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17W/74W/76W Traffic Flow Archived

1182-1216 Andrew Jackson Hwy Leland, NC 28451, USA Show on Map Hide Map
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Reporter

(Guest)

Issue ID:

30906

Submitted To:

Community

Category:

None

Viewed:

586 times

Neighborhood:

Leland

Reported:

on

Description

One of the major areas of Brunswick County that has been a problem for residents traveling into the City of Wilmington on 17W/74W/76W has been the interchange with Belville and Highway 133. At this interchange, drivers traveling westbound on 17/74/76 are forced to "stay in lanes" while traffic merges onto this route off the on ramp from Highway 133. The goal of NCDOT was to move thru traffic into the left lane to maintain a constant speed; however, drivers in the right lane who must "stay in their lane" now have to slam on brakes and play a game with onramp traffic, rather than being able to merge into the left lane while maintaining speed, thus allowing both lanes to flow and for traffic to safely merge onto Highway 17/74/76 westbound. NCDOT claims this is a first of its kind in the state, and it is clearly not working. One option that works in many northern states and in Canada is for the lane to be marked with a solid white line on the left and a dotted line on the right, thus allowing for right lane traffic to merge left to allow for onramp vehicles to merge without braking. This way, traffic in the left lane is forced to "stay in their lane", while traffic in the right lane can move into the passing lane to allow onramp traffic to safely merge. This is actually marked similar to this explanation at all interchanges in Canada and in most northern states. Rather than forcing braking in both lanes to play a game with onramp traffic at interchanges, it's time for NCDOT to remove the solid white line only used in Brunswick County at this interchange. It was a thoughful concept, but definitely not working.
The following link is an image from google maps showing this lane marking that works very well. Please click on link and the picture eventually loads with a highway street view of this configuration. I would be interested to hear what NCDOT would have to say.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Route%2020%2C%20Champlain%2C%20Quebec%2C%20Canada&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.641855,78.662109&geocode=FYfNtgIdUzKe-w&split=0&ll=45.642348,-72.969027&spn=0,0.307274&t=h&z=12&layer=c&cbll=45.642348,-72.969027&panoid=SQ_EAvElvKPFp-aHrLW0lQ&cbp=12,59.72,,0,4.77&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il


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