Pretty soon you'll have to pay to park on the street in downtown Raleigh. You'll want to get in the habit of carrying change in your pocket, or Visa or MasterCard in your wallet.
That's because the parking pay stations being installed by the city this fall won't take dollar bills. And they won't take American Express.
Maybe you've noticed new white corner stripes marking off separate spaces along blocks and blocks of downtown streets, where parking now is free. The spaces will be numbered, and you'll have to know your number before you head to one of the stations -- two or three of them on each block -- to buy your time.
The 170 pay stations will be installed in late October and November and will be collecting your money by December.
Parking time limits posted on downtown streets won't change. You'll still be allowed to leave your car for only 15 or 30 minutes in some spots, or up to 2 hours in others.
Only now -- did I mention this? -- you'll have to pay for those minutes.
The rates are $1 an hour, with a minimum 25 cents for 15 minutes. You'll be able to buy more time in any coin increments except pennies: 5 cents for 3 minutes, 10 cents for 6 minutes.
Not everyone will pay. People with handicapped parking placards in their cars will continue to enjoy free on-street parking in downtown Raleigh.
And if you're one of those slimy slugs who break the law by hanging other people's handicapped placards in your car -- even though you're perfectly healthy -- so you can park all day for free, you'll still be able to get away with this crime in downtown Raleigh.
State law says handicapped parkers can't be ticketed for exceeding the posted time limit. Raleigh interprets this to mean they can't be ticketed for failing to feed the parking meter, either.
And don't worry, cheaters: Raleigh police do not check to see whether the handicapped person to whom the placard was issued is driving or riding in the car, as the law requires.
Watch for more details about the new parking pay stations in coming weeks.
Chapel Hill signals
Chapel Hill and Carrboro drivers will see more green lights and fewer brake lights after the state Department of Transportation finishes upgrading the local computerized traffic signal system in 2012.
DOT is about to start a $4.9 million project to put new control boxes at each intersection, replace copper with fiber-optic cables and put cameras at 12 corners.
Some pedestrian signals will be upgraded. New bicycle sensors at 40 intersections will make it easier for cyclists to get green lights.
Signal timing will automatically adapt to changes in traffic flow. Engineers will be able to adjust for heavy traffic before and after special events.
"It will reduce the delay time and the number of delays and the number of stops for drivers," said Kumar Neppalli, Chapel Hill traffic engineer. "So it will reduce gas consumption and air pollution."
It's fixed
DOT responded quickly two weeks ago when the Road Worrier described a problem for drivers turning left from Interstate 40 onto a 10-lane-wide stretch of U.S. 15-501 in Durham. A curving white-stripe line was supposed to help them find their way, but the paint had vanished after years of traffic and neglect.
The day that column was published, a DOT crew freshened the paint at the interchange. DOT made the same fix at another spot where left-turn drivers were flying blind, the 540 Outer Loop interchange with Creedmoor Road in Wake County.
