US-15/501 corridor (Durham, Chapel Hill: chapel, light rail, activity)

[LM117]

The DCHC MPO and NCDOT is holding a public meeting in Durham on June 26 to discuss the “Reimagining 15/501” corridor study.

https://apps.ncdot.gov/newsreleases/...s.aspx?r=15354

[ozmoe571]

It needs "reimagining" big time. Like comedian Lewis Black likes to joke, when he attended UNC in the late 1960s, 15-501 was a crowded four-lane highway between Chapel Hill and Durham, and 50 years later, it's still a crowded four-lane highway between Chapel Hill and Durham (yes, I know it's three lanes each direction in parts, but still ...). The ideas of making all parts north of I-40 into interchanges works for me, as it does making them south of I-40 into Chapel Hill for that matter. Light rail and improved pedestrian access would be a boon too--I've had to cross 15-501 on foot at one of those interchanges with stoplights, and it's a risky activity. And I know it's not part of the work on 15-501 too, but the NCDOT needs to speed up widening I-40 to three lanes each between 15-501 (Exit 270) and NC 86 (Exit 266). Right now it's a mess of cars crowding into two lanes while going up a steep hill every Friday, and it impedes traffic on 15-501 as a result of people trying to get off and avoid the mess.

[919 rtp]

I agree about adding more lanes to I-40W at 15-501. Or at least not have the merge from 3 to 2 lanes at a highway entrance. I don't know why that traffic back up doesn't make the traffic reports.