City of Raleigh approves Capital Blvd ped improvements

[Gard]

Raleigh has decided to make Capital Boulevard $420,000 safer for pedestrians. In a report released Monday, the city's Department of Public Works said it would improve five crossings on Capital, Wake County's most fatal road for pedestrians, excluding interstate highways. Since 2002, eight people have died crossing Capital between Peace Street and Durant Road.

[DB78]

I always wondered what they could realistically do to make Capital Blvd safer. The countdown crossing signals are a great start. I'm not sure how much installing those costs, but the city could use a bunch more if the price is reasonable.

[serapis]

Whatever happened to the plans to turn Capital blvd into an expressway, kind of like Independance blvd in Charlotte?

[Gard]

Whatever happened to the plans to turn Capital blvd into an expressway, kind of like Independance blvd in Charlotte?

[RiverwoodCLT]

I hate driving on Capital blvd. even worst that Independance in Charlotte. Lanes change without notice and people drive like they are going to a fire. I would never try to walk across Capital.

[serapis]

Why not overhead crosswalks?

[Jones_]

I always wondered what they could realistically do to make Capital Blvd safer. The countdown crossing signals are a great start. I'm not sure how much installing those costs, but the city could use a bunch more if the price is reasonable.

[plus2]

Capital Blvd needs to be blown up and we should start over. It should be a freeway from the Beltline to 540. Those strip malls can't exist next to a freeway, so we should redevelop them too, providing a buffer between the freeway and the surrounding neighborhoods.

[ChiefJoJo]

Frankly, when the DOT came in and widened the segment from 440 to 401 to 8 lanes, peds dropped out of the picture IMO. In general, providing good ped access at 4 lanes is fine, 6 lanes (urban) is manageable--not ideal, but 8... you're fighting a losing battle trying to accomodate peds with that many lanes. There's just too many lanes, and the surrounding land uses (big box, strips centers) very much discourage anything but auto use. The ped refuges might help, but IMO this is purely a political move--direct respose to the newspaper article a while back. I changed the title, because frankly, without knowing the type of crashes, know one knows whether this will in fact make crossing Capital safer.

[Tayfromcarolina]

I hate driving on Capital blvd. even worst that Independance in Charlotte. Lanes change without notice and people drive like they are going to a fire. I would never try to walk across Capital.

[bullcity76]

Hmm perhaps the citys should sent out a team to Atlanta, Dallas or similar cities that have these multi lane/U.S. route highways and see how they addressed it. I know I saw several similar roads to Capital when I was down in Atlanta earlier this year.

[ncwebguy]

If pedestrians can't cross parts of Capital Blvd, more car trips will be necessary. There are a lot of apartments in the 401 split to Spring Forest area, but a lot of those residents might be driving already.

Riding the bus in the Capitol corridor becomes a little more time consuming. Outbound riders wanting to go somewhere on the west side of Captiol would have to ride all the way up to Triangle Town Center and back down instead of getting off and crossing. Also, inbound riders on the east side would have to catch an outbound bus and ride out and back. Even with buses running every 15 minutes, the time consumed due to the inability to cross makes a long bus ride even longer.

That being said, all the paint in the world won't make a pedestrian crossing over an 8+ lane road with a lot of fast moving traffic any safer. They could do something similar to the Western Blvd/Avent Ferry intersection near NC State, but even that is six lanes.

In the mini-city area, long ramps could start near the businesses, helping pedestrians avoid not only the traffic on Capital, but the traffic in the seas of parking as well. It is interesting that Capitol has no bridges over it from the train bridge between Crabtree Blvd and Hodges Street to the 540 interchange. Is there a reason for that? Would this keep other bridges from being built in the corridor?

[serapis]

Why not put in pedestrian bridges like this one.

[ncwebguy]

That is kind of my idea. There is probably right of way issues, but if the ramp went closer to the stores (Lowes in that picutre) than running parallel to the road, the amout of walking required would be reduced. One of these could be squeezed between Chic Fil A and Staples on the west side and Boston Market/Taco bell or Boston Market/First Union on the east/Mini-City side. Another one could go in near CVS and the former Vincents/under construction Walgreens.

[Gard]

Another good location for a bridge would be from TTC to Best Buy across the street.

[Jones_]

Could not find any other thread for Capital Blvd.......I have had to commute from downtown to Wake Forest every day during rush hour lately and holy freakin' cow traffic is crazy bad there....it is backed up from Durant all the way to the Wake Forest Town limits at South Main Street...every day!! That is much worse than anywhere I have had to hit at rush hour other than the bulge that moves north on US 1 from Cary and onto the 2 lane 40 westbound.....but anyway......all I wanted to yell out my window was "pay an impact fee you new terds".....I paid to build the four laner already there...they can pay to build the 6 laner or the lightrail or whatever.....

Another Captial observation......had to count them one day.....between 440 and Downtown I counted 13 used car dealers....some with only a half dozen cars (by Dunkin) and some with close to 100 (City Used Cars)....this certainly does alot to shape the perception of Capital and perception then shapes future potential development to a degree. This is not counting the mostly new car dealerships north of 440. I am just about ready to designate Capital Boulevard the regional armpit of roads....

Edit: and 11 used car dealers between 401 and 440 on Captial....thats 24 used car dealers between Downtown and teh 401 split. geesh.

[JeffC]

Could not find any other thread for Capital Blvd.......I have had to commute from downtown to Wake Forest every day during rush hour lately and holy freakin' cow traffic is crazy bad there....it is backed up from Durant all the way to the Wake Forest Town limits at South Main Street...every day!! That is much worse than anywhere I have had to hit at rush hour other than the bulge that moves north on US 1 from Cary and onto the 2 lane 40 westbound.....but anyway......all I wanted to yell out my window was "pay an impact fee you new terds".....I paid to build the four laner already there...they can pay to build the 6 laner or the lightrail or whatever.....

Another Captial observation......had to count them one day.....between 440 and Downtown I counted 13 used car dealers....some with only a half dozen cars (by Dunkin) and some with close to 100 (City Used Cars)....this certainly does alot to shape the perception of Capital and perception then shapes future potential development to a degree. This is not counting the mostly new car dealerships north of 440. I am just about ready to designate Capital Boulevard the regional armpit of roads....

[Gard]

Could not find any other thread for Capital Blvd.......I have had to commute from downtown to Wake Forest every day during rush hour lately and holy freakin' cow traffic is crazy bad there....it is backed up from Durant all the way to the Wake Forest Town limits at South Main Street...every day!! That is much worse than anywhere I have had to hit at rush hour other than the bulge that moves north on US 1 from Cary and onto the 2 lane 40 westbound.....but anyway......all I wanted to yell out my window was "pay an impact fee you new terds".....I paid to build the four laner already there...they can pay to build the 6 laner or the lightrail or whatever.....

Another Captial observation......had to count them one day.....between 440 and Downtown I counted 13 used car dealers....some with only a half dozen cars (by Dunkin) and some with close to 100 (City Used Cars)....this certainly does alot to shape the perception of Capital and perception then shapes future potential development to a degree. This is not counting the mostly new car dealerships north of 440. I am just about ready to designate Capital Boulevard the regional armpit of roads....

Edit: and 11 used car dealers between 401 and 440 on Captial....thats 24 used car dealers between Downtown and teh 401 split. geesh.