Worst Streets/Highways in the triad. (Greensboro, Winston-Salem: dangerous, garden, beach)

[NCRoadTrip]

with The Urban Loop (GSO) and Beltway (WS), and the re-building of business 40, the triad has

definitely hit a milestone, but, there still exist some sour apples in the bunch.


personally, my picks:




NC Highway 87 thru Burlington and Graham



it is the Primary north and south route thru Alamance County,
serving Burlington and Graham, yet, is 2 laned going North to Reidsville/Danville, or south to Pittsboro (to US 64) and Sanford (from here 4 lanes to the Beach or to Fayetteville)

Runs thru Traffic circle in Graham.

a north-south freeway bypass was proposed in the 90's but scrapped.


as it is, 87 gets congested, from motorists traveling north and south of Burlington to these other locations




- the super-confusing I-40 / US -29/220 (Preddy Boulevard) in Greensboro


even with I-85 removed, it is still US-220 /I-40/ US-29.

an exit #220 and a us-220. less than half a mile apart. people cut over sharply, cutting off others and crashing, only to end up on the wrong 220.

Dangerous Left exits: (Randleman Rd, EXIT #220) on 40 East, and US -29 South (EXIT 219) from 40 West.

the 29/220 north exit on 40 east at Martin luther king. (its 2 Exits squeezed together 222 and 223)


**biggest problem is it still being signed as us-220. That highway is still conjoined with I-40 and 29 to direct north to Battleground Av., Lawndale Dr, Church and Elm Streets, and Cone Health hospital


bright side is, However, state DOT wants to sign US-70 along all of Wendover avenue, which may take most of the local traffic away from I-40, and may provide a better direction to downtown and to 29 north/ 220 north, especially for trucks




Spring Garden St (Greensboro)_


East of Holden road, sudden lane drops virtually ensure congestion and cut offs/near-misses, for those heading from Market st/friendly avenue to UNCG

[Jowel]

There was a similar thread here:

//www.city-data.com/forum/green...t-doing-2.html

As far as bad lane drops (which you mention on Spring Garden St.), W. Wendover near I-40 is notorious for this. It looks like turn/deceleration lanes were added for some of the businesses, but they just seem to be added and deleted at random intervals and forces lane changes on a dangerous, congested stretch of roadway.

I'm not a fan of the merge area from US 52 South in Winston-Salem, where it dumps you onto I-40 East (not Salem Pkwy/Business 40 but the actual I-40) towards Kernersville/High Point.

There are probably more I could think of.

[j_thomas]

I agree that the Death Valley segment is extremely dangerous and needs a total rebuild (I think this may be on the cards in the next 10 years?). But I disagree with this:

Originally Posted by NCRoadTrip

bright side is, However, state DOT wants to sign US-70 along all of Wendover avenue, which may take most of the local traffic away from I-40, and may provide a better direction to downtown and to 29 north/ 220 north, especially for trucks

IMO, the US 70 reroute is a terrible idea. Once the Urban Loop is complete, none of the US routes should come inside the loop. Isn't that the whole point of a freeway bypass? The US highway designation is not necessary for local traffic - any local already knows where Wendover is and how to get downtown. Through traffic, and especially truck traffic, should be routed around town, not through it.

The Triad's road system in quite robust at this point. Rather than chasing diminishing returns through endless widenings and bypasses, our communities need to change their development patterns and invest in alternate modes of transportation to leverage the existing network. The pattern of low-density development on the urban fringe is a losing game. The sooner we turn away from that paradigm, the better off our communities will be.