Raleigh Losing Sight of Anderson Drive’s Function
Anderson Drive has, for decades, been an important connector from Glenwood Avenue to Six Forks Road. The very wide street was once lined with a mix of well and poorly maintained ranch houses. In the past 15 years, though, the street has become a teardown ally and the trend shows no end.
Last year the City of Raleigh included Anderson Drive as one of its targets for traffic abatement. They drafted a plan that would include an abatement plan much heavier handed than residents desired. Recently the residents and the City of Raleigh’s traffic engineers agreed upon a few measures including reduction of the speed limit from 35mph to 30mph. Also, the city will reorganize the intersection at Six Forks, removing the smooth turn from Six Forks South and replacing it with a hard right turn. (The city did the same on Western Blvd at I-440 and the result has simply been a gas-guzzling nuisance). Another measure that is being taken is the painting of bike lanes on either side of the existing street, much like those on Ridge Road. The primary intent, though, is not to provide safe passage for cyclists, but rather to change the perception in the road’s width. Studies show that drivers move slower in narrow lanes than in wide ones.
While Anderson Drive is a strictly residential street and needs to be traveled safely, it is potentially a huge piece to a larger puzzle. With North Hills growing and being an urban focus center in Raleigh’s planning models, movement in the area will become more congested with time. North Hills can thank I-440 for much of its success, however it also reveals some of I-440’s weaknesses.
Perimeter highways are much like a colander. Their design limits crossing movement, so there is great pressure at the few opportunities to cross such a highway. Highways like I-440 are acceptable in populated areas only if there are adequate minor crossings to accompany the major crossings. Roads like Glen Eden, Yadkin, and Atlantic Avenue are vital to the success of the Crabtree and North Hills areas.
As North Hills continues its dense growth down St. Albans Drive to Wake Forest Road, there will be increasing pressure at the Six Forks and Wake Forest Road interchanges with I-440. Some of that traffic will be using the intersections for I-440 access, but much of the traffic will only be passing through because there is currently no better north-south alternative. An alternative does exist, though.
If one studies a map of the North Hills area, they will see that Anderson Drive lines up in nearly a straight line with Quail Hollow Drive, an absurdly-wide, tertiary neighborhood connector. By connecting Anderson and Quail Hollow Drives with a bridge that does not access I-440, navigation in the North Hills area will be greatly improved for decades to come.
The conveniences far outweigh the costs in this scenario. Currently Quail Hollow and Anderson residents must use Wake Forest or Six Forks Roads to venture across the beltline. This laborious task puts unnecessary pressure on the two I-440 interchanges, and creates an unpleasant trip for these residents. The cost of joining these two underutilized arteries, aside from construction and land acquisition, is increased local traffic. The increased traffic flow would not overwhelm the quality of life improvements provided by the union. Residents near Glen Eden Road and Yadkin Drive are extremely well served by their passes over/under the beltline. Their property values are easily 10% higher than they would be if residents of the areas had to rely on exiting their neighborhoods to use major arteries in order to cross the sieve. Accessibility to police and rescue vehicles would also be dramatically improved with the connection.
Raleigh needs to work on more connectivity in residential areas to make streets safer and less congested, not on restrictive policies that cause people to drive faster to make up for time lost. Anderson Drive is a 40’-wide secondary connector joining two of Raleigh’s most important arteries. It never has been a quiet, local street, and it never will. It is time that Raleigh recognizes that it needs to creatively work with its scant opportunities to improve traffic as a whole, not the needs of one particular street. Let’s connect Raleigh and make it work better.
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June 16th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Interesting idea to connect Anderson Dr. and Quail Hollow Dr. but I think the cost and neighborhood opposition would derail any serious attempt to accomplish this.
-Think about the unpaved and roadless gap in Marlowe Rd. near where it intersects Lakestone Dr. I am sure that this was intended to connect Yadkin Dr. to Lassiter Mill Rd. on some master plan, but I suspect the wealthy home owners in this area have always had enough clout to block this because of increased traffic. While the average Quail Hollow home owner is probably no where near as wealthy as the average Marlowe Rd./Lakestone Dr./Country Club Hills resident, there are probably about 3 times as many of them and they do vote.
-The areas near the Beltline on either side of your proposed bridge are probably classified as wetlands or at least as flood control areas. Development seems to have been limited in those areas, but you probably know a lot more about that than I do.
-I think this connector would be of limited usefulness because you are linking two unrelated neighborhoods and there is no compelling attraction (meaning a shopping or eating destination) between the two. If you land on Anderson Dr. or on Quail Hollow Dr, you have landed in a neighborhood with no retail attractions for several tenths of a mile on either end. I don’t see this route as a pressure relief on Six Forks Rd. or Wake Forest Rd. A primary reason people use both those roads is their access to the Beltline.
-Maybe I am completely missing your point, but money and neighborhood politics would scuttle this pretty quickly.
-Keep up the good work.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I think that the idea to connect Anderson to Quail Hollow is very interesting. Clearly, the big winners in this scenario would be the homeowners in Quail Hollow and Eastgate. They would have a straight shot into town via Anderson/St. Mary’s. I think their property values would skyrocket. For now, the perception is that Quail Hollow Dr. is not that close to ITB. But, with this idea, it would turn that perception on its head.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:46 am
I’d be in favor connecting the two, but won’t hold my breath. But kudos to you on a good idea!
As far as the city’s plans on Anderson, I really don’t see any of them necessary, except maybe the bicycle lanes. (Which I favor everywhere.) There are greenways nearby so bike lanes to roads leading near them is a plus.
But all those other things the city is thinking about is not needed…the intersection is fine as it is. The speed limit of 35 is adequate, if enforced. (Which I doubt it is.)
June 17th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Who is actually behind the change to Anderson Drive? I have been using the street to cut across to Six Forks for over a decade and have not noticed much of a change in traffic. The traffic is still pretty light. Where is the need that the city sees here?
I have wished there was a way to bypass the beltline for years, as you suggest. I work on St. Albans and do not need to use the beltline, but it is blocking by path (with bad traffic) wherever I go. I bike often to work and such a connection would reduce my bike distance (using a “safe route) by about two miles. I do not think you have to make such a long connection, but a tunnel could easily run under the beltline (similar to the one on Yadkin Dr.) and connect Quail Hollow to Computer Dr.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Well said, Dana. And let me add my usual “typical NIMBY crap”
Going from 35mph to 30mph is simply bullcrap excuses for reducing the speed limit to 25mph at a later time. These people do not seem to understand that they don’t live in the middle of nowhere. Drivers will look for faster ways to get around and I am not sure the speed limit will be easily enforced. Unless they want to place speed bumps and create much bigger traffic problems in the future. It will be interesting to see those residents trying to get out of their neighborhood while Six Forks and Wake Forest roads are congested.
Anyway, great thoughts, as always. Thanks for putting this topic together, Dana. It certainly reminds me of what I must go through frequently.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Regarding the Anderson / Six Forks intersection, I’ve always thought the current arrangement is unsafe or at least annoying when turning left onto Anderson from Six Forks. I have to look for traffic twice, and the second time requires craning my neck backwards and trying to see over shrubs.
They should still be able to fit a right turn lane there.. I suspect it’s more a safety issue to reduce the number of accident-prone intersections.
June 17th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I believe the residents who live on Anderson are behind the change. I would love to hear more on this from the folks that live on the street. As a resident who lives in a neighborhood near Anderson, my main problem is the speed at which people travel down the road. The majority of the people driving down Anderson seem to have no respect for the speed limit or for cross walks (I have never had a car actually stop, or even slow down, for me when I’m in the cross walk next to the greenway and Our Lady of Lourdes). For starters, it would be nice to see the police out there actually enforcing the speed limit on a regular basis.
June 17th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Annoying when they do this. I used to live in Falls River (thankfully no more) and when the houses turned over on the main street the new residents started complaining about speed.
It was over two miles through the neighborhood for many people on a road that was clearly designed as a through-street.
Still, people there, like the teardown tennants on Anderson couldn’t seem to care less about what the road (or neighborhood) was supposed to be.
We’re famous for that here in Raleigh though. Build a house next to a proposed interstate? No problem, I’ll get the city to build a big brick wall for me later.
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Almost forgot, glad to see the bike lanes proposed, although I hope they’ll actually mark them, lest they turn into on-street parking – just like Ridge Road.
June 17th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Good article. I can’t help but recall the “snowstorm” in January a couple of years ago when it took 10 1/2Hrs to go 16 miles. (It took 3Hrs to go from Hooters on Wake Forest to Carolina Ale House on Falls of Neuse.) The biggest single problem north of I440 is that there are main arteries only; Creedmoor, Six Forks, Falls of Neuse, Atlantic & Capital, but none of the neighborhoods are interconnected. Local traffic must use one of the main roads to go just a couple of blocks, if it is a different neighborhood.
Bike lanes really work well. The city could use a lot more of them.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
It’s been proven that changing a road reduces speed better than changing a speed limit. So, to that end, just narrowing the road with bike lanes should slow the traffic on Anderson.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:37 am
STOP at St. Albans Dr. If you connect to Quail Hollow, everyone would bypass the lights on Falls of Neuse and go speeding down Quail Hollow. Then more stop signs on Quail Hollow? Then traffic calming on Quail Hollow?
BTW the land between St Albans & belt line is still EMPTY for now.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
There might be something to your idea. Already, Google Maps labels a small piece of north-south road west of Navaho Drive as “Quail Hollow Drive.”
With connections/extentions to Computer Drive, Wake Towne Drive and Navaho Drive, your proposal would add relevance and value to the small businesses, chain hotels and apartment communities on these roads.
The retail at Quail Corners would anchor this new connector’s north end.
If Anderson/Quail Hollow were to become a thoroughfare, it would need a secondary traffic outlet near its north end, perhaps a realignment of Steinbeck/Thoreau or an Indian Trail extention to Falls of Neuse.
We should absolutely preserve as much green space as possible just north of the Beltline, in that section of undeveloped buffer land. (What *IS* that space, and why has it managed to stay natural? Kudos to someone, though.)
In the same vein, extentions to the greenways and Eastgate Park should be built and promoted, allowing walkers/bikers the opportunity to move north-south (as well as the existing east-west greenway across Anderson Drive).
Finally, serious thought should be given to the road’s name. There are too many straight-shot roads in Raleigh that change names at some arbitrary point. It’s confusing to new residents/visitors, and doesn’t promote a sense of community.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 am
Dana,
For what it’s worth I agree with you that the road should have been connected years ago and would have provided a valuable link that would have avoided 6 Forks & WF Rd, maybe a bit like Yadkin Dr. If you look at a map, the roads almost seem as if they were meant to align (including the bottom segment of Quail Hollow Dr at Navaho) and one might be able to find and old plan that showed them connecting. Anyway, when they built those homes off Anderson, any chance of that occurring went away.
As far as traffic calming, I don’t have a problem with it if people are speeding. We have these issues all over town where overly wide roads are seemingly built for 50mph but limited to 35. We’ve set up situations akin to telling a 5 year old he can’t have any ice cream and then putting a big tub of his favorite flavor right on the table.