Getting around the Triangle: Know the roads and all the ways to travel on them

There are certain pains associated with how quickly the physical and demographic landscapes of the Triangle are changing.

The Raleigh-Cary region ranks third in the country for fastest-growing metro areas, according to 2020 Census data. Raleigh alone has grown by 23% in the past decade. Five of the top 15 fastest-growing towns in the state (2010 to 2020) are in the Triangle. And Johnston County grew the fastest in the state, at 28%.

The aggressive development that accompanies growth here is a blessing and a curse, depending on where you sit.

A beloved landmark getting demolished to make way for a high-rise doesn’t make anyone feel good. But providing housing for a growing population is something we need, as long as businesses and people continue to relocate here.

And many areas, particularly Raleigh and Durham, are struggling right now with the consequences of the gentrification of older neighborhoods, and with issues of affordable housing.

But the Triangle is not just growing up, it’s also growing out.

For example: A recent report in The News & Observer that focused on “Five surging sites worth watching in the Triangle,” includes a look at how building a six-lane highway through a semi-rural section of southern Wake County will accelerate growth in that area.

That new stretch of NC 540 (expected to be completed at the end of 2023), also known as the Triangle Expressway, will give South Wake residents a faster route to Research Triangle Park, Durham and other places in the Triangle.

So let’s talk about getting around the Triangle – roads, traffic, public transportation, etc. – and we promise not to try to compare any highway systems to bunny rabbit shapes.

Want to get to know Raleigh better? Enter your email address below to start receiving our Expert Guide to the Triangle directly in your inbox.

Where is the road construction? Everywhere.

As with any quickly growing area, traffic can be a problem here.

Maybe it’s all relative, though. If you’ve moved here from LA, Atlanta or DC, what you’ll find in the Triangle is easy peasy. For the rest of you, well: We find that if you just accept that it’s going to be crazy, take a few deep breaths, queue up your favorite podcast and get your head right, it’s not that bad.

But because the Triangle is so spread out, there’s a lot of commuter traffic, and sometimes it can create gridlock.

▪ The worst stretches are often on Interstate 40, either between Raleigh and RTP/Durham, or between Raleigh and Johnston County.

▪ You’ll also find plenty of company on U.S. 1/Capital Boulevard between Raleigh and Wake Forest and on U.S. 64/264/I-87 between Raleigh and eastern Wake County.

We’re sure you’ve also noticed there’s a lot of road construction going on. Where? Everywhere. This is an evergreen observation.

In fact, the orange-and-white highway barrel is an unofficial mascot of the Triangle. A local NC State student even made national headlines once for stealing a bunch of barrels to create a “barrel monster” — a work of art! — and got arrested for his trouble.

Think outside the car

If you want to ditch your car, you have a few options.

Ride your bike: If you’re fortunate enough to live reasonably close to where you work, you could probably bike.

Triangle towns have gotten more serious in recent years about trying to provide more bike lanes to make biking safer for cyclists (but there’s still a lot of work to be done). Wake and Durham counties also have a growing network of greenway trails that might get you where you want to go without sharing the route with cars.

And dare we dream of the Triangle Bikeway, a proposed 17-mile paved path along I-40 and N.C. 54 between Chapel Hill and Raleigh? It would let even more commuters bike instead of driving to work. We’re keeping our eye on that one.

Take the bus: There also is a bus system for getting around the Triangle.

GoTriangle is a separate entity from GoDurham, GoRaleigh (formerly CAT Bus) and GoCary, but you can hop between the systems. And there are commute consultants who can help you figure out which bus to take (and any necessary transfers) to simplify the process.

If you think you might ride the bus, download the TransLoc app to see the Triangle’s bus routes and track bus locations in real time.

Train options: What about light rail? Yeah, no such luck there.

We’ve been talking about a commuter rail system for decades, but it hasn’t worked out yet. A recent feasibility study indicates it would cost nearly $2 billion to build a system that would run from Garner to RTP and Durham. The closest we got to anything like this was a proposed system connecting Durham and Chapel Hill, but it was derailed (so to speak) in 2019 when Duke University and NC Railroad refused to provide a needed right-of-way.

But we do have really good train service via Amtrak’s Piedmont and Carolinian trains.

The Piedmont makes three roundtrips a day between Raleigh and Charlotte, with stops in Cary, Durham, Greensboro and four other cities. The Carolinian covers the same route but goes beyond Raleigh to Rocky Mount, Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.

We do have some quirky roads here

Let’s talk about quirky roads.

The Raleigh Beltline: In the past, the Raleigh Beltline was described in terms of “inner” and “outer” Beltline (or inner and outer loop), but people found this to be confusing. (The inner Beltline runs clockwise, the outer Beltline runs counterclockwise. There. That’s it.)

So now you might hear people talk about it in terms of going east or west, or north or south — which doesn’t help at all, IMO, when you’re describing a circle-ish shape.

Here’s the other thing about the Beltline: It was renamed I-440 a number of years ago, and for the most part, the Beltline is just that: 440. Except for a few miles when it’s I-40. And a few miles north and west of town when it’s also U.S. 1.

Skinny lanes: If you’ve had the pleasure of driving on Wake Forest Road between the Beltline and Millbrook Road in Raleigh (maybe you wanted to hit that fancy Wegmans or visit Duke Raleigh Hospital), you likely white-knuckled it for most of the way — especially if you were in a larger car or SUV.

You’re not imagining it, those lanes are super narrow.

According to legend (from a longtime resident I met in a doctor’s office waiting room once), Raleigh went to bed one night with a nice four-lane stretch of road there and woke up the next morning with six lanes. All they did, it seems, was repaint the lines in the same amount of space. That sounds about right.

Diverging diamonds: If you’ve driven down Western Boulevard in Raleigh and suddenly shouted “WHAT IS HAPPENING!?” you’ve experienced the diverging diamond.

In a diverging diamond, the right-hand lanes temporarily cross over to the left before switching back again.

This “wrong side of the road”-esque driving, according to the NC Department of Transportation, allows a higher volume of traffic to move through an intersection without increasing the number of lanes or traffic signals. Diverging diamonds also eliminate left turns, reduce the amount of time you sit at traffic lights, and reduce the number of accidents — something we can all get behind.

These are not super common but becoming more so, News & Observer transportation writer Richard Stradling tells us. Diverging diamonds also are in the works locally at I-40 interchanges at Aviation Parkway and at N.C. 42 in Johnston County, and one is planned for the Wake Forest Road/Beltline interchange in Raleigh.

Diverging Diamonds is also a great band name.

Roundabouts: The fact that most people around here eventually stopped complaining about roundabouts gives us faith that we’ll adjust to diverging diamonds, too. Roundabouts are becoming much more common in the Triangle — not just in cities (they made Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street drivable again) but in rural areas, too. Embrace the roundabout!

What’s that road name? We have a lot of roads here that are known by more than one name. We mentioned the Raleigh Beltline being called 440, but there’s also the Durham Freeway, known as N.C. 147.

When we’re not double-naming roads, we’ll just change the whole name of the road altogether. Driving on St. Mary’s Street in Raleigh one minute and Lassiter Mill Road the next? Yep. On Wake Forest Road and suddenly on Falls of Neuse? Yep.

Bonus: Spot a Raleigh old-timer in the wild when they call current Falls of Neuse Road “Falls of the Neuse.” That name change was controversial. And unnecessary.

Speaking of road names, someone telling you they are on Maynard Road in Cary feels meaningless. Maynard Road is 800 miles long, with various sections called SE Maynard, SW Maynard, NE Maynard and N.C. 54. Just use your map app. See also: Cary Parkway.

About interstates 40, 440, 540, 85 and 87:

• I-40 is the interstate that runs from Wilmington, NC, to Barstow, Calif. Part of it runs right through the Triangle — Johnston County, Raleigh, RTP, southern Durham, Chapel Hill, onward.

• I-440 is the Raleigh Beltline.

• I-540 is what many now call the outer beltline. It’s a giant loop around Wake County, but not all of it is interstate. We had to get Richard Stradling to explain this: it’s an interstate over the northern part between RTP and Knightdale, but the whole southern section from RTP through Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina and Garner is a toll road, known as N.C. 540. Or the Triangle Expressway. It can’t just have the one name.

• I-87 runs from 40 past Poole Road up to U.S. 64/264. Right now it goes only as far as Wendell, but will eventually reach Elizabeth City and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

• I-85 runs from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va., taking it through NC in a southwest-northeast direction. 85 connects RTP to the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point) and Metrolina (Charlotte).

What you need to know about the airport

Good ole Raleigh-Durham (the only context in which this “dash” usage is acceptable) is our gateway to the world.

For airlines, RDU International has 13 airlines with non-stop destinations hitting all major US cities, plus international flights to Toronto, Cancun and Iceland. There were more before COVID, and some of those flights — like to London and Paris — are expected to resume.

When you go to RDU to greet your friends and family members who are clamoring to visit you in the Triangle, you’ll want to wait for them at the free (and weirdly named) Cell Phone Lot (follow the signs). If they call you after they claim their bags, you’re just three minutes from their terminal.

Another really cool feature of RDU is its Observation Park, where you can take the kids and watch planes take off and land on the airport’s 10,000-foot runway.

It’s free, and there are public restrooms, an elevated observation platform, a play area and a picnic area. You can even hear communications between pilots and the tower.

It’s open from 9 a.m. to sunset every day.

Follow on Twitter: You’ll want to follow N&O transportation and growth writer Richard Stradling on Twitter (@RStradling) to keep current on all aspects of getting around the Triangle.

Staff writers Richard Stradling and David Raynor contributed to this report.

More to come!

There’s more to come in our Triangle Living series. On May 11, we’ll continue our look at life in the Triangle with stories about food and weather. On June 1, we’ll look at things to do in the Triangle and the best day trips and getaways.

This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 6:00 AM.

Brooke Cain

The News & Observer

Brooke Cain is a North Carolina native who has worked at The News & Observer and McClatchy for more than 30 years as a researcher, reporter and media writer. She is the National Service Journalism Editor for McClatchy.