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Hi All. How is the traffic on 40 heading from Harrison Ave to Exit 173 in the mornings (East to West) and afternoon rush hour (West to East)? I plan to drive it eventually but wanted to know your thoughts about this commute? Thank you.
I do the opposite commute (exit 273 to exit 290) about twice a month for work. It isn't great; but there are worse commutes out there. The worst parts tend to be around the southpoint exits (274 and 276) and Wade Avenue (289). If you are commuting from Harrison Ave (which I believe is exit 287) you would avoid the Wade Ave mess.
Yucky. Couldn't recommend it, but I don't like driving to Raleigh and Cary from Chapel Hill off rush hour times.
I can't remember, do you already live in Cary? My spouse commuted several years from Chapel Hill to downtown Raleigh and I know others who do the same, but it's a bit of a slog. I've known several folks who have given up that commute and either moved closer to the job or gotten a new job closer to their house.
It isn't that bad, I live in Cary and had a second job in Chapel Hill for a little bit and I had no problems since most people were driving on 40E instead of 40W, plus there are alternatives to getting on 40 if traffic sucks going back(I really didn't run into too many problems but at the time I was getting off at 4). But you could take 55 to 54, you could take davis to 54(or the opposite to go home), you could take 40 for a little bit and if it sucked(going back home) get off at exit 280 and take Davis right into Cary, or exit at 278 and take 55 to Cary.
I have done this commute many times.
Morning 40W: Harrison ramp to exit 273 (hwy 54) = 17 minutes (leaving any time)
Evening 40E: Exit 273 (hwy 54) to Harrison Ave exit = 22-25 minutes (if leave 4:30-5:30)
Everyone slowly trickles into work in the morning but rushes back home at the same time! lol
The trip back home to Cary has gotten significantly worse over the last 3 years as more and more people move here. It use to take 22 minutes or less if I left at 4:30; now, if I want to make it back home in around that time I need to leave at 4:00. I thought 540 toll was supposed to take some of the pressure off 40?
Where in Cary probably affects the answer - if you live in far northwestern Cary you probably would not even need to get on I40.
They said Harrison Ave in the original post.
Google Maps allows you to punch in a route at different times of the day to see how fast the traffic is typically flowing (green = free flow, yellow = slowdowns, red = congested) so that's another good option before you drive it (and you can play around with your route and times to see what would work best for you).
I thought 540 toll was supposed to take some of the pressure off 40?
Partly, yes, but I think it was mainly intended to relieve NC-55. Problem is, and I know nearly everybody here is gonna give me **** for saying this, there are still quite a few people who still refuse to use NC-540 because of the tolls. Some still don't understand why western and (eventually) southern Wake has to pay tolls while northern Wake gets a free ride. The tolls aren't exactly cheap when you consider the length of NC-540 compared to other tolled highways in the US, such as the I-77/I-64 West Virginia Turnpike between Beckley and Charleston or the Ohio Turnpike (I-80/I-90). At least you get your moneys' worth in distance on those two highways.
All that being said, I understand why it's tolled since that was the only way it could get built anytime soon. However, I find myself questioning that argument, considering the money NCDOT spent on questionable projects, such as building I-73 when other states have no interest in it.
Should be a breeze in the morning but yiu might run into slowdowns in the afternoon starting around exit 274 or 276 and that will last likely until the airport exits. Nothing crazy, will just be moving between 25 and 45mph most of the way.
There's a ton of traffic from Raleigh/Garner/Clayton/etc. heading into RTP in the mornings and home in the evenings. The stretch from Harrison to/from around Miami is going to especially have a lot of traffic. Most days it will just be frustrating, but some days it will rise to the level of maddening.
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