To whom it may concern at the and readers of the

US 6 Touring Association Website:

I've always been interested in the US Highways.  Since reading Stewart's US 40 when I was ten years old the transcontinental routes intrigued me.

I have planned to trace a number of them from my home state, New York to whatever termini are extant.

In the case of US 6 I had traced it in stages from Provincetown, Ma. to Cleveland, Oh.  On a recent trip to the West coast I found myself in a position to trace the highway from Bishop, Ca. east (picked the week of the heat wave this past summer – 2006).

In any case I followed the road from Bishop to the Utah/Colorado State Line.  Here is where the difficulty began.  US 6 is not signed anywhere (except the Loveland Pass exit) in Colorado where it multiplexes with I-70, I-25, and I-76 (western portion).  It is signed locally through Grand Junction and several other communities between Grand Junction and Denver but not continuously.

In one case, just west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado there is a full blown sign reading WEST 6 (the official black and white shield sign) with a right oriented 45 degree arrow beneath directing one down a dead end street.   The street is a frontage road for I-70 and may have once gone through but no longer does.  The road end is far from recent but the sign looks almost new.  It diverges from a traffic circle which encompasses the I-70 interchange.  There are many signs depicting the circle as one approaches it detailing WEST 6 down this dead end frontage road.

Notwithstanding the fact that I may be the devoted eccentric Stewart spoke of, just from the point of view of traffic safety this is a bad situation.  Colorado is notorious for not posting multiplexed federal highways (in the case of US 87 I can see why) but to post a sign directing a major highway (although minor by local standards) down a dead end street is unsafe and irresponsible.  I do not want to think about what might happen to the "befuddled motorist" Stewart wrote about careering down this highway at high speed "especially at night" only to be confronted with a barbed wire fence.

As time was running on and I had to get back to New York, I gave up tracing 6 in western Colorado and just set off on I-70 to Denver where I picked it up again.

With the advent of the Internet, I've seen many nostalgic web sites dealing with famous/defunct highways.  US 6 has not been decommissioned though.  Surely something could be done to mark these extant highways more efficiently.  (In the case of US 87 could it not be rerouted along US 310, Hwy. 789 and Co 13 or else decommissioned?)

For you US 6 fans in the West, I hope you get the chance to view 6 here in the East.  Despite its proximity to New York City, it never comes within 40 miles of the city, the road is quite varied.  Across northern Pennsylvania, US 6 is quite beautiful (especially in the fall).  Southern New York as well as Pennsylvania is very mountainous (believe it or not) and 6 crosses these mountains on some very spectacular roads although it does multiplexes with a future Interstate highway for about 10 miles.  From Peekskill, N.Y. to Hartford, Ct. the road traverses outer suburbia and several secondary and tertiary cities as well as multiplexing with I-84 several times.  Eastern Connecticut however, is picturesque and of course the drive out to the end of Cape Cod is very nice.

I have not given up tracing 6 though and will return to Colorado when time permits to finish those portions of 6.  I hope this story will make for interesting reading.

See you on Route 6

Steve Sassi