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Triangle road & traffic thread


uptownliving

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I like the idea of the toll, I really dont want to wait till 2020something for an outer loop to be developed. If it can speed up this quick than so be it as long as they take away the tolls when they are completed with it. I mean if NCDOT does not have the funds I think that is an appropriate resolution.

If you have been to Chicago, I don't think people will stop driving a toll road because there is a cheaper route. Its all about how fast and how convenient... <----(what America is based on)

They will never take away the tolls. It's like opening Pandora's Box. Once the tolls are up, they will stay and more will come. Take a look around the country. They all say they will take them down once the road is paid off, but they never do. The only place I know about them taking tolls away is in Jacksonville, Fl with their bridges. I heard residents would throw garbage and dead fish in the coin trap to voice their displeasure. Charlotte got their loop complete without tolls and I would like to see Raleigh given the same consideration.

Personally, I could care less about I-540 because I will never use it. I worry more about future tolls being put in because of this. Now, I-95...there maybe more of a case there since most of its use is from out of state people. It needs work and since we can't tax people in New York and Canada a toll might be a good consideration but I still don't like them.

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They will never take away the tolls. It's like opening Pandora's Box. Once the tolls are up, they will stay and more will come. Take a look around the country. They all say they will take them down once the road is paid off, but they never do. The only place I know about them taking tolls away is in Jacksonville, Fl with their bridges. I heard residents would throw garbage and dead fish in the coin trap to voice their displeasure. Charlotte got their loop complete without tolls and I would like to see Raleigh given the same consideration.

Personally, I could care less about I-540 because I will never use it. I worry more about future tolls being put in because of this. Now, I-95...there maybe more of a case there since most of its use is from out of state people. It needs work and since we can't tax people in New York and Canada a toll might be a good consideration but I still don't like them.

Thats the only thing I worry about too, but the people that use the roads will be paying for there future transportation I guess.

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Maybe toll roads will encourage urban living???

High gas prices will discourage 30+ miles of suburbia before toll roads ever do that!

New Jersey has the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway which are toll roads and sprawl continues to spread further and further down into southern central jersey (I-195 and NJ 33 corridor) and further down into south jersey. It already has invaded the northeastern Philadelphia suburbs [northern Burlington County/western Monmouth County is a prime example]!

Just incase i may get another post about being given a geography lesson; culturally speaking, central jersey is anything between I-195 and I-78. Anything below is south jersey and above that is north jersey.

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Now, I-95...there maybe more of a case there since most of its use is from out of state people. It needs work and since we can't tax people in New York and Canada a toll might be a good consideration but I still don't like them.

Ive said this before in previous post(s)

I-95 should be a toll facility in North Carolina so the money that is currently being used on I-95 goes into projects (road, rail, etc) that serve North Carolinians, not primary out of state traffic few state residents use.

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Tolls belong up in DC and points northward not down here. 540 when get built when it gets built. It will be a great road one day but I don't think tolls are the way to do it.

I agree. If it takes longer, so be it. It will slow down growth to that part of the county and I don't see a big problem with that. Cary/HS have the US 1/64 project working for them already. Knightdale has the 64-bypass already. I think that I-540 can wait longer if needed. Why the rush to speed up the construction?

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It will slow down growth to that part of the county and I don't see a big problem with that. Cary/HS have the US 1/64 project working for them already. Knightdale has the 64-bypass already. I think that I-540 can wait longer if needed. Why the rush to speed up the construction?

Sprawl comes whether roads get built or not so it is important that projects are finished as soon as possible. The longer time passes by, the costs increase with labor, materials and right of way acquisition so it becomes more and more expensive to delay projects.

An ideal way to limit sprawl is to construct minimal interchanges. If they are spaced 5-10+ miles apart from one exit to another, it discourages sprawl with the lack of entrance/exit points from the freeway.

I do not want to see Raleigh become the next Atlanta with unbuilt highways beyond I-440. It would be horrible if southern Wake County sees the same fate of lacking east-west access below the beltline.

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If they do tolls they should at least provide lanes like Florida has. We have these devices that we put on our windshields that allows us to drive through the toll booths without stopping and just deduct money from our account we have set up. Some of the toll booths even allow you to maintain the speed you are going. Tolls can be a good thing.

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Sprawl comes whether roads get built or not so it is important that projects are finished as soon as possible. The longer time passes by, the costs increase with labor, materials and right of way acquisition so it becomes more and more expensive to delay projects.

No. Sprawl comes from bad land-use planning and the provision of transportation infrastructure with no thought given to what will occur off the road.

Take a drive out of Raleigh towards Fuquay and you will see rural sprawl. Take a drive out of Chapel Hill/Carrboro on NC 54 and you will see mostly farmland.

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If they do tolls they should at least provide lanes like Florida has. We have these devices that we put on our windshields that allows us to drive through the toll booths without stopping and just deduct money from our account we have set up. Some of the toll booths even allow you to maintain the speed you are going. Tolls can be a good thing.

They also have these from Virginia up to Maine, it's called EZ-Pass and it's a little white plastic device that sticks onto the inside of your window. It takes money from an account you have set up with EZ-pass. In Virginia it's actually called "Smart-tag" but it works with all the EZ-pass toll booths in the North East as well. They still have toll booths for people that want to pay with cash, but the EZ-pass lanes really help with keeping the traffic moving. In VA we have toll roads in Northern VA, Richmond, and the Hampton Roads area of the state.

Also trust me when I say this, people WILL pay to make their commute to work less stressful and faster. They do up here and the toll roads can get just as backed up as the other major roads around here...and I'm talking about 8 lane freeway style toll roads.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been to many different cities, and I think Raleigh is the only large city that does not have lighting on our freeways. I was driving through I85 in Durham today and realized how far behind our transportation system is. There have been many cases of accidents involving poor or no lighting on freeways at night. It would make driving in this region 10 times better if we had proper lighting, like a city of this size should. Even I40 through Greensboro is completely lit up. I think adding lighting would be good for our region's image and more importantly safety. Are there any plans in the works?

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I have always wondered why the capital city does not have lights on the freeways! It does seem a bit strange to me as we have tons of street lights here in the Norfok region. When I was thinking about this though it seems I do recall that 495W (I think west or going towards Tysons) in Northern VA does not have a lot of lighting either. I wonder are there particular reasons for and against besides the obvious that they cost money.

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Installing light posts along the highway would be VERY expensive (think of electricity bills operating costs every month). Ive never had a problem with no light on the highway but this is a Pinehurst native talking since we had no street lights anywhere except in downtown (the village). The only complaint i have is I-277 around Charlotte since they have street lights but NCDOT never got around to replacing the bulbs.

I-85 through Durham in the construction zone (between NC 147 and US 70) most likely will have lighting. The highway will be resembling what 40/85 looks like with lamposts in the middle and i think its going to be 6-8 lanes through the area or maybe 6 lanes with a continious weave lane between exits (like the Beltline). If only New Jersey could construct continious weave lanes that are 2 miles long between exits with dashes (not broken lines) indicating this. :angry:

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I find it interesting that US-19/US-23/I-26 north of Asheville has lighting while I-40 and I-440 in the triangle do not. Certainly the electricity bill would be expensive, but it rather fatiguing to drive I-40 at night.

When was the last improvement / widening completed on the beltline through North Raleigh? Wonder why they didn't install lights then?

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If the DOT is responsible for lighting, I think it's a pipe dream. These are the same folks who install, but never use over head message boards. And who leave broken down vehicles on the highway for days and days.

A couple of days ago, there was a big accident where I 540 runs into I40. I caused major backups. NONE of the boards I went by had anything on them! A while back, when construction on I40 was ongoing, the over head had nothing, and litteraly 100 ft. down the road a mobile (trailer) sign had info. What the hell?

So, lighting.... don't hold your breath. A reasonable hope may be lighting on major intersections.

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I've only seen the overhead signs used just a few times. I would like to know what stops them from being used more often. Do they lack the staff? Have they forgotten?

I would really like to see freeway lighting installed on the I-440 Beltline. It would be nice to have to whole thing lit, but I would settle for the 6-8+ lane section from Wade Ave to at least New Bern Ave, following the northern arc.

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I'm sure it would improve our image to have proper lighting on all our major arteries. I think it's a waste of money though. Functionably, it contributes nothing outside of aesthetics. The last thing I want to do is to pay to make sprawl more enjoyable.

If we were talking about better lighting on city streets that are meant to be walkable and have ground retail, then I'd sing a different tune.

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