The merger with US Airways announced today will make American Airlines the top carrier at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. According to current schedules and last year’s passenger counts, American and US Air have 32 percent of the RDU market, with 62 daily nonstop flights to 10 airports.

Delta will be RDU’s number-two carrier with a 27 percent share, followed by Southwest/AirTran at 24 percent, RDU says.

If airline executives focus their changes on eliminating duplicate American and US Air service, RDU travelers won’t notice much difference. The two carriers’ commuter partners, American Eagle and US Air Express, both offer flights from RDU to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Otherwise, there’s no overlap in service at RDU. ... [MORE]

The city of Raleigh says it will team up with Zipcar to make two cars available for city residents to rent by the hour or by the day.

Residents can join the car-sharing service for a $25 application fee plus $50 a year. The cars can be reserved at rates as low as $7.50 per hour or $69 per day. The service is available for drivers 21 and older, and for students at N.C. State University and Meredith College.

A Ford Focus and a Toyota Prius will be available, to be located on Glenwood Avenue at Lane Street.

"This will be an important asset for our transit, bicycle and pedestrian commuters," David Eatman, the city transit administrator, said in a news release. "If someone needs to run an errand or attend an appointment, these vehicles are invaluable. They will also be a huge asset for our growing residential community in downtown Raleigh."

Starting later this year, North Carolinians will stop paying property taxes to their local county tax collectors -- and start paying the county taxes directly to the state Division of Motor Vehicles, instead. DMV will collect the tax when it collects car registration renewal fees, and send the tax money back to the county.

I'm writing about this today, and I'd like to hear from car owners. What do you think about this change? Please email me at bruce.siceloff@newsobserver.com, and don't forget your name and daytime contact info. (2/12/13 update: See today's Road Worrier with reader comments.)

The General Assembly made the change in 2005 in hope of increasing revenues and reducing costs for county tax collectors. Some counties say they spend a lot of money trying to collect vehicle taxes, but many drivers just don't pay up.

It means drivers will write a single check to NCDMV for the combined registration fee and tax bill.

View Speed limits in a larger map

Drivers in northern Wake County will see a slight increase in the speed limit later this month on the 540 Outer Loop.

The state Department of Transportation says it will post new signs bumping the legal limit up to 70mph, from the current 65mph, on a 21-mile stretch of the loop from U.S. 70 near Brier Creek to the U.S. 64 / 264 interchange near Knightdale.

DOT engineers concluded the faster speeds were justified after checking current speeds, crash data and road conditions on the 540 loop.

The Regional Transportation Alliance, a non-profit business group that lobbies for road and transit improvements, had asked DOT to allow the higher speed on 540 and other Triangle-area freeways. DOT said yes last year to faster speeds on Wade Avenue Extension in West Raleigh (60mph) and on from Apex through Sanford (70mph).

Saddle up, cyclists. Raleigh plans this spring to install its first on-street parking corral for bikes.

It will replace an automobile parking space on the south side of East Hargett Street, just west of South Wilmington Street, near the Raleigh Times bar and restaurant.

A corral is a big bike rack. This one will have room for 10 to 12 bicycles, said Eric Lamb, the city's transportation planning director. It's being donated by Saris Cycling Group, a Wisconsin bike-rack maker.

Raleigh has regular bike racks, enough to provide free parking for about 100 bicycles, installed on sidewalks around the downtown. Sometimes these bikes compete for space with pedestrians on busy sidewalks. A sidewalk rack nearby will be removed when the on-street corral is installed on Hargett, Lamb said.

“If it gets good use and we don’t have any problems with maintenance or damage, maybe we can expand this to other locations” downtown or along Hillsborough Street, Lamb said. When this parking space is taken out of circulation for cars, the city will add two new metered parking spaces in a little-used commercial loading zone nearby.

Lamb said he knew of only one other on-street bike corral in the state -- in Wilmington.

Jim Trogdon, the 2-star general who serves as number-2 guy at the state Department of Transportation, says he'll move quickly to improve customer service at the N.C. Turnpike Authority.

(2/7/13 update: Tata apologizes for 'completely avoidable' billing errors, and promises fix.)

Trogdon responded to Tuesday's Road Worrier column about 800 drivers who were double-billed, because they used both N.C. Quick Pass and E-ZPass transponders, for their trips on the Triangle Expressway. A turnpike official blamed the drivers, saying they should have known not to use two transponders.

"We’ll get that fixed," Trogdon, DOT's chief operating officer, said Tuesday in a 7:40 a.m. phone message.

"I think there’s some pretty basic things we should have done here. And we’ll make sure we get ‘em done. Because the customer expectation voiced I think by the customer service center is way too high -- and it’s not a burden our customers should be shouldering without plenty of assistance.

"So I’ll speak with the secretary this morning and see if we can’t do something fairly quick to address the shortcoming in our performance."

There are lots of ways to measure traffic problems. By one national measure, the Triangle area doesn't have much of a problem.

The Texas Transportation Institute's annual Urban Mobility Report finds that the average driver in the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area, population 1.14 million, wastes 23 hours in traffic jams and delays each year. That may sound bad. But, compared to the situation in other cities, it's good.

In fact, this number gives the Raleigh-Durham the least rush-hour congestion of all the 47 metro areas that have at least 1 million residents. Less congestion than lots of smaller cities, too -- including Greensboro, Knoxville, Columbia and Charleston (SC), Baton Rouge, Oklahoma City, Richmond and Albany. While Raleigh-Durham ranks 40th in population, it ranks 83rd in rush-hour delays.

Who's worst? Washington, D.C., where the average driver loses 67 hours in traffic jams every year. Charlotte comes in at 25th worst, with 40 hours of delays.

Documents:

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory named 10 men to the state Board of Transportation on Monday, including several developers and a former state Republican Party chairman.

4/3/13 update: This list has been updated, below, with additional biographical information. Some of the campaign finance info here is now outdated. The newest campaign contribution totals are reflected in this 4/3/13 blog post.

Most of the new appointees are Republicans. All of them except Michael C. Smith of Raleigh contributed to McCrory's 2012 campaign -- a total of $32,544 from nine of the appointees and, in a few cases, their wives. (4/3/13 update: See new info for Smith.)

State law requires the Republican governor to have a board that includes at least three Democrats. State election records show that new appointee Dwight D. Stone of Greensboro is a Democrat.

3/13/03 update: These numbers are changed by the withdrawal of Dwight Stone and his replacement by Cheryl McQueary, a Republican, in Division 7.

So let's make this list: nine men, one woman, none of them Democrats. ... [MORE]

Hundreds of N.C. Quick Pass transponder users will receive letters notifying them that they may have been double-billed for tolls on the Triangle Expressway, because they also had E-ZPass transponders in their cars.

(See 2/5/13 Road Worrier with reader comments: NCDOT can blame its customers or learn from them. Also see 1/30/13 story with reader comments: N.C. Turnpike Authority double-bills hundreds of TriEx drivers.)

The N.C. Turnpike Authority drafted the letters (see copy attached, below), to be distributed with customer statements, after acknowledging that 800 drivers had paid tolls twice for the same trips in January – through their N.C. Quick Pass debit accounts, and through their accounts with toll road agencies in 14 northern and midwestern states that use E-ZPass transponders. ... [MORE]

Have you had problems with toll charges from the N.C. Turnpike Authority for your trips on the Triangle Expressway? If so, I'd like to hear from you.

(1/30/13 update: N.C. Turnpike Authority double-bills hundreds of TriEx drivers.)

Drivers now pay tolls three different ways: by mail, or through debit accounts attached to N.C. Quick Pass or E-ZPass transponders. Some TriEx drivers have reported confusion about which way their tolls are collected.

Please email me about your billing problems, including duplicate charges for the same trip. Don't forget to include your name and daytime phone number.