DOT may restore second exit lane from I-540 at I-40

The state Department of Transportation took notice last week when 540 Outer Loop commuters complained bitterly about backups and bad tempers in the reduced number of exit lanes for Interstate 40.

So the DOT is rethinking its exit strategy.

Research Triangle Park commuters did not flock to use the new six-lane N.C. 540, extending the I-540 loop for 4.5 miles south from I-40. Lots of drivers didn't seem to notice the new ways to get to work -- the N.C. 540 exits at N.C. 54, Davis Drive and N.C. 55.

Instead, as they poured south each morning on the old I-540, they kept trying to cram themselves into the overstuffed off-ramp for I-40 West.

And they continued playing a nasty game of chicken that has become familiar on the I-540 approach to I-40: Wildly aggressive drivers cut in front of others who sometimes would rather crash than yield.

DOT engineers thought they had made a bad situation better by opening N.C. 540. And surely, when more drivers start using N.C. 540, things will get better.

But they foolishly chose that moment to make another change, which turned out to make everything worse instead.

The second exit lane had actually been a converted highway shoulder. DOT folks decided I-540 needed the safety cushion of a shoulder more than it needed that second lane. So, like Cinderella's coach at midnight, the exit lane was restored to its original form.

Now there's a shoulder again. And there's one lane instead of two for the thousands of I-40 cars. Now the minority of drivers who plan to take I-40 East have to wait behind, instead of alongside, folks heading for I-40 West.

"This is a dangerous traffic situation NCDOT created as a result of yet more faulty thinking that is typical for that organization!" commuter Don Camburn of North Raleigh said by e-mail.

"It is incredible that nearly every exit off I-540 has two exit lanes. ... The I-540 east exit off of I-40 east has two exit lanes. What brain dead designer at NCDOT did not realize that there was a need to provide two exit lanes off I-540 west onto I-40!"

DOT engineers got plenty of calls and e-mail messages from unhappy commuters. So they agreed to consider undoing the damage.

Wally Bowman, who oversees DOT work in Wake, Durham and five other counties, said design engineers will "look at the feasibility of getting that second lane back in there."

Traffic engineers are also checking the N.C. 540 exits to ease the new traffic flow, Bowman said. After Cisco Systems workers reported long delays at Davis Drive, Bowman said traffic signals were being adjusted at the Davis intersection with Kit Creek Road.

Even if that second I-540 lane is restored, the I-40 exit problems will not disappear.

As Camburn and other commuters recognize every weekday morning, that interchange and the nearby I-40 interchange with Page Road are grossly overloaded. And there's something about this lousy design that inspires the worst, the nastiest, the most aggressive behavior by commuters anywhere in the Triangle.

Take the N.C. train

While the N.C. Railroad looks to get more freight traffic off our crowded highways and onto its tracks, the state-owned railroad is also thinking about new commuter trains that could serve the Triangle and the Triad.

NCRR's 317-mile tracks carry more than 70 Norfolk Southern freights and eight Amtrak passenger trains every day. Scott Saylor, the railroad president, has asked a consultant to study the feasibility and costs of adding commuter train service.

The idea would involve about four scheduled runs in the morning and four in the evening, Saylor said, similar to the Virginia Railway Express, which takes workers to Washington, D.C., each morning from as far as 60 miles away.

That's different from light rail or other frequent, daylong service such as the Triangle Transit Authority's proposed 28-mile line between Durham and Raleigh. Such busy passenger traffic would be too much to share the same rails -- a single track in most parts of the state -- with freight trains.

The NCRR study will look at the possibility of trains serving Triad workers who live between Clemmons and Burlington, and Triangle workers who live between Burlington and Goldsboro. The results are expected in the first quarter of 2008.

"If the community decides it wants this type of commuter rail, we will have most of the answers about what it would cost," Saylor said Friday.