Colorado
Base Info

Front Plate Required: Yes

Area Codes: 303, 719, 720, 970

License Plates:

1992 - 1999
Car
2000 - Present
Car

Windshield Stickers:

None

Road and Highway Signs:

County Roads:

Douglas
Fremont
Grand
Larimer

Highways:

Highway Adoption:

Historical:

None

City Symbols:
Arvada
Aurora
Broomfield
Centennial
Commerce City
Denver
Denver
Edgewater
Englewood
Glendale
Golden
Ken Caryl
Lakewood
Littleton
Littleton
Montrose
Northglenn
Northglenn
Thornton
Westminster
Wheat Ridge
Transit
Buses
Aspen
RFTA
Denver
The Ride
Bus Stop Signs
Aspen
RFTA
Denver
The Ride
Bike Sharing
Boulder
Tolley / Streetcars
None
Identification

Colorado is roughly split north/south by Denver, from the dry grasslands in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Most distance bollards have one or more circles, mounted on a green post. In the mountains, guardrails are marked by three blue or green circles on a green post, and many traffic signs are mounted on a yellow post. Bridges are marked with a sign unique to Colorado, and sometimes run parallel to an older, out of service bridge maintained for historical purposes.

Colorado Coverage

Bollard with green post

Triple circle bollard

Yellow sign post

Colorado bridge marker

Historic bridge next to modern one

Eastern Colorado

East of Denver is mostly dry grasslands, similar to Kansas and Nebraska. However, only Colorado has green post bollards and county roads named with letters. Kansas doesn't use bollards and Colorado's neighbors use numbers for county roads. Missouri also use letters for county roads, but they post a unique sign to mark them.

Eastern grasslands

Lettered county road

White bollard with green post

Small towns consist of one or two-story brick or stone buildings with grid-based concrete streets. The main streets of these towns are usually marked US or State highways.

Eastern Colorado architecture

Main street marked US highway

Northwestern Colorado

North and northwest Colorado are scrub deserts, similar to Utah and Wyoming. US highways are marked by white circle bollards with brown-ish posts. Wyoming also uses white circle bollards with brown posts in similar landscapes, but if you see a bollard with two yellow circles, you're in Wyoming, not Colorado.

Scrub Desert

Bollards in the north/northwest

Western Colorado

Western Colorado goes from rolling hills to steep gradients depending on what section of the Rockies you're in. Depending on the season, bollards may be double stacked and mile markers are mounted higher. Yellow foliage can help distinguish Colorado mountains from Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Steeper gradient hills in the Rockies

Yellow foliage can look like Alaska

Double stacked bollards

Interstates

The eastern part of the state has concrete interstate highways and circle bollards with green or brown posts. Overpasses all have bridge markers, though sometimes it's attached to a nearby sign rather than the bridge itself. The Denver Metro area has an express lane called "Express Toll".

Concrete interstate highway

Bridge marker on Interstate overpass

ExpressToll in Denver

The only interstate freeway through the Rocky Mtns in Colorado is I-70. Guardrails have green and blue reflectors, and are often brown and rusted.

Brown rusted guardrails

Colorado mountain bollard family reunion

Denver

Most of Colorado's urban coverage is in the Denver metro area. Near the city's center, the street name and address are separated by a white line. Outside the downtown area, street signs have a symbol unique to that section of the city. See the City Symbols page for a list of Denver-specific street sign meta. Denver also has about 30 labeled bike routes between Lakewood and Aurora marked by a green oval with a "D" and a number.

Downtown Denver street sign

City symbol map

Bike route map

Similarities

Idaho also uses green post bollards, though they are flat plastic and the flag is a larger white rectangle.

White marker with green post, Colorado

White marker with green post, Idaho

Texas also uses yellow signposts in certain areas.

Colorado

External Links & Credits

Thanks to I Necessitate A Visage for pointing out the yellow signposts.

Western USA Car Meta.