State and local transportation planners will host a community meeting Thursday evening, July 16, to air their ideas for speeding up traffic on a clogged hunk of U.S. 64 between Cary and Pittsboro.
The event takes place at Green Hope High School, 2500 Carpenter Upchurch Road, Cary, starting with a formal presentation at 6:30 p.m. and ending at 9 p.m.
Read up on DOT ideas at www.ncdot.gov/~us64study/. Click "transportation solutions" and then "short-term improvements" to see what they have in mind. A group of Cary and Apex residents who have qualms about DOT plans have their own website at www.save64.org.
And let me know if you're interested in this. Are you a U.S. 64 commuter? How's the drive? Please e-mail me or call me at 919-829-4527. Don't forget to include your daytime contact info so I can reach you Monday.
State DOT planners propose to turn U.S. 64 into a "Superstreet," installing new-fangled traffic loops at intersections that have traffic signals now. The idea is similar (with differences) to the Chapel Hill superstreet that has virtually eliminated traffic backups on U.S. 15-501 at its intersection with Europa Drive / Old Erwin Road.
Here's how it would work: Travel would not change for drivers on U.S. 64. But it would be different for drivers entering U.S. 64 from side streets such as Laura Duncan and Lake Pine roads. They would no longer be able to drive across or turn left onto U.S. 64. Instead, to do that, they would have to turn right on U.S. 64 and then make a U-turn across the median, protected by an additional traffic light.
Through traffic on U.S. 64 now gets only about 35 percent of the green-light time at every intersection. That's right: most of the traffic at the intersection gets green lights only one-third of the time. That's why rush hour is getting to be such a pain on this road.
The rest of the time, U.S. 64 commuters see red while the green-light cycle shifts through (1) left-turn off U.S. 64 to (2) straight-through from side roads to (3) left-turn off side roads, and finally (4) back to through traffic on U.S. 64. This whole cycle takes nearly 3 minutes.
By eliminating green-light time for side-street drivers who want to go straight or turn left, the new layout would roughly double the green-light time for through traffic on U.S. 64, and cut the entire traffic signal cycle time in half.
That means side street drivers would wait half as long for the light to turn green, and then they would have a little extra driving to do -- turn right, make a U-turn and come back -- if they wanted to drive across or turn left onto U.S. 64.
DOT explains Superstreets here.
Traffic engineers say the changes are needed to ease rush-hour congestion and keep U.S. 64 from turning into a nightmare like Capital Boulevard in northern Wake County. In the future, maybe around 2035, DOT says it probably will be necessary to turn this part of U.S. 64 into a freeway -- converting side streets to overpasses and interchanges.
What do you think? Let me hear from you now, and let DOT hear from you Thursday.
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the
Comments
signalized superstreet
Sun, 07/12/2009 - 20:44 — workon64Bruce, it's my understanding that the U-turns on the DOT's proposed superstreet will be signalized (see DOT website for full superstreet rendering). That means that your side-street drivers who need to proceed "left" from any side street onto US64 will wait at one light (where they must turn right from the side street onto the superstreet), weave over into the left turn lane as they proceed down to the next U-turn, and wait at a second light in order to make the U-turn and proceed in the direction that they needed to go in the first place. Guess the side-street drivers have more time to spare than the through-drivers, huh?
At any rate, doing the signal math on that section of US64 is missing the point. While the DOT has a count of the current traffic on this section of road and has projections on what it might grow to be by 2035, it seems to have no idea of the origination or the destination of the traffic (i.e., the distribution of through traffic vs. local traffic).
This understanding is critical to the topic because we taxpayers are getting ready to fund around a billion dollars - that's right, a billion - for the construction of the next section of NC540, the Triangle Expressway Tollroad. If the majority of the traffic congestion on this section of US64 is through traffic from east of Raleigh or south of Raleigh to RTP or west to Asheboro, then why not wait until NC540 is in place to see what happens to the congestion? (Or, just go with me here...with the coming of the new Veridea development in Apex...what if we all dared to dream LOL and we actually obtained light rail? What would that do to the traffic flow in this area? Would we still need an expensive superstreet in Apex/Cary?)
Seriously, though...we all know that the Holly Springs, Fuquay Varina, southern Apex and eastern Chatham County areas will continue to grow, but isn't that what the Triangle Expressway is intended to address? Seems better to spend the billion that is already committed and then see how that works rather than commit to spending some more and disrupting this area of Apex and Cary.
Poor Capital Boulevard, then...that road has been awful for years, and no easy solution like a bypass exists for them out there. But we've got a ready option at our doorstep here in Apex and Cary. The US 64 Bypass presents an equally viable solution to the US64 congestion, and it deserves serious consideration.
Superstreets
Sat, 07/11/2009 - 08:41 — bendalIt's a good idea and well suited for the congested, slow moving area of US 64 running through Cary and Apex. Developers have turned nearly every intersection along that route into strip mall city, and getting from US 1 to NC 751 in the morning now is an exercise in slow moving traffic due to all the traffic signals.
Superstreets are safer, eliminate the need for long signal cycles, and do not slow down the traffic. Cross traffic has to travel only a little out of their way but it is a lot safer for them with a superstreet.