corridor, which includes $8 million in new operational funds, an educational campaign and beefed- up enforcement of .
CDOT is bringing in more snowplows and personnel to help with traffic management, including a new coordinator of I-70 mountain traffic, Patrick Chavez.
The snowplows, along with state troopers, will be used as escorts to move backed-up traffic through the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial tunnels, a strategy that worked well , CDOT said.
The CSP will be emphasizing chain law enforcement for truckers, as well as passenger vehicles, said Maj. Steve Garcia.
Motorists will be blanketed with information about the chain law and the law, which requires drivers to move their vehicles out of traffic after an accident to a safe location when the vehicle is drivable, no drugs or alcohol are involved and there are no injuries.
“Traffic accidents — not volume — account for as much as 60 percent of all traffic delays,” Garcia said. “It’s called the accordion effect. A minor accident that takes just 10 minutes to clear can delay traffic up to one hour.”
CDOT and its volunteers will be conducting the George Washington quarter test at resort parking lots and leaving a note telling skiers and snowboarders if their tires are not in good condition, and tire companies will offer discounts for new ones.
Also, CDOT is partnering with the Denver Regional Council of Governments to provide a van pool for one mountain trip each weekend.
The — a consortium of mountain towns and resorts — will again offer discounts, deals and incentives for travelers interested in avoiding traffic by staying in the mountains for an extra hour or two.
Those “Peak Time Deals” are updated regularly.
More travelers are taking advantage of off-hour deals but it will take time for people to make wholesale changes in their travel habits, said Margaret Bowes, program manager for the I-70 Coalition.
“There is no magic bullet for solving the traffic problem on I-70,” Bowes said. “But if we keep up with these programs and keep at it time and time again, things will turn around.”
