Some of you guys take Charlotte for granted

[pstall]

i can walk to the rail so i dig that.

i think part of the "traffic" issues we face in Charlotte is not enough people carpool. Ride on Providence Rd from Arboretum to uptown and look at the # of cars with one person.

What kills 485 is from 77 to Rea Road its what 2 lanes? Thats insidious. It should at least be 3 to Prov Rd.

74 is a nightmare except maybe around 2am.

I'm a closet civil engineer so I see so many traffic snafu's where if they put a median here or a no turn left there, it could eliminate so many bottlenecks simply by removing delays that exist.

[TNPanther]

I am from a small town in TN. I live in a small town in NC. I see little difference. (Really no difference) When I moved to NC, the worst thing was that Jesse Helms was a senator from NC. I would never compare Knoxville to Charlotte...of course Charlotte has more....except for a major university. UT has been the center of Knoxville for a long time.

http://en.wikipedia....ille,_Tennessee

http://en.wikipedia...._North_Carolina

Look at the stats. Charlotte is much larger than Knoxville. Not sure why anyone wants to compare the two.

I wasn't intending to compare the two based on size and related aspects. Just the overall niceness, cleanliness, and progress of the two cities - both of which can be helped no matter the city size. In that regard, Charlotte is light years beyond what Knoxville will ever be.

I wasn't trying to compare the two states, but that's what this sort of turned into. Which small towns did you and do you live in?

[ladypanther]

I wasn't intending to compare the two based on size and related aspects. Just the overall niceness, cleanliness, and progress of the two cities - both of which can be helped no matter the city size. In that regard, Charlotte is light years beyond what Knoxville will ever be.

I wasn't trying to compare the two states, but that's what this sort of turned into. Which small towns did you and do you live in?

My home town is Elizabethton, TN. I now live in Morganton, NC. I have been in NC for about 25 yrs.

[Chimera]

What kills 485 is from 77 to Rea Road its what 2 lanes? Thats insidious. It should at least be 3 to Prov Rd.

the thing about 485 is that i think it was purposely designed this way. i mean certain areas have like a quarter mile of graded land in between the inner and outer lanes. those areas seem to have the worst congestion.

to me it seems there are/were a lot of "meh, that's good enough for now" projects in and around charlotte.

[Happy Panther]

I should be able to drive 100+ miles in any direction from downtown Charlotte on a major interstate on 3 or more lanes of highway. The fact that 485 and I-77 and I-85 are still two lanes in places is a joke.

I mean let's expand I-77 N to three lanes right up until exit 23 WHERE ALL THE PEOPLE LIVE.

[SgtJoo]

Chattanooga is a fugin' amazing town.

[Chimera]

I should be able to drive 100+ miles in any direction from downtown Charlotte on a major interstate on 3 or more lanes of highway. The fact that 485 and I-77 and I-85 are still two lanes in places is a joke.

I mean let's expand I-77 N to three lanes right up until exit 23 WHERE ALL THE PEOPLE LIVE.

meanwhile, I-85 between Salisbury and the Triad (an area where like 7 people live) is 4+ lanes

[Cat]

i can walk to the rail so i dig that.

i think part of the "traffic" issues we face in Charlotte is not enough people carpool. Ride on Providence Rd from Arboretum to uptown and look at the # of cars with one person.

What kills 485 is from 77 to Rea Road its what 2 lanes? Thats insidious. It should at least be 3 to Prov Rd.

74 is a nightmare except maybe around 2am.

I'm a closet civil engineer so I see so many traffic snafu's where if they put a median here or a no turn left there, it could eliminate so many bottlenecks simply by removing delays that exist.

485 is getting widened in south Charlotte. 74 is so much better towards town than it use to be. 74 in from around Crown point to Monroe is balls all the time.

The rail is almost always packed when I see it. Of course it's one line so it's not useful for everyone. They should have one go to the University, down Independence, and up 77 at least.

485 is 2 lanes because it was one of the first legs built and that area wasn't nearly as popular as it is now. It use to be country land in the early 90s

[Guest]

the thing about 485 is that i think it was purposely designed this way. i mean certain areas have like a quarter mile of graded land in between the inner and outer lanes. those areas seem to have the worst congestion.

to me it seems there are/were a lot of "meh, that's good enough for now" projects in and around charlotte.

Thank our dipshit DOT for that. North Carolina used to be nicknamed "the good roads state". What a joke.

[Johnny Rockets]

They say that the new interchange where 485 meets 85 near the Mallard Creek exit is supposed to be only the second one like it in the country. Supposedly it is designed to where there are no merging slow downs whatsover regardless of the amount of traffic and all merging will be done at 65 mph. .

[Guest]

^ I drive up and down 85 every day. I can't wait for that to be finished, the delays suck.

[Jase]

Thank our dipshit DOT for that. North Carolina used to be nicknamed "the good roads state". What a joke.

When the traffic study was done in the mid-80s for that leg of 485, it was all farm land out there. They assumed a reasonable rate of traffic growth but they didn't/could have never foreseen the ballantyne/arboretum/rea road/johnston road population explosion.

The trouble with major new highway projects is that it takes about 20 years from conception to finish.

/our DOT is pretty good compared to most

[Guest]

When the traffic study was done in the mid-80s for that leg of 485, it was all farm land out there. They assumed a reasonable rate of traffic growth but they didn't/could have never foreseen the ballantyne/arboretum/rea road/johnston road population explosion.

The trouble with major new highway projects is that it takes about 20 years from conception to finish.

/our DOT is pretty good compared to most

when the DOT good ole boy network is salivating over/lobbying for the construction of an interchange for their own commercial development, well, they should have known. maybe that happens everywhere.

[Jase]

As a fringe member of the good ole boy network, I have no idea what you are talking about.