Welcome to The Road Ahead

The Road Ahead is a blog dealing with road geekery, road food, and anything related to traveling by automobile across the USA. The owner of this blog has been fascinated by roads, signs, maps, and related things since very early childhood. If you share this affliction, enjoy! Comments are always welcome.

March 20, 2008

Cell Phone Picture of the Day


Unusual font for a stop sign

Stop signs have changed a lot over the years. Sometime in my childhood they went from being yellow with black letters to the current red with white letters. Red probably makes more sense, as they now match the color of stop lights.

This particular stop sign is on private property, a shopping center in Parker, Colorado, thus likely explaining the unusual typeface displayed on it. There are several just like it at this shopping center.

On another topic, today is the first day of spring, and it is a gorgeous one along the Colorado Front Range! The mountains have a fresh cap of snow from their last storm to move through, and it is sunny with just a few clouds scattered around a blue sky. The six weeks of winter predicted by Punxatawney Phil on February 2 have passed, and spring really does look like it is here. No doubt, a few more snows will pass through during the remainder of March and in April, but no worries about that. Living where we get almost 300 days of sunshine a year does have some advantages!

March 7, 2008

Red Light Cams - Cell Phone Photo of the Day


The red light camera installation at Yosemite & Arapahoe

As I have noted before, there is a lot to like about my Motorola Q cell phone, from its ability to pull down my work and personal email, schedules, and surf the web. Of course it can make and receive phone calls too. The one feature that is a bit on the weak side is the camera. Still, since it is always in my pocket, why not feature some more of the daily sights I encounter taken with the Q?

Today's photo is a bit of a roadgeek shot. This was taken looking west down Arapahoe Road while waiting to turn onto it from northbound Yosemite in Centennial, Colorado. Cameras to automatically cite people who run through red lights are becoming more common all over the country, and the Denver metro area is no exception. There was an identical installation diagonally across the intersection. Here we can see not only two of the cameras, but also between the traffic lights is a strobe that illuminates license plates for the cameras when they snap a photo of a traffic offender.

In the distance are the Rocky Mountains and a sky full of interesting clouds.