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The new interchange design is good because it alleviates the major sources of congestion during rush hour. I think it is premature to say the design is 'woeful' given it has not been completed yet. I think the traffic flow is going to be much better. The current design was built long before Woodruff Road became a major shopping destination so I don't understand the point of beating up on it. Every metro has had to reconfigure roads due to growth and new traffic patterns.
given there isn't much housing near the Woodruff Road and Haywood road shopping areas, i'm not sure who would use new sidewalks in those areas. There is a sidewalk on Haywood from the mall to the hotel area across the interstate. i used that once, and I don't recommend it especially during busy times.
walking along busy roads like that is one of the most unsafe things a person can do even if a person is on a sidewalk. i think adding sidewalks along busy roads is not a great idea. If a vehicle hits a pedestrian or bicyclist, chances of surival are not good.
I drive all over the metro and I can't think of any potholes that I swerve to miss. the main surface condition issues were around the 385-85 interchange and some of it has been paved and the rest is up soon. If you do see a pothole that is a safety issue, there is probably a DOT number you can call to let them know.
I have to agree with AginGreer on pretty much everything that was posted. I lived for a short while in North Carolina after living in Southern California for three years, before moving to Phoenix. I was shocked by how poor the roads there were (this was in the Raleigh-Durham area), but am even more shocked at how poor the roads here are. I feel that most solutions applied or proposed are sort of like patch-work, rather than visionary. Rather than designing for today's need, cities should design for the future.
I can't believe the way the 85/385 interchange has been, and that it is just now that there're redoing it. But the whole issue on shoulders and sidewalks is what bothers me the most. I'd love to be able to walk from Trader Joe's to Target, so that I don't have to start my car again, when the other store is right there. But, no, I have to drive. The places where there are sidewalks, I'd be terrified to use them. Why? Because there are no shoulders. Some clearance between the last lane and the sidewalk would surely make it feel (and also be) safer. On top of that, a lot of streets don't have good streetlights, making it feel even more unsafe to walk wherever there are sidewalks. Since moving here, I've come to like many things - the great downtown, some great parks, the convenience of Woodruff Rd (minus the traffic) etc., but I can't bring myself to not think how poor the roads are.
PS: One of the most frustrating signs of the lack of attention to roads that I see daily is that the sign for Exit 40 going south on 85 has been knocked off and damaged since October, but no one has bothered to fix it. It has had a few orange cones around it for two months now.
Last edited by Soapsud; 12-20-2016 at 11:01 PM..
Reason: PS:
One of the most frustrating signs of the lack of attention to roads that I see daily is that the sign for Exit 40 going south on 85 has been knocked off and damaged since October, but no one has bothered to fix it. It has had a few orange cones around it for two months now.
Haha I know what youre talking about. First thing I said to myself when I saw it was "wow...somebody really took out Easley." That automatically pops in my head every time I see it.
One of the most frustrating signs of the lack of attention to roads that I see daily is that the sign for Exit 40 going south on 85 has been knocked off and damaged since October, but no one has bothered to fix it. It has had a few orange cones around it for two months now.
LOL - this is "par for the course" in SC - there are smashed, bent, broken highway signs everywhere - SCDOT does not care - also, please notice the smashed, bent, broken, missing, etc green pylons above the concrete median near the 85/385 interchange - these have not been repaired since I moved to SC in 2008
Greenville is hosting rounds 1 and 2 of the NCAA men's basketball tournament next March - I'm embarrassed at the current state of our road system (esp I85) - SCDOT needs to (at the very least) pick up the trash that litters the highway shoulders
I have to agree with AginGreer on pretty much everything that was posted. I lived for a short while in North Carolina after living in Southern California for three years, before moving to Phoenix. I was shocked by how poor the roads there were (this was in the Raleigh-Durham area), but am even more shocked at how poor the roads here are. I feel that most solutions applied or proposed are sort of like patch-work, rather than visionary. Rather than designing for today's need, cities should design for the future.
I can't believe the way the 85/385 interchange has been, and that it is just now that there're redoing it. But the whole issue on shoulders and sidewalks is what bothers me the most. I'd love to be able to walk from Trader Joe's to Target, so that I don't have to start my car again, when the other store is right there. But, no, I have to drive. The places where there are sidewalks, I'd be terrified to use them. Why? Because there are no shoulders. Some clearance between the last lane and the sidewalk would surely make it feel (and also be) safer. On top of that, a lot of streets don't have good streetlights, making it feel even more unsafe to walk wherever there are sidewalks. Since moving here, I've come to like many things - the great downtown, some great parks, the convenience of Woodruff Rd (minus the traffic) etc., but I can't bring myself to not think how poor the roads are.
PS: One of the most frustrating signs of the lack of attention to roads that I see daily is that the sign for Exit 40 going south on 85 has been knocked off and damaged since October, but no one has bothered to fix it. It has had a few orange cones around it for two months now.
The Target parking lot and the Trader Joe's parking lot are adjacent to each other. All you have to do is cross a non-busy road, Woodruff Industrial Lane. I'm not sure why a sidewalk would be needed.
there is a sidewalk on Woodruff in front of the Trade Joe's and there is some grass between it and the curb. But a person walking between Target and Trader Joe's does not need to walk out to Woodruff road.
It is easy to say design for the future but the flyover bridges that are being added are expensive. The clover leaf design is much less expensive. It is possible at the time the interchange was built, flyovers were not being used anywhere.
The 85-385 project is the 2nd most expensive infrastructure project in SC"s history, which the most expensive being the Ravenel bridge across Charleston harbor.
one of the biggest flaws of the old design is allowing people driving on 385 N and S to access Woodruff Road (close to Trader Joes) via 85 South. the new design only allows people on 385 to access Woodruff by getting off at Roper Mountain or the Woodruff Road exit near Sam's Club. This will greatly reduce congestion on the interchange but there are people in Greenville who don't like this aspect of the new design. So you say design for the future but even in the present, people have different opinions about the best design. Back then, they could not have had any idea of how busy Woodruff Road would become. It was a rural road.
in my view, walking on sidewalks next to busy streets is never safe regardless of how far sidewalk is off street. You are taking a risk when you do it.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 12-21-2016 at 12:34 PM..
I also have to agree the potholes are bad. They are on the edge of the road and can be very dangerous if you hit one. They pop out of nowhere so there are new ones all the time. I definitely agree the signs can be updated/cleaned up as well. As I mentioned before, it could look much nicer here with some streetscaping. There are some areas that have trees and plants in the median the look nice. Some of the areas are on S Pleasantburg and Pelham Rd. This is a good example. Downtown looks great and I'd like to see it branch out to the neighboring towns. The lack of street lights is another issue.
I moved here from FL and I don't think the humidity is near as bad nor the mosquitos. We do have our fair share of bugs but during the winter, they die off.
i'm surprised that people move here if the roads are in such bad shape in their view, and they think there is too much congestion, and sidewalks are a big quality of life thing for them. Do they not notice these things during their visits prior to moving? If a person was living in a place with perfect roads and streetscaping and numerous sidewalks, then the lack of these things as they see it would stand out on a trip to Greenville.
If I was big into sidewalks, i wouldn't be moving to a country suburb like Five Forks.
I'm surprised that a person who said the roads in Raleigh are terrible would relocate from Arizona to live in or near Anderson. I've always heard Raleigh is the most progressive city in the Carolinas. I can't imagine a person who criticized roads in Raleigh liking Anderson at all.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 12-21-2016 at 01:28 PM..
The disadvantages - terrible roads (Planning & maintenance). low selection of quality shopping. The biggest disadvantage is the small number of quality high paying jobs. There are a lot of manufacturing jobs but outside of that, there is not a lot of depth in the market. I spent a lot of time trying to find a job making $80k annually.
Pretty much this. The Upstate has focused more on evolving our textile past rather than diversifying the entire field.
Charlotte hasn't always been a banking hub, and while Atlanta has always been big in trade and transportation, they managed to diversify and now have more Fortune 500's than even Los Angeles.
The Upstate, and partly the state in general, has been much slower in this regard, and the wages and job sector reflect it.
The roads have some wacky designs as well, though I feel the shopping is actually in a good place. Greenville has a lot of stores and retail that cant be found anywhere else in the state, or gets them first.
it is not true Greenville is just manufacturing jobs and doesn't have a diverse job market. that is one of the most misleading assertions that I see posted on here constantly. Most cities don't have all the banking jobs that Charlotte has.
There are ton of healthcare jobs, education jobs, business jobs, etc The metro is a major design engineering hub in the country. Greenville has Fortune 500 companies, GE, Fluor, etc.
Also should point out that metroes with higher average pay than Greenville generally have much higher cost of living.
I think criticizing a person in a contentious way but not directing the comment at them specifically is passive aggressive. and hilarious.
Disagreeing with somebody on something is not by definiition defensive. Your premise is that if anybody disagrees with you and people who holdl your negative view on anything, they are defensive. I'm expressing my sincere opinions and perception.
I would love for people on here to give me specific locations of potholes in the roads. If you provide me with exact locations of potholes, I think that I can get them fixed fairly quickly. I agree there are some roads that could used a paving, which is the case in every metro, but i'm not seeing all these potholes.
I been driving all over the metro for past 20 years and I'm not hitting potholes. I think many of the posts on here are misleading. You would think reading these posts that people are hitting like 10 potholes on the way to the mall or something.
For example, one person was talking about how he can't walk from Target to Trader Joes when in fact it is quite easy to do because they basically share the same parking lot, and a sidewalk is not even necessary. Was pointing this out 'defensive? I don't think so. I don't think being accurate is defensive. I think that was reaching for a disadvantage of Greenville regardless because how often is a Target and Trader Joes within a reasonable walking distance of each other. Trader Joes probably does not generally locate in big box store areas like Woodruff.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 12-21-2016 at 03:23 PM..
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