Why are the lanes on Raleigh’s Wake Forest Road so scarily narrow? The answer.

If you’ve driven on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh, you know the feeling.

You grip your steering wheel a little tighter. You hold your breath. You feel like the cars next to you are only inches away. And you wonder, why the heck are these lanes so narrow?

For years, rumors have floated around the Raleigh community — both in-person and online — that the lanes used to be wider, but when an additional lane was needed, workers simply repainted the lines, instead of widening the roads.

Is that true?

We set out to find answers as part of The News & Observer’s Asked & Answered series, which answers questions we receive from readers, our newsroom and our community.

Here’s what we learned after contacting the N.C. Department of Transportation, which oversees and maintains Wake Forest Road.

Why are the lanes on Wake Forest Road so narrow?

First, let’s get those rumors out of the way.

According to Aaron Moody, assistant communications director for NCDOT, it “appears to be the case” that the lines were simply repainted on the road, and the road was not physically widened to accommodate more lanes.

When did this happen? In an email to The N&O, Moody pointed to two historical geographic information system (GIS) maps of the road — one from 1981, and another from 1988. The change in lane widths “was made somewhere between” those years, Moody said.

“The 1981 map appears to show four lanes with a center turn lane and that changes to six lanes with center turn lane in 1988,” Moody said.

Moody said that the lanes in the 1981 map shows that the lanes on Wake Forest Road — especially the center turn lane — at that point “were wide.” Repainting the wide lanes made them more narrow, but still wide enough for cars.

“Perhaps they anticipated eventually needing to add lanes when they originally established this right of way,” Moody said.

Is it common to repaint lanes instead of widening a road?

So, yes, the lines were repainted. Moody said he “would not have a good way of knowing who or why the change was made,” but the department knows the change added capacity to the road, so it’s assumed that was the purpose.

But is that a standard practice?

“This is not a widely utilized practice but is not unheard of — especially in cases where it is possible to do so while still maintaining acceptable lane widths and where acquiring additional right of way for widening would be financially cumbersome,” Moody said.

Moody said there are “several” ongoing projects by NCDOT to narrow lanes, with most requests coming from municipalities wanting to add bike lanes to existing roads.

And there’s a common purpose behind most of those projects: “The benefit to narrowing lanes is that in most cases it reduces speeds,” Moody said.

This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 7:45 AM.

Korie Dean

The News & Observer

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Korie Dean covers higher education in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer, where she is also part of the state government and politics team. She is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill and a lifelong North Carolinian.