Tonight a fiery five-vehicle accident on Interstate 40 has had traffic at a crawl for over 3 hours now. According to reports, an eastbound car swerved after missing the Wade Avenue Exit on Interstate 40. After cutting across multiple lanes, the car collided with an 18-wheeler, two other cars, and a garbage truck. The garbage truck overturned (spilling garbage all over the road) and burst into flames.

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It’s a wonder that this kind of accident doesn’t happen more frequently. It seems that at least once every three times I approach the intersection I see a vehicle swerve at the last moment possible. I was so curious about the frequency of this move that I sat on the right shoulder of the road and observed several dangerous swerving instances.

I sat for 6:00 minutes and counted 12 vehicles swerving at the last moment. Think about that: once every thirty seconds , someone is performing an incredibly dangerous maneuver at 70-80mph. Many were cars, but even more disturbing was the number of trucks swerving.

The question is why : why is this intersection so vexing to people? NCDOT has re-signed the intersection a few times since widening was completed nearly 20 years ago. Still, though, there is something horribly wrong with the design and or signage that is causing some extremely risky behavior.

Sign 1: Moving eastbound, we pass the crest of Harrison Avenue hill, and proceed downhill, seeing well in advance that an intersection is ahead. The first sign shows a four-laned road splitting to two-and-two. The pair to the left is labeled “40, Raleigh, Wilmington” while the right pair is labeled “440, Wade Ave”.

While the sign is accurate, and stays true to the signage rules of labeling routes to downtowns, the sign is confusing. Wade Avenue is part of “Raleigh”. Additionally, to a motorist moving 70-80mph, “40” and “440” are extremely similar. Let’s do a simple exercise. Tell a friend that you are going to say five numbers to them. Say this tongue-twister out loud to them:”40-440-440-40-440″. Then ask which one was in the middle. Ask them which was said more times. Now say this “40-840-840-40-840”. Ask the same questions and see how much more accurate the response is.

Sign 2: This sign was placed after years of confusion. It tells motorists that “Downtown Raleigh” is straight, and North Raleigh is to the right. Well, that’s not that accurate, either. What about West and East Raleigh? How do we get there? Wade Avenue one of West Raleigh’s signature roadways, not one of North Raleigh’s.

Sign 3: This is the original signage. It states the information from Sign 1. Raleigh, Wilmington, and “40” are in the left two lanes. The right two lanes are “Wade Ave” and “440”. An additional clue is given with this sign, though. It informs that the right lanes are exiting the highway.

Sign 4: This little bitty sign tells sports fans and concert-goers that they need to take Exit 289. I like this one, though it should be a brown sign, like those for Walnut Creek Amphitheatre.

Sign 5: A repeat of sign 3. At this point some driver around you is in a sheer state of panic . 40-440-440-40-440…Which one!??

To me the main problem lies in calling Raleigh’s beltline “440”. Once again it stays true to the Federal Highway Administration’s rules for naming interstates. However it begs the question: Why do we have these rules? Isn’t it for clarity? Why do we need clarity? ahhh yes, to prevent accidents, of course.

There are a few inexpensive signage improvements that should be tried. The bracket for Sign 4 should also have a large yellow “RIGHT LANES EXIT” sign, with two arrows pointing to the lanes.

Also, Sign 2 should not show a simple “Y”. Rather, it show the true shape of the intersection. The sign should let people know that the left two lanes actually turn to the south while the right two lanes bypass the intersection and ultimately end up straight ahead. Anyone with a decent inner compass is going to assume that the right two lanes veer off and head south, while the left two continue east. This sign should also carry the “40” badge next to “Downtown Raleigh”, but should not carry a “440” badge. Interstate 40 is the dominant highway, and some distinction needs to be drawn between the two roads to passing motorists. Finally, the right half of the sign should read “West and North Raleigh”.

Perhaps those two improvements would help. However the best solution is to rename 440 to something else. 240, 640, 840 are all taken, supposedly. What do they do in states with more than 4 loop highways? Duplicates should be allowed. I prefer duplicates within a state to…say… flaming garbage .

Let’s also get away from calling it “The Beltline”, which incorrectly implies a closed loop. (A more correct name would be the Midtown Arc, but nobody is going to seriously accept that!)

The high level of danger and confusion in such an intense situation is going to lead to far more accidents. The DOT and the FHA need to spend more time fixing this problem and less time trying to explain how wonderful their pointless nomenclature is.