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I was watching the news last night and they reported that the SCDOT's first priority for the money borrowed from the infrastructure bank will be the 85/385 intersection in Greenville. My question is why is 85/385 priority over Malfunction Junction?? This makes absolutley no sense to me.Not only is the traffic through there a nightmare, but it is incredibly dangerous. Im not saying the Greenville intersection couldn't use improvements, but I have been through it several times and IMO its not even close to as dangerous as Malfunction Junction. Furthermore, according to the DOT's own traffic counts, Malfunction Junction has WELL over the amount of cars traveling through that intersection than anywehre on 85 or 385. Columbia has much worse traffic with much worse roads and this is not only an issue for economic development, but also and more importantly safety.
Is there something im missing or is this as stupid as it seems?
I was watching the news last night and they reported that the SCDOT's first priority for the money borrowed from the infrastructure bank will be the 85/385 intersection in Greenville. My question is why is 85/385 priority over Malfunction Junction?? This makes absolutley no sense to me.Not only is the traffic through there a nightmare, but it is incredibly dangerous. Im not saying the Greenville intersection couldn't use improvements, but I have been through it several times and IMO its not even close to as dangerous as Malfunction Junction. Furthermore, according to the DOT's own traffic counts, Malfunction Junction has WELL over the amount of cars traveling through that intersection than anywehre on 85 or 385. Columbia has much worse traffic with much worse roads and this is not only an issue for economic development, but also and more importantly safety.
Is there something im missing or is this as stupid as it seems?
I think if you check the stats, 85 / 385 is the busiest interchange in SC. I could be wrong, but I think it passed malfunction Columbia junction a few years back. It's smack in the center of SC's largest metro area, so makes sense to me.
And not to mention the fact that the most dangerous exchanges through the interchange (20E-26E and 26W-20W) are largely made up of commuters from Lexington trying to get Downtown on 126 and visa versa. Plus this traffic is largely concentrated during commute times and the majority of people that commute from the Lake Murray suburbs work downtown. Even though Greenville has surpassed Columbia in Metro, the population is a bit more spread out, Columbia is much more sprawling metro around one urban center, so our urban area is in fact bigger, causing more traffic at the same time, going to the same places.
The problem is you're looking at only traffic counts. There is much more that goes towards determining what major road construction projects get priority. This includes everything from current/future growth rates, congestion numbers, and amount of accidents.
And not to mention the fact that the most dangerous exchanges through the interchange (20E-26E and 26W-20W) are largely made up of commuters from Lexington trying to get Downtown on 126 and visa versa. Plus this traffic is largely concentrated during commute times and the majority of people that commute from the Lake Murray suburbs work downtown. Even though Greenville has surpassed Columbia in Metro, the population is a bit more spread out, Columbia is much more sprawling metro around one urban center, so our urban area is in fact bigger, causing more traffic at the same time, going to the same places.
Actually Columbia's metro has more counties, so it's probably actually more spread out. You can look on city-data for density per square mile. According to it Greenville has higher density per square mile. The 85/385 interchange is very old. It malfunctions terribly at rush hour. Not saying it's worse than Columbia, but it's bad. I hate it. Can't wait until the flyovers are in. Also, this is all that is lacking so the 385 widening project is complete. It bottlenecks briefly before widening again. This cause issues at rush hour. Maybe they just want to finish it.
I have to say that the congestion in Malfunction Junction is much worse at rush hour, our biggest suburbs all have to commute through malfunction junction plus according to data on commute times Columbia Metro has a much longer commute than Greenville and like I was saying, most folks in Columbia work in the downtown area, in Greenville the working population seems to be much more spread out with BMW so you don't have as many people driving to one place at one time. But overall the biggest issue is safety, I drive through there numerous times a day and honestly its safer going through at rush hour because everyone is stopped, during the day its much more dangerous since everyone is going 60. I haven t had a chance to look at the amount of accidents each interchange has so your right that might be the reason I'll have to look that up but as far as growth rates and projected traffic counts, the projections at 85/385 don't even equal the amount at Malfunction Junction( at least the last time I saw it) plus our growth rates are very high like Greenville's plus everyone traveling to any SC beach from anywhere west of Columbia have to go through this interchange so I'm just very confused but your right maybe there's some reasoning that were just not seeing. I will say that the 385/85 interchange is no picnic and should be fixed too, I just don't think it should take priority over Malfunction Junction
I have to say that the congestion in Malfunction Junction is much worse at rush hour, our biggest suburbs all have to commute through malfunction junction plus according to data on commute times Columbia Metro has a much longer commute than Greenville and like I was saying, most folks in Columbia work in the downtown area, in Greenville the working population seems to be much more spread out with BMW so you don't have as many people driving to one place at one time. But overall the biggest issue is safety, I drive through there numerous times a day and honestly its safer going through at rush hour because everyone is stopped, during the day its much more dangerous since everyone is going 60. I haven t had a chance to look at the amount of accidents each interchange has so your right that might be the reason I'll have to look that up but as far as growth rates and projected traffic counts, the projections at 85/385 don't even equal the amount at Malfunction Junction( at least the last time I saw it) plus our growth rates are very high like Greenville's plus everyone traveling to any SC beach from anywhere west of Columbia have to go through this interchange so I'm just very confused but your right maybe there's some reasoning that were just not seeing. I will say that the 385/85 interchange is no picnic and should be fixed too, I just don't think it should take priority over Malfunction Junction
I gotcha. I agree with most of what you have here. But BMW is not Greenville's largest employer. It may be for Spartanburg since it's in their county. Most Greenville workers work at places in Greenville. Michelin, GE, Lockheed, etc. Greenville Hospital Systems is actually the largest employer in Greenville.
I think if you check the stats, 85 / 385 is the busiest interchange in SC. I could be wrong, but I think it passed malfunction Columbia junction a few years back. It's smack in the center of SC's largest metro area, so makes sense to me.
LOL, size/largest metro????? Because there is soooooo much difference in size between the metros, typical over exaggeration of the facts. I suspect it has more to do with politics and the fact that the 26/20 interchange is tabbed to cost over $500m to rebuild.
Traffic in Greenville is not that bad, I am not sure why the state needs flyover bridges 70' in the air, Charlotte has much worse interchanges that are being built with new techniques, perhaps Greenville is still developing interstates based on old models. It seems a little over the top. Keep in mind, traffic counts are for 2 roads not necessarily folks using the interchange.
I have to say that the congestion in Malfunction Junction is much worse at rush hour, our biggest suburbs all have to commute through malfunction junction plus according to data on commute times Columbia Metro has a much longer commute than Greenville and like I was saying, most folks in Columbia work in the downtown area, in Greenville the working population seems to be much more spread out with BMW so you don't have as many people driving to one place at one time. But overall the biggest issue is safety, I drive through there numerous times a day and honestly its safer going through at rush hour because everyone is stopped, during the day its much more dangerous since everyone is going 60. I haven t had a chance to look at the amount of accidents each interchange has so your right that might be the reason I'll have to look that up but as far as growth rates and projected traffic counts, the projections at 85/385 don't even equal the amount at Malfunction Junction( at least the last time I saw it) plus our growth rates are very high like Greenville's plus everyone traveling to any SC beach from anywhere west of Columbia have to go through this interchange so I'm just very confused but your right maybe there's some reasoning that were just not seeing. I will say that the 385/85 interchange is no picnic and should be fixed too, I just don't think it should take priority over Malfunction Junction
I agree, but, a lot of folks on here look at chamber facts and not reality. Other than a huge price tag and the politics of Greenville, there is not much of a reason. At one time, I thought 26/20 was the number one priority.
I think scdot should widen I-20 through Aiken County.
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