The Morgan Street two-way conversion seems to be finished; from Dawson Street all the way to the roundabout on Hillsborough Street. But I’ve noticed, and at one point assumed, that this conversion should or would include the section between Dawson and McDowell. See the map.
Drivers on McDowell Street might appreciate the left turn option and 4 lanes heading east seems like more then enough room.
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- None right now. Must be a new project.
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Leo, I could be wrong, but I think this has to do with the City wanting to put on-street parking on this section of Morgan Street, and the road not being wide enough to handle parking and two-way traffic. The Dawson condo building and the Campbell Law School bring more peds to this area, so there also might be a safety concern.
Leo is right in that they stopped short. Currently there isn’t two-way parking on this block so that isn’t the reason. My only thought is that the municipal and law school parking deck entrances / exits have something to do with it. I have driven into Downtown on McDowell several times and curse this oversight every time.
jasdelaney, if that is true, then I see your point. However, if there are no plans to bring parking to this block then two-way traffic might actually slow down traffic making it safer for pedestrians. Its easier to speed when you have all that room compared to being careful of others going the opposite direction near you. Naturally, it slows things down.
i think the whole street should be two-way. it’s a pain in the ass driving downtown with all the one-way streets and non-synched lights…
Downtown Raleigh has always had a problem with street directionality and signal syncing. Traffic will be horrible if you don’t do both. You can’t do one and then not the other. They go hand in hand. Some of the newer signals are fine, but the older ones make me rage.
Thank you Leo for posting this! While I agree with Jeff that making all two-way would be nice, I agree with you that the least the city can do is this block. I come into downtown from the South way more than I do from the north, and thus I would love to have the option to use Morgan to go to the “west side”.
Just think of one-way streets as an intelligence test – one that many people can’t seem to pass.
While we’re at it, I would add that South Street has this weird block of one-way between Saunders and Dawson that makes absolutely no sense. It’s two-way west of that block…and east of it…but on that little bit right there it’s one-way. Ludicrous, really.
Nice one, I forgot about that one.
I think that the one ways streets generally made a lot of sense before some started to be converted to two way. It seems as thought it would be easier to time the traffic lights for one way traffic easier than two way traffic too. I know that the lights on the the major north-south streets are synchronized.
^Well, I know Dawson & McDowell are synch’ed but not sure of any others. Dawson & McDowell double as US Hwy 401/70, and thus with the amount of cars they carry practically have to be in synch. I’ve seen them when they get out of synch before and it is a nightmare.