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I don't have a problem around Southpoint, except for getting out of there.
I find it hard to believe that someone from the Northeast has never seen two turn lanes before.
I am wracking my brain to think of some...there are lots of places where two lanes split off a highway or another road, but there are few places I can think of that had sharp turns for two lanes. Mind you I am not excusing what I did, only trying to explain it...and once done and realised, no more excuses!
I don't have a problem around Southpoint, except for getting out of there.
I find it hard to believe that someone from the Northeast has never seen two turn lanes before.
I moved here two years ago, and I'm in my 50's, and I can't say that I ever saw it back in western Pennsylvania.
That said, I think the design is, for the most part, brilliant and efficient - but only if the drivers in the turn lane are paying attention. The double turn lanes allow for a shorter left turn arrow (say, 12 or 15 seconds instead of 20 or 25) - as nearly twice as many cars should be getting through the intersection than with one turn lane. But the trouble is if a person somewhere in front of you is not paying full attention (reading texts, looking at msgs on their phone, or just daydreaming), and doesn't see that they have the turn light - and they delay for a few seconds or they don't keep up with the flow of cars in front of them, then everyone behind them suffers, and everyone behind them then needs to sit through another entire cycle of traffic lights. This seems to happen with ridiculous regularity here, and it's really, really frustrating.
This is especially bad when turning right onto Glenwood Ave. off the Beltline coming from the east. There's a lot of lanes making a long turn, and cars are all over the place. Drive with caution and keep your hand over the horn
If there is one intersection in the Triangle that has a batcrap/dangerous layout it's the Southpoint exit 276.....holy crap. "Lane floaters" abound there with that layout.
Yeah, that's a bizarre one. Not a huge fan of it. Even my dad, who learned to drive in Brooklyn, said that that exit/intersection scared him when he came to visit me a few months ago because it was so WTF. And it really is. I get off on 276 sometimes in the morning if 40 is going slow...going to RTP i can get there quicker sometimes going Fayetteville to Woodcroft to Cornwallis than if I stay on 40 to 147. But yea. I've never actually encountered any problems with the double turn lane. In the 15 months I;ve lived here no one has floated into my lane and I havem't floated either.
The worst one I come across on a regular basis is 440 East exit making a left onto Wake Forest Rd. Three left turn lanes feeding into three through lanes on Wake Forest, but as soon as you make that turn there are two left turn lanes for heading back onto 440 in the opposite direction. Frequently the folks in the middle lane coming off the exit don't stay in their lane and force people from the left exit lane into those turn lanes heading back onto 440.
I always try to take the right lane there so I can stay out of the fray. One of the few recent times I was in the left lane, somebody in the middle lane blasted their horn at me because I had the nerve to stay in my proper lane.
There was a conversation about this very thing not long ago, but slightly different. It was about how two cars should and are supposed to be able to make a right and left turn at the same time as long as they stay in their lane when they are on a double lane road...
The lane setup on many roads is confusing. Some have one turn lane, some 2.
Also, the directional markings showing how you should turn are many times worn off or not properly aligned.
Roads here are pure junk. No consistency.
Take a look at Wake Forest Road at the Beltline. As sfspiderman pointed out, three lanes exit the Beltline but one only allows a return to the Beltline so you must jockey right.
This is only after DOT restructured the intersection making it worse. The exit is overburdened and probably beyond repair.
Don't always blame the confused driver. blame overloading of roads and stupid attempts to fix problems that create more problems.
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