Yup, I was around. Growth was one reason, the other was getting Eastern NC to the airport quicker with out using the then traffic choked Beltline. A certain very powerful governor from down east was really interested in this project. We were promised at the time there would be limited exits so that this road would not spur the sprawl folks warned of at the time . . .
The reality is the roads got built and the rail did not. I still wish we had invested in the rail at the time, and support the investment in rail now. Transportation projects drive development. 
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Funny that you mentioned limited exits as 540 just opened a new exit at Morrisville Pkwy in Cary this past week. I haven’t been on it yet but the design featured the ramps meeting at roundabouts on Morrisville Pkwy. Not sure how that is working out.
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A slightly different tact - the N&O’s series on the Two NC’s series points out the difficulties so many small towns are facing. It seems to me that efficient regional rail could (really should) be a part of the solution. I’d love live downtown, but would also enjoy living in a small town with rapid & reliable service into “the city.” Regional rail, particularly to the north eastern pat of the state should be sold as development investment.
Currently, I love living in my town of 12,000 but I hate driving to Birmingham (80 miles) or even more Atlanta (100). People around here do commute, but that would so much easier my train.
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The trouble is that we did need 540 in the 80s because we chose to develop North Raleigh in an auto-centric model. One perpetuates the other and it goes ad infinitum until someone decides to purposefully stop the craziness.
My father was so anxious for 540 so that he could get from his house in far North Raleigh to IBM. He had to take the Strickland Road “back way” to RTP daily and hated it. Of course, as it would turn out, 540 was open from his house to 40 just in time for him to retire. All I’m saying is that one leads to the other. In the 80s, and even today, there isn’t a development model that supports transit from far North Raleigh to RTP. If we want rail, we have to get out of our comfort zone and build TOD to force the issue and build a business case for transit options. The least painful way to do this is BRT because the costs are much lower. If we can create BRT corridors along with TOD, we can set the stage for those nodes of higher density development to be supported by a future rail stop.
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How about that, lol. The dream of that limited expressway is long gone, lol.
Nearly all the Italian Autostrassa exits are roundabouts. It will be interesting to see how those work out. It cant be worse then the dip sticks who stop at the end of on-ramps~!!
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@John, you will well remember when you couldn’t drive across NoRal on one road - it required multiple turns! Glennwood to Capitol was a crazy maze that only locals could figure out, lol. As I recall that was also one of the reasons cited for building 540.
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In the hodgepodge that was North Raleigh development, all sorts of misaligned routes were created that zigged and zagged their way around it. Roads like Shelley Road were actually east/west routes, and many E/W and N/S routes made you change roads to traverse. Some of that legacy is reflected in road naming today, in case anyone wondered why you could be on Wake Forest Road and then suddenly you are on Falls of (the) Neuse, or if you start on Spring Forest but end on Lynn, etc.
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Can someone expound on how commuter rail will take cars off the road, further, what size of an impact it will have on carless commuting?
My guess is that only a small, small fraction of downtown Raleigh workers that commute into the city each day live within a mile or two of the planned stations and would benefit from commuter rail. How many people live near DT Cary and work in DT Durham or Raleigh?
Of course I want it yesterday, but I’m curious how it corresponds with commuting patterns. I think the biggest benefit will be seen by folks that relocate here for DT Ral job, and buy a house in Garner…or Cary
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I don’t think it does. You may hear transit advocates say that it reduces congestion but that’s just a way of trying to sell a transit tax or project to voters.
One or two trains aren’t going to make a dent in the congestion. I feel like you’d need to leap frog a few levels of transit and deliver a mature (expensive for the area’s growth cycle) system to then see a big traffic reduction. At the pace things happen, I think we’ll never notice a change in congestion as transit starts to ramp up.
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I’m afraid I agree. I think we can boil the rail challenge down to this simple statement: Transportation needs/patterns in our region are determined by overly successful auto dependent development and the major roadways that support the burbs. Rail does not align with those roadways.
Had we a commuter system that marched from North Raleigh down Falls off the Neuse/Wake Forest Rd right into DTR, then it would be obvious how the system takes cars off the road.
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Can anyone reading provide an anecdote for how they would personally change commuting patterns if the commuter rail line was open today?
My wife works at Duke hospital in Durham, and we live 3 miles from RUS. IF the DOLRT and Commuter Rail were operational today, she could drive or bike to RUS (10-15 min), take commuter rail to Durham (25 mins.?), transfer to the LRT (5 mins?) then exit train in front of her hospital (10 mins) for a total commute of 50-55 mins plus the transit expense. I actually think this would have been viable, but alas RIP DOLRT
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I agree. To me, we shouldn’t be framing transit in terms of reducing congestion. We all know that induced demand results in the paradox of “more space on roads leads to more traffic” anyway. I’d imagine this works the same way for widening highways as it does with taking cars off the road – others will just replace them in no time.
I think transit is not about reducing traffic for drivers; it’s about giving everyone the option to just circumvent driving altogether. “Hate traffic? Your 1 hour commute down I-40 is going to be shitty no matter what we do. So here’s an alternative!”
I guess the risk with this line of thinking is that you wouldn’t get enough public support for transit, since a lot of people will never be open to giving up their cars, and therefore won’t see any benefit to themselves.
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Agreed. Again I think the most realized benefit of the commuter rail will be folks that know they’re going to work downtown Raleigh or already do, and have the option to move into some sort of transit-oriented development in Garner that is convenient to one of the Garner stations… or Cary perhaps. I could be interesting to work in DT Raleigh but live in DT Durham (or vice versa per preference) and not own a car. 
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Perhaps not a current anecdote but a future one: I currently rent and work in downtown Durham, adjacent to the Amtrak and Durham Stations. I’m looking at buying a house in a few years and am torn between downtown-adjacent areas in Durham and Raleigh. I recognize that I won’t be working where I do forever, and almost all other exciting job opportunities for me are in downtown Raleigh. But I’m really put off by the possibility of a 1+ hour commute if I change jobs. A commuter rail option would give my wife and I the peace of mind to just buy a house we like in a neighborhood we like, and not hold our career options hostage to our address of residence.
My revised commute if I worked in Raleigh would be: five-minute bus ride to Durham station, commuter rail to Union station, 5-10 minute walk to any number of architecture firms in Raleigh.
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Errr, y’all need to check out the Wake Transit plan. It is funding a commuter rail between Garner and Mebane (with stops in RTP, Raleigh, Durham). That is part of the 10-year implementation plan (in addition to 4 Bus Rapid Transit corridors and 83 miles of 15 min frequency bus service). Stay plugged in, a ton going on with transit investments right now. Details here: The Plan | Go Forward
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Exactly. From all the reading and thinking I’ve done on the topic, you start to notice that there are certain tradeoffs associated with how people move around, things like:
- How long will it take?
- How much will it cost?
- How comfortable will it be?
You could argue there are a few more like safety and how respectful the method is. I think we all, whether we realize it or not, quickly balance out these factors to make mobility decisions. We do it every day.
Generally speaking, driving just ranks SO HIGH in so many cases compared to walking, cycling, transit that driving continues to dominate decision making rather than alternatives. Now, I know some readers on this forum are downtown and we have some walkers here, like me, so of course, some decisions for walking vs driving are clear opposite the norm. (
)
I just think that congestion is making the time factor worse and worse. Tolls on highways might make that commute more expensive too. (more are coming I’m lead to believe)
Therefore, a window is forming to create an alternative. When you run a train or bus and people see it being a real value based on my decision-making “checklist” above then we keep the quality of life high because we have that faster or that cheaper option.
Without options, I feel, quality of mobility just starts to go down which hurts the region as whole.
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Wait, has the extension to Mebane been formally adopted into the plan? I thought it was still being studied.
Interestingly, Durham metro is essentially guaranteed 3 stations (W. Durham, Central, and E. Durham) while Raleigh is only guaranteed RUS and West Raleigh, which is almost Cary. Me thinks the NC State station needs to be included. Check out the map here - the yellow stations are minimum, blue are next priority, and green are all in consideration.
Funny the airport is not even marked on the map 
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Great map, where did you find this? 
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