View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

The state Department of Transportation says it will continue for the next several years an unusual traffic lane change put in place last September as an experiment on westbound Interstate 40 at the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass:

To make the morning rush hour run more smoothly, DOT closed one of three lanes on I-40 and one of two lanes on U.S. 70 as it merges with I-40. The lane slimming was called temporary in September, but DOT will install lane markings to make it semi-permanent on Wednesday.  Traffic studies indicate that the morning drive runs a bit smoother and faster with two lanes than it did with three lanes. ... [MORE]

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

In September, NCDOT tried an unusual approach to ameliorate a problem created when it opened the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass: to help rush hour traffic move more smoothly on westbound Interstate 40, engineers reduced the road from three lanes to two lanes.

The idea was to eliminate the delays around a bottleneck that often formed when the three-lane stretch (about 2 miles long) ended and drivers in the two outer lanes were forced to merge into one lane.

So how's it working? Has this counterintuitive change improved your morning commute? Is it better to keep I-40 two lanes wide than to add a third lane temporarily?

Please let me hear from you, by phone (919-829-4527) or email. Be sure to include your name and your daytime phone number.  Thanks.

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

Three lanes bad, two lanes better? 

NCDOT says its traffic engineers will launch an experiment, starting Sunday, to see if they can make westbound I-40 run more smoothly at rush hour by slimming it from three lanes to two lanes near the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass. What do you think? [9/14 update: see today's story.]

Westbound I-40 swells from two to three lanes as it approaches the U.S. 70 interchange (Exit 309) in southeastern Wake County. During the morning rush, lots of drivers move into that new outside lane and speed ahead.  But this third lane disappears after about two miles, causing a regular rush-hour bottleneck when drivers struggle to merge back into the original two lanes.

So the question to be tested is: Would the morning traffic flow more smoothly without that temporary third lane? ... [MORE]