Triangle road & traffic thread

[Tayfromcarolina]

Atlantic Ave & Litchford Rd. Which parallels Capital Blvd. and Falls of the Neuse. New Hope Rd. They should have done it while they were constructing The 64 bypass. Rd. is terrible.

Rock Quarry does need some help. Also Wake Forest and Sixforks. Don't know if thats feesible since development is so close to the street. ex. Denny's.

[RiverwoodCLT]

What I have a problem with is the taking money from the highwat trust fund to fund other state projects. So far it is over ONE BILLION DOLLARS. We voted on a tax in NC for money to go for roads, not for pork projects.

Raleigh as well as all major cities in NC are in the same boat, We need to demand better management of the highway trust fund.

I have no problem of fixing roads all over NC, but let make it fair to cities that are choking on traffic.

[NcSc74]

I really don't think there that many pork projects. I would like to think the problem of traffic is sort of a good thing. Meaning people want to move here becuase we have something to offer. However I do believe NCDOT has some blame here because a lack of a visionary transportation plan. I think it is more of a poor planning.

[Jerseyman4]

I think it is more of a poor planning.

I would not call it poor planning. The NCDOT plans are to four lane many highways with bypasses statewide providing reliable transportation for the majority of citizens whether they live in the urban and rural areas.

[ChiefJoJo]

click here!

[willrusso]

Here are some webcam screen captures I took from traffic cameras around the Triangle.

Lets start with a view of downtown.

The Beltline (I-440) at New Bern Ave.

I-40

I-40 at NC 55

I-40 at I-540

I-40 at Page Rd.

I-40 at Harrison Ave.

Cars into the Sunset..

New Hope Rd at New Bern

I-40 at Miami Blvd.

Creedmoor Rd. at Glenwood Ave.

Nothing like watching a beautiful Autumn Sunset in while sitting in your car.

....And WHO says we don't need regional rail service?

[NCMike1981]

LOL I am so glad I don't have to bother with 40 or 440 on my commute...

[NoVA20176]

You guys are lucky. Try driving around the DC area during rush-hour and you'll see that traffic in Raleigh is not bad. I'm actually glad that I'm moving to Raleigh in the spring '06 to escape all the traffic here.

I do however worry that in 20 years Raleigh will start to look more like NoVA/DC traffic wise. Hopefully public transportation in the Triangle will be better by then, but either way traffic in the Triangle will be much worse then it is now.

[urbanesq]

usually traffic around here moves pretty well compared to those places, but one small accident (like Friday on I-40 toward Chapel Hill and this morning on the Durham Freeway just outside downtown) and my commute goes from 40 minutes to close to an hour and a half.

Mine is, admittedly, already on the longer side of Triangle commutes, but scenes like the one this morning make me wish our region had been blessed with visionary leaders two decades ago so I could be riding the train already.

[RiverwoodCLT]

In the Charlotte paper yesterday it says that our lawmakers have taken 3.7 Billion dollars out of the highway trust fund over the last 17 years.

We need to send a message to them that this must stop. All major cities in NC will be grid lock in 10 years if this practice keeps on.

[ncwebguy]

Traffic is bad, but tolerable on "good" days. Even then the traffic "jams" (again, on good days) only last for at most for a 90-120 minute window.

Speaking from experience, sitting in a bus in traffic is no more liberating than sitting in a car in traffic.

Sure, I'm not idling in a car and can read or whatever, but the buses go completely off their schedule in such situations.

When taking the bus, I only have to make one connection (RTP transfer center) and I miss it *every time* there's something wrong on the roads...

My commute is about 30 mins each way in "normal" conditions, 45-50 in congestion from the airport exits to the wade ave split.

On the bus, the trip is an hour 15 minutes each way assuming nothing goes wrong, including the walk to Moore Square and from the bus stop to the office.

My commute is one of the easiest to convert to mass transit, and yet I lose an hour and a half round trip on a *good* day. The fact that the time can be spent not driving does make it nice, but is a huge tradeoff when you factor in being on transit's schedule, not your own. And forget about running errands.

It took 105 minutes *one way* on friday with the "everyone has to go home at the same time* mentality. This included waiting 20 extra minutes for the bus running behind, then waiting on the bus I transferred to since it had to wait for other late buses (though my "usual" bus didn't have to wait for us)

I want to ride the bus, but if gas is a little cheaper, taking the car becomes *cheaper* than bus fare

($3.33/day pass purchase in groups of 6). It's also hard to keep riding the bus when it feels like i'm just "spitting in the ocean" there's too much other water/gas users for my difference to really matter.

This is why I think people like the idea of the train instead of a bus as mass transit -- the train doesn't care if there's a wreck on 40 or too many one person pick ups and drop offs. The number of stops is fixed, time at each stop is fixed, and there is no dependency on other traffic in the right of way.

[waynehead]

I've also ridden the TTA bus from one end of the Triangle to the other, and you're right it can be just as frustrating sitting on one of their buses or on a bench somewhere b/c of traffic as it is sitting in a car. I agree that trains are the best long term solution, but if we're not going to get those anytime soon could we at least think about carpooling/bus lanes, toll roads, something? Everyday traffic is worse than the day before, and yet no one seems to want to do anything about it.

[paletexan]

I think Raleigh traffic is one of the worst in the country if you studied avg commute times versus population for the region. We're just way too spread out, and now that RTP is finally filling out again, I-40 is becoming horrible.... i think i saw smog yesterday (a la LA).

[JDC]

Way too spread out indeed. It's disgusting. A metro of over a million and you still need a car to get pretty much anywhere.

[Jones_]

The quiet life is downtown you guys. Living downtown is about as cheap as anywhere else. You may not be able to get quite as much space but all that means is you own too much stuff. Unless you live right next to your work already, your commute is likely to be shorter as you would be driving outbound in the morning and inbound in the evening. For RTP people, TTA lines are plentiful in downtown out to the Park. I am telling you, get downtown now, while the getting is good. More and more people are seeing the light and prices are heading up, but as of now any budget can still find somewhere ITB or very near downtown.

[ChiefJoJo]

Yeah, it's truly amazing just how little auto traffic there is downtown. I used to commute on I-40 a few years ago, and it just saps the life right out of you! After moving in to my current 800sf condo (from a 1500sf house) in April 04, I can't imagine living anywhere else in the Raleigh area, and it's only going to get more convenient with everything (Fay St, RCC, condos, museums, hotels, hopefully TTA rail?) that's coming online in the next few years. Maybe we'll even get a new grocery store DT...

[urbanvb]

When any DT gets a grocery store then people are really moving in. Norfolk is now building their first DT store in a mixed use building setting. Here is a link showing the upcoming development.

[paletexan]

When any DT gets a grocery store then people are really moving in. Norfolk is now building their first DT store in a mixed use building setting.

Agreed. Charlotte landed that Harris Teeter in 4th ward, and people are flocking to live downtown now.

[triadcat]

Way too spread out indeed. It's disgusting. A metro of over a million and you still need a car to get pretty much anywhere.

I think the Triangle metro is actually more like 1.5 million, if not bigger. I know the Triad metro is right under 1.5 million and I believe the Triangle passed the Triad's population not too long ago. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

We are indeed behind on mass trans. down here.......it is slowly changing though.

[Subway Scoundrel]

I think the Triangle metro is actually more like 1.5 million, if not bigger. I know the Triad metro is right under 1.5 million and I believe the Triangle passed the Triad's population not too long ago. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

We are indeed behind on mass trans. down here.......it is slowly changing though.

My last look at metro was Triangle was right at 1.2M with Triad arond 50K-50K more than the Triangle. Charlotte was at 1.5M-->1.6M people.

[urbanvb]

Per Wikipedia:

Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. It is the county seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 276,093, making it the second most populous city in North Carolina, behind Charlotte. As of 2004, the Census Bureau estimates that Raleigh's population has increased to 326,653, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill make up the three cities of The Triangle, so named in 1959 with the creation of the Research Triangle Park, a research park between Durham and Raleigh (mostly located within Durham County). The Triangle's total population as of 2004 was over 1.46 million.

The City of Raleigh estimates its population to be 342,194 as of July 1, 2005

link

[willrusso]

My last look at metro was Triangle was right at 1.2M with Triad arond 50K-50K more than the Triangle. Charlotte was at 1.5M-->1.6M people.

Those figures are rather old. Charlotte's metro population is right at 2 million and the Triangle's is hovering around 1.4 to 1.5 million currently.

[NCMike1981]

Wow Raleigh has grown by around 66,000 people since 2000, in just 5 years....that's amazing

[Tayfromcarolina]

Yep it had the second highest percentage growth of any large city. Only beaten by the Phenom which is Las Vegas.

[NoVA20176]

Two things about this growth that you might want to consider.

1. Raleigh has annexed a ton of new land.

2. Most/all of this growth has been consentrated way outside the downtown area. Most of the city of Raleigh looks like other big cities suburbs/exurbs. There are still parts of the city of Raleigh that have rural tracks of land. You won't usually find that in other comparable sized cities.

I'm not knocking Raleigh at all...I love Raleigh, but most of the growth was through annexation and growth in areas that would be considered suburbs in other cities. There has been comparable/more growth in the Suburbs/exurbs of some other bigger cities, than in Raleigh.

Take into account that Raleigh has double the land area of DC, yet only has 60% of the Population DC has. Raleigh is unique compared with other cities, because Raleigh annexes land that is developed in Wake county (close to the city), where as other cities do not or can not do that, which limits their growth.

I believe this is just the tip of the Iceburg for growth in Raleigh, because you'll be seeing this type of growth for many years to come, without annexing much more land. That means the "people per square mile" will be growing, rather then having a mega city (land wise) with the same amount of people as a city with half the land Raleigh has.

Please fell free to comment, because I might not be making any sense. JMHO...