At least that's the image G. Wesley Williams is left with every time he navigates the pits and cracks of the busy artery's stretch between Five Points and the Carolina Country Club. Those aren't cobblestones or rumble strips disrupting the rides of Williams and thousands of other drivers every day who feel every jolt and every bump on the state-maintained road.

The Road Worrier's research department has yet to confirm the existence of any national or regional transportation organizations that factor a roadway's similarities with a rickety carnival ride into its annual engineering prizes.

But those familiar with the bumps and patchwork repairs on Glenwood Avenue up through Crabtree Valley Mall think they have a winner.

"It doesn't help to keep your car in proper alignment, or the wear and tear on your tires. Beyond that, it's just getting noisier and rougher," said Williams, 87, the retired executive director of the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association. "It reminds me of the 'Rocky Road to Dublin' ride at the State Fair years ago."

Frank Koontz, 62, a retired Wake County school administrator who lives in the Budleigh neighborhood off Glenwood Avenue, said the bumps begin near St. Mary's Street and keep piling on as you head north.

"That area right there is unreal. It's 'Bump City' all the way to Five Points," Koontz said.

The Road Worrier considered testing Koontz's nickname by navigating that stretch of Glenwood Avenue with a hot cup of coffee in the not-so-luxurious cabin of his Honda Civic. But then the Road Worrier remembered that he has a distinctly low threshold for physical pain, so instead he settled for an 8-ounce cup of lukewarm water.

Driving back toward downtown, Glenwood's cracked pavement just north of Five Points twice jostled the cup enough to splash water all over the driver's right arm, so "Bump City" it is.

That's a slogan Glenwood Avenue drivers may have to live with a bit longer since the state Department of Transportation has no plans to resurface it this year.

Jason Holmes, a Wake County maintenance engineer for the DOT, said a pavement management team is studying the problem and is expected to recommend a fix sometime this year.

Part of Glenwood Avenue consists of asphalt pavement on top of concrete slabs, and the worst bumps occur where the underlying concrete buckles at the joints between slabs, Holmes said.

"When the concrete buckles, it shoves upward and causes the asphalt to pop up," Holmes said. "That's where you get those bumps. We've had to go in and cut them out in the past, and patch them with asphalt."

U.S. 64 STUDY: The state Department of Transportation will hold two public workshops next week in Wake and Chatham counties on the 19-mile stretch of U.S. 64 between Cary and Pittsboro.

The corridor's study group is examining ways to improve traffic flow along this increasingly congested stretch, and aims to convert it into a freeway and expressway.

The first public hearing will be Monday at Apex High School, with a second one set for May 20 at Northwood High School in Pittsboro. Both three-hour meetings are scheduled to start at 5 p.m.

For more information, go online to www.ncdot.org/doh/PRECONSTRUCT/tpb/SHC/studies/US64/Overview/.