Traffic Lights Could Be Coming To Interstate On-Ramps In Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, NC — Traffic lights could soon be coming to interstate on-ramps in Charlotte to help with all the congestion. Tonight, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization has narrowed down the list of possible sites for those meters.
Traffic is thick, slow and often dangerous along I-77 several hours before, during and after rush hour, as it is on most local interstates. The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization has narrowed down from nearly 250 to 50 on-ramps where they’d like to add traffic meters.
To see a map of the proposed locations, click here.
One of them is Tyvola Road at I-77. The idea is to keep traffic flowing by avoiding the platooning of cars entering the interstate. The red light on the meter holds traffic momentarily and allows only one or two vehicles to merge onto the interstate every few seconds.
City Division Engineer Scott Cole says, “You basically slow the amount of cars coming onto the interstate at one time. Allows the interstate traffic to move more consistently and more freely. And it reduces crashes.”
The cost for the project would start at about $300,000 per meter. They would be paid for with money from vehicle use and gas taxes.
Some drivers are not a fan of the plan. Charlottean Owen says, “I feel like that would bother me being that there’s already a light. Essentially, we would have to constantly stop and wait for the next people to merge over to the lane.”
However, a woman who moved here from Chicago, where the meters are already being used, thinks they work well. Laura says, “They’re convenient in the fact that you allow people to merge onto the freeway a little easier. Up in Chicago, I didn’t feel like I got backed up too much by the turning of the red and green lights.”
If the plan moves forward, it would still be at least two more years before construction would begin. It I-77 corridor from John Belk Freeway to the South Carolina state line is their top priority.
