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Generally speaking I am happy with what they are proposing. At least one flyover, possibly two, at the 440/Wade interchange. Possibly a flyover at I-40/I-440/US1/US64 as well, with the caveat that this can may get kicked further down the road to a different project.
My biggest qualms are with the diverging diamond design proposed at Western Blvd, which is pretty terrible from a bike / pedestrian standpoint. Hopefully they can come up with something better there.
They are soo very late on this project it is perhaps the worst singular area in Wake County traffic wise. Especially with the NC State traffic, fair traffic and arena traffic every year. Long over due. That if you ask me should have been started before the Fortify Project even on the east side of the Beltline it's horrendous in the mornings and evenings. Thanks for posting.
It is bad through there and I am glad they are going to finally fix it, but if you watch the video, you will also see that many of the problems are due to inattentive, bad drivers and the guy making the video contributes to them by slowing down unexpectedly to "let" a car merge, not signaling repeatedly for lane changes and looking away from the road ahead for several seconds (I assume he had a head mounted camera as holding a camera to do this would be a hundred times worse). I guess it has gotten to the point where we have to design roads for idiots, but still.
I also think it is funny that one of the Wade options basically removes the things they did a few years back to exit onto Wade at the light and puts the clover ramp back!
I also think it is funny that one of the Wade options basically removes the things they did a few years back to exit onto Wade at the light and puts the clover ramp back!
That was more than a few years ago, by my definition anyway. I moved here about 15 years ago and it was already like that.
The reason they got rid of the cloverleaf in the first place was certainly the short weave distance; the flyover would make the weave a non-issue. Cloverleafs by themselves aren't really a bad thing.
Not sure how I feel about the Wade Avenue and the Western Blvd options. I have not yet 'experienced' a diverging diamond interchange. And as far as Wade is concerned, eliminating a traffic signal all together seems more desirable.
I'm glad, thanks for posting. The changes will definitely be good, but LONG overdue. But if you think about it, Sherifftruman is correct. I don't necessarily have problems going that route even though the interchanges in that segment are very outdated. But the drivers are going way too fast for the speed and are not planning ahead or "looking 10 seconds ahead."
Eventually, all of us are going to have to learn how to drive safely and responsibly in high-traffic areas. I travel eastbound on I-540 every morning at around 8am, and there is usually a serious wreck or fender-bender on I-540 WESTBOUND, from all the traffic going to RTP. It's almost like a every other day occurence. The last 2 weeks have been bad.
My biggest qualms are with the diverging diamond design proposed at Western Blvd, which is pretty terrible from a bike / pedestrian standpoint. Hopefully they can come up with something better there.
Is it worse than a regular interchange from a bike/ped standpoint?
They're talking about putting a DD interchange at the 40/42 interchange in Garner, too. It seems like a decent design from an automotive point of view but the locals are afraid that it will be too complicated for the drunks around here to figure out.
Diverging Diamonds are great for spots with little pedestrian traffic. They are planning one at Airport/I-40 or Aviation/I-40 (forget which one) which is a perfect spot. However, I question this one at Western Blvd and the one planned at Wake Forest Rd/I-440 where there is at least a measurable amount. The problem is that pedestrians have to walk across multiple high-speed slip ramps.
I guess they figured Western is already a terrible place for pedestrians as it is currently? In the video they show the guy having to stop on Western for a pedestrian.
Maybe if they do it right they can put in a couple of bridges or culverts to help.
Agreed that the current Western Blvd interchange is far from ideal for pedestrians. IMO they have an opportunity here to make it better and the DD design does not. I would guess that the chances that we will see some pedestrian culverts or bridges is pretty much nil.
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