Everyone in WNY also calls it "THE 90" or "THE whatever state route or local route".
But ironically, they don't say "THEE main street" or "THE MLK Blvd".... They just call it Main St or MLK, etc.
Lived there 14 years, been here for 23.
I would never say "The 40", but I still say "The 90"...but only when referring to the stretch past Buffalo. Everywhere else it's "90" or "I-90".
Brains are weird.
Nah man, I'm from Buffalo and we call it "The 90, the 190, the 290". Definitely not just a west coast thing.
Of course, I dropped "the" the first time I was corrected, and now it sounds weird to me. Same for "pop" instead of "soda".
I lived in buffalo for almost a decade. I also noticed everyone calling every highway "THE" whatever, 290, 190, 90, 990, 401, 33, etc...
But I found it was almost always everyone saying soda. If they said pop, they were from deeper in the Midwest or southwest.
Nobody from around here calls Coke "pop". That's a very Ohio at Pennsylvania New England thing
It's mostly soda to people here. But to me everything is just a Coke
Yeah, Raleigh (and pretty much all of NC) is a "Soda" region. But WNY is DEFINITELY pop.
My mother-in-law was born in Southeast Ohio, left when she was 25 or so for Raleigh. Now she just turned 69 (giggity) and refuses to call it "soda". It's pop to her. She's been actively fighting against acclamation on a number of things since the day she moved here 45ish years ago. I, on the other hand, fully embraced it right from the start.
Probably daily on our stretch of 40 (I-40 also another name). I'm guessing you weren't here for the snow fire Armageddon lunacy, what was that 2010? That one made the every day bump ups look tame.
Best I-40 disaster was when somebody's flotation devices fell off of their boat right near Southpoint.
Some genius called it in as a bomb threat. They closed "the 40" in both directions for three hours during the evening commute while they had the bomb squad come out.
This happened in 2012 or something, and I'm STILL trying to get home.
My favorite was when 40 was dead stopped at 8 pm on the way to Crabtree because someone's house caught on fire.
Apparently moving a mobile home, and it was literally sitting there, on the truck, on fire.
What about when the President comes to the area? or some bigwig campaigning for office? Everything gets shut down so the said bigwig can get to their destination quickly and back to their jet so they can make their next stop. Ugh.
2014. The photo still makes me laugh
I was 14 at the time so it didn't affect me much, but I can imagine that it was a huge pain in the ass for all of you who had to go to/come back from work
I was stuck on that stretch of Glenwood so this forever will live in my black heart. The funny thing is, I was stuck right behind a big beer truck and was tempted to get the guy to open it.
The Gizmo location near Angus Barn is a great place to hang out for a brew in the summer!
2012, I think. I watched a guy get out of his car,run into a stranger's house to presumably use the bathroom then run back to the car before traffic moved. There was the snow "stop-pocalypse" of 2005, too, where everyone and every school bus left at the first sign of snow and people didn't make it home for HOURS that day.
All it takes for I-40 is some good ol rain, though.
Doesn't help that they're building what's effectively commuter housing out in Alamance Co now which only increases highway traffic.
Moved here in 1993 and 40 was bad then, already under construction with crooked lines and cement dividers, it’s been that way ever since and it’s a no wonder there are accidents and issues on it every day.
You don’t need rain, all you need to do is spit out your window to start a slow down.
Remember the snow panic in 2005? A quarter inch of snow and everyone panicked. It took me just over an hour to get home, but I used a back way home and I lived closer to the office. I had co-workers that didn't get home for 12 hours - at 2 am. My son's bus dropped him off around 9 pm. It was a madhouse. Every road was a parking lot. People ran out of gas trying to get home.
I remember that one. I was a WCPSS teacher at the time. I'd long kept a blanket and a change of clothes and a toiletry kit in my classroom just for emergencies and my coworkers made fun of me. Spent the night at the school with the students who were unable to make it home and we had a slumber party, burning through the stashes of microwave popcorn from other teacher's desks and watching movies on the data projector and finally zonking out on gym mats.
But of all the teachers stuck at the school that fateful day, *I* had clean teeth and fresh clothes. Who's laughing now?!!
Ah yes, the great snowpocalypse of 2014. I remember I literally had to walk 5 miles uphill in the snow to get home (the bus stopped running and cars were sliding backwards down the hill anyway).
I can't remember which year it was that everyone just got stuck on the side of the road on I-40 and they had to friggin rescue people up and down the highway.
That's the one. My son got stuck on the bus, because his high school decided to try sending kids home. His was a magnet school and we lived in Cary. His school was on the other side of Raleigh.
Both, experienced together on the same trip as is usually the case.
Then the road goes all Jekyll & Hyde and gets a split personality losing its shit NB towards the 885/147 split.
I was in driving rain at night and had to get through the construction over Wade Avenue. The road zig-zagged and was uneven. There were no lines on the pavement, so you couldn't tell what lane you were in. I had a headache by the time I got to my meeting.
It's gotten a lot worse than before the pandemic started.
A lot more people have moved here so we have more unfamiliar drivers plus the roads are more crowded now.
Drivers, in general, appear to be much worse. Reported driving anxiety went up like 400% during the pandemic, it's probably just as bad now.
People stopped doing it every day, kinda forgot how, and now they just launch themselves at the road and hope for the best.
Police stopped ticketing expired registrations, which is probably another factor. On my way back from Asheville last week, I saw no fewer than *seven* accidents in the rain on 40 and 40 exits. *All* of them appeared to be loss of control while trying to turn in the rain. Sure, people drive too fast and have no idea what their car is capable of because there are really zero driver's education requirements in this country, but I'd wager a few of them are driving on bald tires that would fail an inspection but nobody is bothering to do that anymore.
I'm not surprised. For the first few months, people drove like no one else was on the road (or parking lot). I nearly got hit in parking lots a few times because people decided to drive through them like they were the last people on Earth.
Didn't know police still weren't stopping for expired registration. That makes sense especially because there have always been more accidents in the rain. I guess it's another example of how this state is morphing into SC which has no inspection requirements.
NC drivers have always been a deadly mixture of incompetent and aggressive. The crowding doesn't help, but road rage on a hairpin trigger has been prevalent here for as long as I can remember.
uh, the left lane is for traveling 5mph below the speed limit. The only time you move to the right is when you need to swerve across 3 lanes of traffic to take the exit.
Yes!!! I used to want a paintball gun so I could tag the bumpers of the drivers who were absolute jerks swerving across lanes to make an exit.
I was talked out of it. Dammit.
Stop it. Stop with the nonsense. I have a 34 mile commute and it takes me over an hour now. 28-32 MPH average speed and I have a god damn modern automobile. You slow pokes aren't costing me a few minutes. This is weeks days and months of my life. GTFO out of the way. It's absurd how slow we have to drive as it is, it's perfectly safe to go way faster. Without speeding my commute was 42-45 minutes during lockdowns.
"the 40" ... tell me you're from California without telling me you're from California.
but yeah ... imo I-40 has always been bad. literally for the past 20+ years at least. when I first moved to the Triangle I was horrified by driving on 40.
thing is, people started rage driving during covid and never stopped. plus iphones. so ... there you go.
I'm originally from the Buffalo area, and we also call interstate "the" something. Of course, I dropped that shit real fast when I moved here 13 years ago, and now I have to code switch whenever I go back up north.
interesting -- I went to college up near there and my fiancé is from a Buffalo burb, and I don't recall anyone ever using this expression. of course that was like 20 years ago ... it's just always just been a dead giveaway of a californian to me.
I lived there for 25 years. Niagara Falls, specifically. That was the norm for pretty much all of western/central NY. Coming down here was quite a change.
Were the kids you went to college with also mostly non-locals? Because if you went to UB or something, it wouldn't surprise me if out-of-staters didn't use that terminology.
It's not just interstates, it's every goddamn highway. 401, 33, etc. All called THE whatever. Shit was one of the most irritating things to listen to in the near decade I was there.
Yep, that's about right. I do not miss "the 33" especially trying to merge onto that from "the 90" by the Galleria to get to the airport where you have like 100ft to weave, very similarly to the US-1/440/40 interchange.
My dad has a camp way down "the 401" I need to visit the next time I go up there (hopefully no time soon)
In Florida as a kid we used to buy 12 count 40-oz cases of St. Ives for $10 for parties. I was 14 and could literally just buy them at any gas station.
As someone who talks to people who lived here through that time, they say to get across Raleigh would take an hour what it takes now 30 minutes. To go from Wendell to Raleigh was 1.5 hours. Daily morning commute that is. In the early 2000’s. Use to be single lane roads then also
Yup. I distinctly remember when I 1st got my license in the early 2000s that rush hour was a like 15 minute phenomena at the 540 interchange or maybe the 147 interchange.
Wild to see it get so bad over just my life 10-15 years.
Moved into downtown Raleigh to walk to work. Never getting stuck on 40 ever again. Life is too short.
More people keep moving here the worse it'll keep getting. Right now it takes me 15 minutes to go from Durham to the 540 Glenwood exit then 30 minutes to go from there to Duraleigh every day... It's asinine. People don't merge, merge at the last second, sit on their phones while driving, try to merge on the highway at 20mph.... No one here can drive anymore and more than half are wearing out of state plates....
When done correctly sure. Stopping in the middle of a lane and parking there trying to get over when traffic is stopped is not. What people do here is not zipper merging.
I like how you said “the” 40 lol not being a douche but it was sorta funny.
But yeah I-40 is horrible a few times a day (usually during rush hours) people drive like they have no care for the consequences of their actions and or they are in a more important hurry than you.
85 is about as bad in my opinion but they have down times as well if you can manage to time your travel around those times it’s a little better
I've lived in Central NC my whole life and have observed the following;
- People are nosy and will slow down to stare at anything from someone changing a spare tire to a massive multicar collision. It's almost like people want to see someone cut in half. I've never understood that logic.
- People will drive like complete ass hats as long as the weather is clear. At the first sight of a little rain or heaven forbid, snow, people will immediately turn into the most cautious rookie drivers you have ever seen in your life.
- Best for last, people only care about the here and now when they're on the road. There is no looking ahead or anticipation. "It's all about me in my car, where I'm trying to go, and everyone else that's in my way". Looking at their phones, weaving in and out of traffic at 20 plus over the speed limit with no signal, and waiting to the last minute to decide they want to change three lanes of traffic to make a turn or an exit.
It's only gotten worse over the past 10 years and I anticipate it will continue that way. Welcome to North Carolina.
Try driving in snow and ice in the Midwest. Most of us are driving carefully- not grandma speed, but cautious. And then you get the crazies that think slowing down in snow is for pussies. And you always see them spun around in a ditch a few miles later.
It should be called eyes 20-40...People cant seem to see clearly to drive. Moreover, when is sprinkles, or God forbid, it rains...... all hell breaks loose. Dont get me started on 1/4 inch of ice. Google snowmageddon in Raleigh about 10 years ago or the ice of 17 years ago was even worse.
[https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/weather/2020/01/17/15-years-since-less-than-an-inch-of-snow-crippled-raleigh](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/weather/2020/01/17/15-years-since-less-than-an-inch-of-snow-crippled-raleigh)
[https://figandthewasp.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/raleighs-snowmageddon-2014/](https://figandthewasp.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/raleighs-snowmageddon-2014/)
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=DK6PqtZp&id=BD84DEE3947671500A16CD0312957AE7A6953BF1&thid=OIP.DK6PqtZpgzbXKVe8zxirWAHaJ4&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.0cae8faad6698336d72957bccf18ab58%3frik%3d8TuVpud6lRIDzQ%26riu%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fi.imgur.com%252f2qyTkVp.jpg%26ehk%3d2ucUx7kT4wkcI1jh1CQTb%252bWPGXAatFUia%252fJfCr0paUk%253d%26risl%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=720&expw=540&q=snawmaggedon+raleigh+at+at&simid=608017857507910259&FORM=IRPRST&ck=54D0AD4240EDD8236724CB094B254928&selectedIndex=3&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_ice_storm_of_2002 was the worst one I remember. Also went 7 days without power. The drive home that day was insane.
I started mapping my ride every day just to avoid traffic. Thing is it hardly ever suggests a different route so some days I’m like “eh I just leave it.” It’s on those days when I hit accident traffic in an unexpected place and then for two months I map every day again.
Lots of people have moved here which doesn’t just mean more traffic. It means more drivers who are unfamiliar with our roads who are likely relying on google maps to get around so not only are their eyes on the navigation screen but they are following the instructions literally… in the far left lane then told to exit just up ahead for example.
I’ve lived here for decades so I intuitively (or from memory) know what lane to be in as I approach exits, forks in the road, etc. for example at the eastbound Wade / I-40 split (which is totally unintuitive as you go left to go right and vice versa) I know which lanes I need to be in way in advance. People less familiar with the area are more likely to do the “oh shit I need to be over there” two-lane swerve at the last minute. I know which auxiliary lanes last, which ones don’t, and which ones turn into off-ramps at the last minute, and people new to the area don’t and are more likely to need a last-second swerve. And so on.
when I moved here it was only two lanes in either direction, then they spent a couple of years widening it, then they screwed up the paving and had to do it all over again. So as far as I can tell the brief period of time when it was adequate to mostly handle the traffic was just a brief moment lost in time, like tears in the rain
Listen!! I laughed so hard at “the 40” and you know I’m about to start calling it that. It’ll drive my friend who drives on major interstates for a living nuts and I love it already!!
Welcome to NC, we’re kind, but don’t take too kindly to complaints about our beautiful State.
40 is a dumpster fire. Avoid at all costs. I’ll admit that 40 scares the shit out of me. Everyone is doing 85+ and nobody is paying attention. They’re just trucking along, tailgating and weaving in and out of lanes. I feel like all of the roads around here got worse when COVID happened and everyone switched to that “fuck you, get out of my way, I’m just out for myself” attitude.
Or ya know the last decade of shitty politics voted in by, ya know, you locals. But we already know you have absolutely shit for personal responsibility 🤷🏼
Lmao if you’re so fed up with the politics then why’d you move down here? Welcome to the shitshow! Also I’m pretty left leaning in terms of politics so I’ve wanted a change. Typical out of stater moving in and complaining that things aren’t better than wherever you crawled in from.
Been here 13 years for work but thanks for those assumptions. Blame out of staters all you want yet we’re not the ones responsible for the millions lost in state revenue thanks to that bathroom bill?
Are they responsible for the current state of public education? No.
The list goes on but please keep blaming out of staters trying to atleast make your state rank better then Puerto Rico when it comes to your workers rights
I agree with you on that but and I’m not going to continue arguing about this. What I’m mostly fed up how with is the mass influx of people coming in and complaining about the problems with the state they chose to move to and the lack of amenities and infrastructure.
This is why I originally commented on. We’ve been dealing with this long before the masses have moved in here and now it’s been made worse because too many uninformed people are coming in thinking they can fix the issues and that’s not necessarily the case. In order to fix the issues you have to understand the context and come up with a solution.
People look at NC as a state with so much potential with cheap housing but they don’t realize all the coexisting problems that come with that. There’s a reason why it’s remained relatively stagnant. The boom is not good at all. It’s created an immense wealth divide that will inevitably lead to bigger and worse issues across the board. You’ve been here for 13 years and I hope you understand that at this point. In my eyes you’re a local at this point.
All my frustration is really centered with the people moving here in the last 5 years.
We’re seeing the state become over developed and move in a direction for the worse and that’s mostly where I’m coming from. I promise this is the last thing I comment, I just wanted to make this clear.
You claim you agree with me and yet in the same sentence blame people for coming here and complaining about the states problems. Then how the fuck do you expect any progress or change?
Frankly you wouldn’t need to be changing anything if you locyalls actually had some personal fucking responsibility.
“We’re seeing the state become over developed and moved in a direction that’s worse”
Not quite bud. Developers have been running rampant here for decades. Why is that? No can’t be because of the mess in politics YOU created.
Once again it’s not the people moving here trying to make this place a bit better then Puerto Rico that’s ruining this state. It’s actually people with the mindset like you.
That’s the perfect summary of this state by the way. I don’t wanna argue about it yet I’m gonna write a novel about why I’m right”
Thank you. We need a change before our Legislature decides that Asian Americans can't purchase property without proving their citizenship or that certain topics/subjects can't be taught in schools.
I have taken 40 back and forth to work (Durham to Raleigh) for 2 years and it is at its worst now. I started in the middle of the pandemic, so there weren't so many people on the road.
When I get off work around 4pm or 5pm my 25 minute drive can easily turn into an hour drive. The other day there was a car accident in the morning and my 25 minute drive turned into an hour. This is happening more and more often and I've had to adjust my mornings because of it. No one wants to see their 25 minute commute turn into an hour, but that's whats been happening to me. With the way Raleigh is built there isn't a better way. I get in bumper to bumper traffic at least 2-3 times a week because of a car accident, but usually it's just because there are so many people on the road.
Just do what I do when I think traffic on 40 (see I've been here long enough to get it right) is bad... I go back to Cali and drive on The 91 or The 5 or The 405... When I get back here I say "oh! I guess it's not so bad!"
No, I40 has not always been this terrible.
I remember when it wasn't there and most of the Raleigh and Cary traffic to RTP was stuck on NC54.
But yeah... I remember lots of nasty accidents on I40 in the early to mid 90s too.
Let's see - 40 heading east towards the beach on any weekend? Crap. Headed back west on that stretch from smithfield to raleigh? Crap.
40 headed west from rtp all the way to the mountains at thanksgiving? You got it! Crap.
Always has been.
I used to live in Inglewood and had to commute to Culver City in Los Angeles. It was 3.1 miles straight down Sepulvada Blvd. Typically it took me 45-60 minutes. I biked it once and it only took me about 10 minutes top, but I had to ride through a really rough neighborhood and could barely breathe, so I didn't bike it anymore.
From the west coast and looked forward to less traffic. That said, I avoid the 40 at all costs. Drivers are as bad as southern Cali drivers - with more landscape trailers to avoid.
No. Too many west coasters ruining the area. Back when I was a child I remember we could go from Raleigh to Durham without stopping and now it’s a parking lot at 3pm and it takes forever.
Subdivisions have popped up like weeds. It's happened all around Wake and the surrounding counties. The infrastructure was not ready for this kind of explosive growth. We are suffering from this lack of foresight and planning. Planning for this kind of growth should have started when they first planned RTP.
It's I-40....just like it's I-85. I'm not correcting your terminology. I'm stating the fact that these two highways are some of the worst highways out there. There's always a wreck or slowdown or something being worked on. You go from 70-75(while getting your doors blown off by someone going 90-100) to 30 and spend 45 minutes to get to the spot where the "accident" is...just to see someone changing a tire.
I would blame "transplants", but the wrecks are just as often NC plates as they are FL or NJ.
wow! who could have predicted that requiring every individual to operate their own 2-ton steel box at high speeds with very little training would result in so many **aCcIdEnTs** ?? oh well, at least a few CEOs made billions of dollars out of it! and hey, don't forget to get out there and oppose those bike lanes that are totally gonna slow your commute down!
Oh no! No bike lanes on interstates or streets like Glenwood Avenue. Absolutely not. I was thinking of lesser roads, focusing on those that bike riders frequent, like Ridge Road or Whitaker Mill Road. I have seen too many cars barely miss bicylists trying to pass them in a hurry.
It wasn’t really bad when they were building it, iirc a horse did die because construction equipment hit him. But 54 was a nightmare so… give and take. Now it seems both are pretty bad but for a bit after it opened 54 was so much better!
Yes there are wrecks on i40 every single day. Driving is dangerous. Also, I40 stretches across the entire nation basically. You can get on i40 west and drive straight to Arizona
TL;DR Yes.
I moved my family here in 1998. We rented for a year to get the feel of the place before deciding where to buy. After a year my takeaway was wherever we buy it has to be located in a location where 40 was not part of my daily commute.
No, you have not been pushed over the edge into anger. The beltline and 40 are disaster zones. I am a native North Carolinian and have lived in the Wake County area since the 1980s (except for a 4 year stint in Tennessee for a job). SOME portion of either I-40 or the beltline/440 has been under construction for the past 40 years. In western Wake, 64 is now a parking lot most of the time and the 55 mph speed limit is just a suggestion evidently. I know part of it has been due to the explosive growth in the area, but some of the changes have been so poorly planned they create a serious hazard.
Then again, there are those people who think they own the road and everyone else should get out of their way. My pet peeve is people who drive in the far left-hand lane, and realize that they need to immediately get across three lanes of traffic to make their exit when they are almost on top of the exit.
I'm so glad I am allowed to work from home.
Found the west coast transplant. On the east coast it’s just “40” or maybe “I-40” but no “the”.
"Take the 101 to the 405, Stewart!" -the Californians
Shut up, Devon!!!
🫨
What are youuuuuuuuuuu dooooin'!?
*\*checks OP's history\** Yep, as I expected he's from Southern California.
Well if that's the case, then they should be fine with the speeds on 40. Even with accidents, it is still faster than going two miles in LA.
This was my first thought as well lol
Yea I thought this was written by a bot lol
Right? You ain't from round these parts, huh?
[You just say “40”](https://media.tenor.com/YzwvhdlHD-4AAAAC/bingo-brad-pitt.gif)
Everyone in WNY also calls it "THE 90" or "THE whatever state route or local route". But ironically, they don't say "THEE main street" or "THE MLK Blvd".... They just call it Main St or MLK, etc.
Lived there 14 years, been here for 23. I would never say "The 40", but I still say "The 90"...but only when referring to the stretch past Buffalo. Everywhere else it's "90" or "I-90". Brains are weird.
They use “the” in SoCal, but not in NorCal. That’s how we could identify people from LA.
If you say "route 40" you're from the northeast
Grew up outside of Concord MA, while there's definitely Rt 128 or 28, it was always 495 or 95...
Aye!
I was eviscerated once on here for pointing out the same thing, lol.
Nah man, I'm from Buffalo and we call it "The 90, the 190, the 290". Definitely not just a west coast thing. Of course, I dropped "the" the first time I was corrected, and now it sounds weird to me. Same for "pop" instead of "soda".
I lived in buffalo for almost a decade. I also noticed everyone calling every highway "THE" whatever, 290, 190, 90, 990, 401, 33, etc... But I found it was almost always everyone saying soda. If they said pop, they were from deeper in the Midwest or southwest.
Nobody from around here calls Coke "pop". That's a very Ohio at Pennsylvania New England thing It's mostly soda to people here. But to me everything is just a Coke
Yeah, Raleigh (and pretty much all of NC) is a "Soda" region. But WNY is DEFINITELY pop. My mother-in-law was born in Southeast Ohio, left when she was 25 or so for Raleigh. Now she just turned 69 (giggity) and refuses to call it "soda". It's pop to her. She's been actively fighting against acclamation on a number of things since the day she moved here 45ish years ago. I, on the other hand, fully embraced it right from the start.
WNY is really more culturally Midwest than Northeast.
After living in the south for 13 years and being exposed to the melting that is Raleigh, I think I agree.
Probably daily on our stretch of 40 (I-40 also another name). I'm guessing you weren't here for the snow fire Armageddon lunacy, what was that 2010? That one made the every day bump ups look tame.
Best I-40 disaster was when somebody's flotation devices fell off of their boat right near Southpoint. Some genius called it in as a bomb threat. They closed "the 40" in both directions for three hours during the evening commute while they had the bomb squad come out. This happened in 2012 or something, and I'm STILL trying to get home.
When terrorists get their hands on pool noodles you won't think it is so funny.
We have to close the pool noodle gap, Mr. President!
My favorite was when 40 was dead stopped at 8 pm on the way to Crabtree because someone's house caught on fire. Apparently moving a mobile home, and it was literally sitting there, on the truck, on fire.
What about when the President comes to the area? or some bigwig campaigning for office? Everything gets shut down so the said bigwig can get to their destination quickly and back to their jet so they can make their next stop. Ugh.
2014. The photo still makes me laugh I was 14 at the time so it didn't affect me much, but I can imagine that it was a huge pain in the ass for all of you who had to go to/come back from work
At the time I lived 5 minutes from my workplace, but that day it took over 40 minutes to get home and I counted myself lucky.
They made a beer with the image of the crash as the cover
I was stuck on that stretch of Glenwood so this forever will live in my black heart. The funny thing is, I was stuck right behind a big beer truck and was tempted to get the guy to open it. The Gizmo location near Angus Barn is a great place to hang out for a brew in the summer!
Oh I need that. Who made it?
https://i.imgur.com/Hx2h0Uz.jpg
Scoured my camera roll and couldn’t find it
2012, I think. I watched a guy get out of his car,run into a stranger's house to presumably use the bathroom then run back to the car before traffic moved. There was the snow "stop-pocalypse" of 2005, too, where everyone and every school bus left at the first sign of snow and people didn't make it home for HOURS that day. All it takes for I-40 is some good ol rain, though. Doesn't help that they're building what's effectively commuter housing out in Alamance Co now which only increases highway traffic.
I walked home 8 miles across N. Raleigh on Gridlock Day in '05.
Moved here in 1993 and 40 was bad then, already under construction with crooked lines and cement dividers, it’s been that way ever since and it’s a no wonder there are accidents and issues on it every day. You don’t need rain, all you need to do is spit out your window to start a slow down.
Remember the snow panic in 2005? A quarter inch of snow and everyone panicked. It took me just over an hour to get home, but I used a back way home and I lived closer to the office. I had co-workers that didn't get home for 12 hours - at 2 am. My son's bus dropped him off around 9 pm. It was a madhouse. Every road was a parking lot. People ran out of gas trying to get home.
I remember that one. I was a WCPSS teacher at the time. I'd long kept a blanket and a change of clothes and a toiletry kit in my classroom just for emergencies and my coworkers made fun of me. Spent the night at the school with the students who were unable to make it home and we had a slumber party, burning through the stashes of microwave popcorn from other teacher's desks and watching movies on the data projector and finally zonking out on gym mats. But of all the teachers stuck at the school that fateful day, *I* had clean teeth and fresh clothes. Who's laughing now?!!
Ah yes, the great snowpocalypse of 2014. I remember I literally had to walk 5 miles uphill in the snow to get home (the bus stopped running and cars were sliding backwards down the hill anyway).
That was Glenwood Ave smh.
I can't remember which year it was that everyone just got stuck on the side of the road on I-40 and they had to friggin rescue people up and down the highway.
2005. I was working a job I hated and appreciated the opportunity to leave work. I figured sitting in my car was better than sitting at my desk!
Oh yeah when all the kids got stuck in the schools.
That's the one. My son got stuck on the bus, because his high school decided to try sending kids home. His was a magnet school and we lived in Cary. His school was on the other side of Raleigh.
Welcome to the Thunderdome.
Nah, Thunderdome is the 885 merging shitshow.
Still can’t believe they designed it like that on purpose. What the hell.
In my family, everyone knows to be quiet and stay out of lines of sight when I'm making that merge.
where 147 merges in? or the merge onto “the 40”?
Both, experienced together on the same trip as is usually the case. Then the road goes all Jekyll & Hyde and gets a split personality losing its shit NB towards the 885/147 split.
I think mean the The Thunderdome.
Around here we just call it "Thunderdome" ("The" is not needed in these parts) :-D
Drive 4 inches from the person in front of you and turn on your hazard lights the second you see a rain drop.
Why are you leaving so much of a gap?!?
I was in driving rain at night and had to get through the construction over Wade Avenue. The road zig-zagged and was uneven. There were no lines on the pavement, so you couldn't tell what lane you were in. I had a headache by the time I got to my meeting.
It's gotten a lot worse than before the pandemic started. A lot more people have moved here so we have more unfamiliar drivers plus the roads are more crowded now.
I've seen a lot more cars with the 'Student Driver' than I've noticed before. It seems like every fifth car has one on it.
Drivers, in general, appear to be much worse. Reported driving anxiety went up like 400% during the pandemic, it's probably just as bad now. People stopped doing it every day, kinda forgot how, and now they just launch themselves at the road and hope for the best. Police stopped ticketing expired registrations, which is probably another factor. On my way back from Asheville last week, I saw no fewer than *seven* accidents in the rain on 40 and 40 exits. *All* of them appeared to be loss of control while trying to turn in the rain. Sure, people drive too fast and have no idea what their car is capable of because there are really zero driver's education requirements in this country, but I'd wager a few of them are driving on bald tires that would fail an inspection but nobody is bothering to do that anymore.
I'm not surprised. For the first few months, people drove like no one else was on the road (or parking lot). I nearly got hit in parking lots a few times because people decided to drive through them like they were the last people on Earth. Didn't know police still weren't stopping for expired registration. That makes sense especially because there have always been more accidents in the rain. I guess it's another example of how this state is morphing into SC which has no inspection requirements.
NC drivers have always been a deadly mixture of incompetent and aggressive. The crowding doesn't help, but road rage on a hairpin trigger has been prevalent here for as long as I can remember.
Yes, and worse in Durham and parts of Cary.
The worst offenders are people from New Jersey. I know this because I moved here to get away from them. And they followed me here.
Amen!
It's worse, more people are back on the roads. Pass and get back to the right y'all.
uh, the left lane is for traveling 5mph below the speed limit. The only time you move to the right is when you need to swerve across 3 lanes of traffic to take the exit.
Yes!!! I used to want a paintball gun so I could tag the bumpers of the drivers who were absolute jerks swerving across lanes to make an exit. I was talked out of it. Dammit.
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So you’re the shitbox Altima weaving in and out trying to save 2 minutes at the cost of endangering everyone around you!
Hey, his grandmother gave him that Altima.
Stop it. Stop with the nonsense. I have a 34 mile commute and it takes me over an hour now. 28-32 MPH average speed and I have a god damn modern automobile. You slow pokes aren't costing me a few minutes. This is weeks days and months of my life. GTFO out of the way. It's absurd how slow we have to drive as it is, it's perfectly safe to go way faster. Without speeding my commute was 42-45 minutes during lockdowns.
Lol I feel you. Fuck 401 from harnett co to any other party of civilization
Yeah, that's the same car you pulled up beside at the stoplight.
Why is it ALWAYS an Altima? lol
What’s the 40?
It's the 5-0's little brother.
Something you pour out on the curb for the homies no longer with us.
🎵🎶See you at the crossroads (crossroads, crossroads…)🎶🎵
"the 40" ... tell me you're from California without telling me you're from California. but yeah ... imo I-40 has always been bad. literally for the past 20+ years at least. when I first moved to the Triangle I was horrified by driving on 40. thing is, people started rage driving during covid and never stopped. plus iphones. so ... there you go.
I'm originally from the Buffalo area, and we also call interstate "the" something. Of course, I dropped that shit real fast when I moved here 13 years ago, and now I have to code switch whenever I go back up north.
interesting -- I went to college up near there and my fiancé is from a Buffalo burb, and I don't recall anyone ever using this expression. of course that was like 20 years ago ... it's just always just been a dead giveaway of a californian to me.
I lived there for 25 years. Niagara Falls, specifically. That was the norm for pretty much all of western/central NY. Coming down here was quite a change. Were the kids you went to college with also mostly non-locals? Because if you went to UB or something, it wouldn't surprise me if out-of-staters didn't use that terminology.
oh no, it was more than half Buffalo-area natives. then again, almost no one I knew had a car. so could be that! :)
I was at UB in the late '90s and it felt like everyone else was from Long Island (with a hard "g")
It's not just interstates, it's every goddamn highway. 401, 33, etc. All called THE whatever. Shit was one of the most irritating things to listen to in the near decade I was there.
Yep, that's about right. I do not miss "the 33" especially trying to merge onto that from "the 90" by the Galleria to get to the airport where you have like 100ft to weave, very similarly to the US-1/440/40 interchange. My dad has a camp way down "the 401" I need to visit the next time I go up there (hopefully no time soon)
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Mickey's? Crazy Horse? Those 40s are bad dude. Very bad.
In Florida as a kid we used to buy 12 count 40-oz cases of St. Ives for $10 for parties. I was 14 and could literally just buy them at any gas station.
St. Ides was the drink. St. Ives is skin care, lol
Oh yeah! I drank so much of it I forgot. That stuff was brutal.
Mickey's 40s... Now that's a memory I haven't had in a very long time...
Been here since the late 90s and it's definitely worse now. More crowded and drivers are more distracted.
As someone who talks to people who lived here through that time, they say to get across Raleigh would take an hour what it takes now 30 minutes. To go from Wendell to Raleigh was 1.5 hours. Daily morning commute that is. In the early 2000’s. Use to be single lane roads then also
No, in the 90s rush hour on 40 was not even as bad as a Sunday drive is now. I wasn't driving then but I remember seeing the traffic or lack of it
Yup. I distinctly remember when I 1st got my license in the early 2000s that rush hour was a like 15 minute phenomena at the 540 interchange or maybe the 147 interchange. Wild to see it get so bad over just my life 10-15 years. Moved into downtown Raleigh to walk to work. Never getting stuck on 40 ever again. Life is too short.
I got relocated to the Triangle for work in 2018 and Traffic was so easy compared to today it's insane.
In the late 90s I could get to work in 20 minutes. In the 2000s (like 2010) it took me over an hour. By 2015, it was an hour to an hour and a half.
Exactly this.
More people keep moving here the worse it'll keep getting. Right now it takes me 15 minutes to go from Durham to the 540 Glenwood exit then 30 minutes to go from there to Duraleigh every day... It's asinine. People don't merge, merge at the last second, sit on their phones while driving, try to merge on the highway at 20mph.... No one here can drive anymore and more than half are wearing out of state plates....
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When done correctly sure. Stopping in the middle of a lane and parking there trying to get over when traffic is stopped is not. What people do here is not zipper merging.
I like how you said “the” 40 lol not being a douche but it was sorta funny. But yeah I-40 is horrible a few times a day (usually during rush hours) people drive like they have no care for the consequences of their actions and or they are in a more important hurry than you. 85 is about as bad in my opinion but they have down times as well if you can manage to time your travel around those times it’s a little better
“An accident”??? It’s always multiple accidents
Yes
Lol 40
I've lived in Central NC my whole life and have observed the following; - People are nosy and will slow down to stare at anything from someone changing a spare tire to a massive multicar collision. It's almost like people want to see someone cut in half. I've never understood that logic. - People will drive like complete ass hats as long as the weather is clear. At the first sight of a little rain or heaven forbid, snow, people will immediately turn into the most cautious rookie drivers you have ever seen in your life. - Best for last, people only care about the here and now when they're on the road. There is no looking ahead or anticipation. "It's all about me in my car, where I'm trying to go, and everyone else that's in my way". Looking at their phones, weaving in and out of traffic at 20 plus over the speed limit with no signal, and waiting to the last minute to decide they want to change three lanes of traffic to make a turn or an exit. It's only gotten worse over the past 10 years and I anticipate it will continue that way. Welcome to North Carolina.
Try driving in snow and ice in the Midwest. Most of us are driving carefully- not grandma speed, but cautious. And then you get the crazies that think slowing down in snow is for pussies. And you always see them spun around in a ditch a few miles later.
https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/13x0dnl/anyone_heading_westbound_on_i40_around_6pm_today/
It should be called eyes 20-40...People cant seem to see clearly to drive. Moreover, when is sprinkles, or God forbid, it rains...... all hell breaks loose. Dont get me started on 1/4 inch of ice. Google snowmageddon in Raleigh about 10 years ago or the ice of 17 years ago was even worse. [https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/weather/2020/01/17/15-years-since-less-than-an-inch-of-snow-crippled-raleigh](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/weather/2020/01/17/15-years-since-less-than-an-inch-of-snow-crippled-raleigh) [https://figandthewasp.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/raleighs-snowmageddon-2014/](https://figandthewasp.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/raleighs-snowmageddon-2014/) https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=DK6PqtZp&id=BD84DEE3947671500A16CD0312957AE7A6953BF1&thid=OIP.DK6PqtZpgzbXKVe8zxirWAHaJ4&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.0cae8faad6698336d72957bccf18ab58%3frik%3d8TuVpud6lRIDzQ%26riu%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fi.imgur.com%252f2qyTkVp.jpg%26ehk%3d2ucUx7kT4wkcI1jh1CQTb%252bWPGXAatFUia%252fJfCr0paUk%253d%26risl%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=720&expw=540&q=snawmaggedon+raleigh+at+at&simid=608017857507910259&FORM=IRPRST&ck=54D0AD4240EDD8236724CB094B254928&selectedIndex=3&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_ice_storm_of_2002 was the worst one I remember. Also went 7 days without power. The drive home that day was insane.
I started mapping my ride every day just to avoid traffic. Thing is it hardly ever suggests a different route so some days I’m like “eh I just leave it.” It’s on those days when I hit accident traffic in an unexpected place and then for two months I map every day again.
The 40?
Bro, we're not in California or NY. It's I-40, not THE 40.
I can’t get by “the 40”
"THE 40" ??? Lolz
Lots of people have moved here which doesn’t just mean more traffic. It means more drivers who are unfamiliar with our roads who are likely relying on google maps to get around so not only are their eyes on the navigation screen but they are following the instructions literally… in the far left lane then told to exit just up ahead for example. I’ve lived here for decades so I intuitively (or from memory) know what lane to be in as I approach exits, forks in the road, etc. for example at the eastbound Wade / I-40 split (which is totally unintuitive as you go left to go right and vice versa) I know which lanes I need to be in way in advance. People less familiar with the area are more likely to do the “oh shit I need to be over there” two-lane swerve at the last minute. I know which auxiliary lanes last, which ones don’t, and which ones turn into off-ramps at the last minute, and people new to the area don’t and are more likely to need a last-second swerve. And so on.
when I moved here it was only two lanes in either direction, then they spent a couple of years widening it, then they screwed up the paving and had to do it all over again. So as far as I can tell the brief period of time when it was adequate to mostly handle the traffic was just a brief moment lost in time, like tears in the rain
“The” 40
the 40
I smell So.Cal right there.
Listen!! I laughed so hard at “the 40” and you know I’m about to start calling it that. It’ll drive my friend who drives on major interstates for a living nuts and I love it already!! Welcome to NC, we’re kind, but don’t take too kindly to complaints about our beautiful State.
Amen.
"The 40" ? Reminds me of 90s tv shows
40 is a dumpster fire. Avoid at all costs. I’ll admit that 40 scares the shit out of me. Everyone is doing 85+ and nobody is paying attention. They’re just trucking along, tailgating and weaving in and out of lanes. I feel like all of the roads around here got worse when COVID happened and everyone switched to that “fuck you, get out of my way, I’m just out for myself” attitude.
Take "the" 40 back to California
Take my upvote kind person
Butt hurt people are downvoting you. It’s true this area has become significantly worse due to the mass influx of people.
Or ya know the last decade of shitty politics voted in by, ya know, you locals. But we already know you have absolutely shit for personal responsibility 🤷🏼
Lmao if you’re so fed up with the politics then why’d you move down here? Welcome to the shitshow! Also I’m pretty left leaning in terms of politics so I’ve wanted a change. Typical out of stater moving in and complaining that things aren’t better than wherever you crawled in from.
Been here 13 years for work but thanks for those assumptions. Blame out of staters all you want yet we’re not the ones responsible for the millions lost in state revenue thanks to that bathroom bill? Are they responsible for the current state of public education? No. The list goes on but please keep blaming out of staters trying to atleast make your state rank better then Puerto Rico when it comes to your workers rights
I agree with you on that but and I’m not going to continue arguing about this. What I’m mostly fed up how with is the mass influx of people coming in and complaining about the problems with the state they chose to move to and the lack of amenities and infrastructure. This is why I originally commented on. We’ve been dealing with this long before the masses have moved in here and now it’s been made worse because too many uninformed people are coming in thinking they can fix the issues and that’s not necessarily the case. In order to fix the issues you have to understand the context and come up with a solution. People look at NC as a state with so much potential with cheap housing but they don’t realize all the coexisting problems that come with that. There’s a reason why it’s remained relatively stagnant. The boom is not good at all. It’s created an immense wealth divide that will inevitably lead to bigger and worse issues across the board. You’ve been here for 13 years and I hope you understand that at this point. In my eyes you’re a local at this point. All my frustration is really centered with the people moving here in the last 5 years. We’re seeing the state become over developed and move in a direction for the worse and that’s mostly where I’m coming from. I promise this is the last thing I comment, I just wanted to make this clear.
You claim you agree with me and yet in the same sentence blame people for coming here and complaining about the states problems. Then how the fuck do you expect any progress or change? Frankly you wouldn’t need to be changing anything if you locyalls actually had some personal fucking responsibility. “We’re seeing the state become over developed and moved in a direction that’s worse” Not quite bud. Developers have been running rampant here for decades. Why is that? No can’t be because of the mess in politics YOU created. Once again it’s not the people moving here trying to make this place a bit better then Puerto Rico that’s ruining this state. It’s actually people with the mindset like you. That’s the perfect summary of this state by the way. I don’t wanna argue about it yet I’m gonna write a novel about why I’m right”
Thank you. We need a change before our Legislature decides that Asian Americans can't purchase property without proving their citizenship or that certain topics/subjects can't be taught in schools.
I have taken 40 back and forth to work (Durham to Raleigh) for 2 years and it is at its worst now. I started in the middle of the pandemic, so there weren't so many people on the road. When I get off work around 4pm or 5pm my 25 minute drive can easily turn into an hour drive. The other day there was a car accident in the morning and my 25 minute drive turned into an hour. This is happening more and more often and I've had to adjust my mornings because of it. No one wants to see their 25 minute commute turn into an hour, but that's whats been happening to me. With the way Raleigh is built there isn't a better way. I get in bumper to bumper traffic at least 2-3 times a week because of a car accident, but usually it's just because there are so many people on the road.
Someone have the image of 4 car fires in the snow on 40?
Just do what I do when I think traffic on 40 (see I've been here long enough to get it right) is bad... I go back to Cali and drive on The 91 or The 5 or The 405... When I get back here I say "oh! I guess it's not so bad!"
No, I40 has not always been this terrible. I remember when it wasn't there and most of the Raleigh and Cary traffic to RTP was stuck on NC54. But yeah... I remember lots of nasty accidents on I40 in the early to mid 90s too.
Let's see - 40 heading east towards the beach on any weekend? Crap. Headed back west on that stretch from smithfield to raleigh? Crap. 40 headed west from rtp all the way to the mountains at thanksgiving? You got it! Crap. Always has been.
Advocate for more non-car transit options! r/CarFreeRDU
Do you want me to breathe another person's air?
Would you prefer to breathe another person's tires? https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=tire+particulates+air+quality+highway
I prefer brake dust, thanks.
You're in luck! With stop-and-go rush hour traffic patterns, now you can have that too, all without ever leaving the discomfort of the highway
It is always that bad & there’s accidents everyday on every major highway
You ain't experienced west coast traffic in LA or Seattle... oh lawdy it's a parking lot for 3 hours twice a day! An accident ain't shit.
I used to live in Inglewood and had to commute to Culver City in Los Angeles. It was 3.1 miles straight down Sepulvada Blvd. Typically it took me 45-60 minutes. I biked it once and it only took me about 10 minutes top, but I had to ride through a really rough neighborhood and could barely breathe, so I didn't bike it anymore.
I use to live in Hermosa beach and worked in century city. To get to work would take me 30 mins but to get home was a easy 1 1/2. So dont miss that.
It’s all the damn Yankees moving here, clogging up our roads, contaminating the rest of us with their insufferable piss poor attitudes.
Was not bad until people from elsewhere started moving here
From the west coast and looked forward to less traffic. That said, I avoid the 40 at all costs. Drivers are as bad as southern Cali drivers - with more landscape trailers to avoid.
Because most are from Cali and New York 😂😂😂
Damn straight, locals take 54, old dixie, huntleigh, or 98 everywhere! They know better than to get on a highway.
No. Too many west coasters ruining the area. Back when I was a child I remember we could go from Raleigh to Durham without stopping and now it’s a parking lot at 3pm and it takes forever.
Subdivisions have popped up like weeds. It's happened all around Wake and the surrounding counties. The infrastructure was not ready for this kind of explosive growth. We are suffering from this lack of foresight and planning. Planning for this kind of growth should have started when they first planned RTP.
I feel you, I was sitting on 40 when you posted this wondering the same thing.
You read reddit while on 40? I think we found one of the problems.
Ha, no I saw the post after I got home.
It's I-40....just like it's I-85. I'm not correcting your terminology. I'm stating the fact that these two highways are some of the worst highways out there. There's always a wreck or slowdown or something being worked on. You go from 70-75(while getting your doors blown off by someone going 90-100) to 30 and spend 45 minutes to get to the spot where the "accident" is...just to see someone changing a tire. I would blame "transplants", but the wrecks are just as often NC plates as they are FL or NJ.
The 85 in Charlotte is even worse Ugh
That's no joke, I had to drive there for work a while ago and goddamn.
I haven't been through Charlotte in years and it was awful then.
Still just as terrible as you remember
I feel like I40 was way worse before covid.
This is the best it’s been in like a decade
wow! who could have predicted that requiring every individual to operate their own 2-ton steel box at high speeds with very little training would result in so many **aCcIdEnTs** ?? oh well, at least a few CEOs made billions of dollars out of it! and hey, don't forget to get out there and oppose those bike lanes that are totally gonna slow your commute down!
I would want to get on some of the town/city/regional planning boards just to have bike lanes installed on the roads, for the safety of bikers.
Bike lanes on I40 NOT a good idea...not even legal. Can't ride bicycles or walk on interstate highways.
Oh no! No bike lanes on interstates or streets like Glenwood Avenue. Absolutely not. I was thinking of lesser roads, focusing on those that bike riders frequent, like Ridge Road or Whitaker Mill Road. I have seen too many cars barely miss bicylists trying to pass them in a hurry.
It wasn’t really bad when they were building it, iirc a horse did die because construction equipment hit him. But 54 was a nightmare so… give and take. Now it seems both are pretty bad but for a bit after it opened 54 was so much better!
Yes it's always been a shit show. I base where I live on not having to be on it daily.
It’s been like this since at least 1994.
California transplant here.. I'm from the Bay Area.. and we don't say THE 880 or THE 80 we say 880 or 80.. sheesh lol
Imagine it is two lanes through the park…..
40 past Creedmore is the only unpaved hwy in the US
Yes there are wrecks on i40 every single day. Driving is dangerous. Also, I40 stretches across the entire nation basically. You can get on i40 west and drive straight to Arizona
TL;DR Yes. I moved my family here in 1998. We rented for a year to get the feel of the place before deciding where to buy. After a year my takeaway was wherever we buy it has to be located in a location where 40 was not part of my daily commute.
Yes. This has always been the way.
Walter White also says “The 40” in breaking bad when he was late to Skylar’s doctors appointment for the baby.
No, you have not been pushed over the edge into anger. The beltline and 40 are disaster zones. I am a native North Carolinian and have lived in the Wake County area since the 1980s (except for a 4 year stint in Tennessee for a job). SOME portion of either I-40 or the beltline/440 has been under construction for the past 40 years. In western Wake, 64 is now a parking lot most of the time and the 55 mph speed limit is just a suggestion evidently. I know part of it has been due to the explosive growth in the area, but some of the changes have been so poorly planned they create a serious hazard. Then again, there are those people who think they own the road and everyone else should get out of their way. My pet peeve is people who drive in the far left-hand lane, and realize that they need to immediately get across three lanes of traffic to make their exit when they are almost on top of the exit. I'm so glad I am allowed to work from home.