traffic engineering can be tricky. I imagine that the lights around the Wycliff/Lake Boone intersections are timed the way they are to limit the flow of traffic up the hill towards Rex Hospital. If traffic could flow relatively unobstructed from 440 up to Blue Ridge Rd, you might end up with horrible traffic jams blocking emergency access to the hospital.

Of course, stopped traffic on the beltline may result in more visits for Rex…

http://xkcd.com/277/

A large number of Raleigh signals are in fact maintained by the state. If I were you, I’d contact the DOT via their web form. They’re very good about following up with signal issues, and will bring in the City of Raleigh engineers when they don’t own the signal.

I’ve had a lot of success going this route.

Edit: I don’t know if i can back up “a large number”, but I can say that it’s often anyone’s guess who really owns a signal; local municipality or state.

Though not as simple as signal timing, another line from the book of small fixes that would make a big difference in that area – extend the onramp from Wade Avenue to the inner/east Beltline so that it becomes the offramp for Lake Boone Trail. This would involve widening the 440 shoulder by about 12 feet for a length of about 1000 feet, resulting in a weave lane from Wade Avenue to Lake Boone.

If the same could be done in the opposite direction, that would also be great, but that will be much more complicated, due to the jersey barrier and sound wall.

Likely, both will be done when the beltline is widened to 6 lanes between Wade and I-40.

I consider all these ideas to be “shovel ready”! Maybe you could write the Obama reelection campaign and ask them to apply the stimulus money that made its way into their accounts to fix these problems.

Hey, it’s Brian Shrader from WRAL-TV. Would anyone be willing to go on camera to talk about their frustration with this problem? If so, e-mail me at bshrader-at-wral.com or call me at 919-610-0345. Thanks!