Seriously? Is INNER and OUTER that hard to comprehend?

http://www.wral.com/traffic/story/3429922/

Quote :

"Drivers no longer have to picture themselves on a clock face as they travel around downtown Raleigh, the N.C. Department of Transportation said Monday. The Inner and Outer Beltline designations for parts of Interstate 40 and Interstate 440 are being retired. The loop around downtown has had various names and numbers since construction began in the 1960s. It was re-named I-440 in 1996. Since that time, the lanes that travel clockwise have been called the "Inner Beltline," while the lanes that travel counter-clockwise are labeled "Outer Beltline." It's easy to see why on a map, but harder to visualize when wedged in a line of traffic. DOT will begin work on new signage as soon as this fall as part of a larger contract to replace signs along the route. The eight miles where I-40 and I-440 overlap from Exit 293 to Exit 301 will be re-labled simply as I-40. The rest of the current loop will continue to carry the I-440 label. While drivers in both directions will head north to get where they are going, the road will simply be labeled I-440, either east or west."

8/25/2008 4:30:01 PM

the beltline will always be kind of confusing to people who have never driven on it, REGARDLESS of what they name it

8/25/2008 4:31:17 PM

this makes much more sense to me

also troo ^

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 4:31 PM. Reason : .]

8/25/2008 4:31:25 PM

man i just copied the link to post this: so im pasting it anyway

http://www.wral.com/traffic/story/3429922/

so there!


and it really isnt that confusing...it only took me 20 years!

8/25/2008 4:32:28 PM

i saw the graph in yesterday's n&o

maybe i'm misunderstanding it, but from what i could gather you can be on a road and it switches names while you're on it

is it that hard to put a sign that says "clockwise" and "counter clockwise" with a simple webding picture of a circle with an arrow under it?

8/25/2008 4:32:36 PM

I like the naming, that way you can tell which people have been in Raleigh more than a year or two...

8/25/2008 4:32:41 PM

what's actually confusing is when I'm about to get on and I see signs for I-440N and I-440S

IT'S A GODDAMN CIRCLE, WTF DOES N/S mean?

8/25/2008 4:33:18 PM

fuck that.... inner and outter is a better idea...

this is how 277 and 485 are labeled in charlotte and i think its retarded.

so you get on west that turns to south that turns to east... fuck that...

-sumfoo1..

8/25/2008 4:34:13 PM

8/25/2008 4:35:35 PM

east west is perfect. west leads towards 40 west east leads towards 40 east.

8/25/2008 4:35:37 PM

marko's idea makes the most sense ("is it that hard to put a sign that says "clockwise" and "counter clockwise")

therefore, its too simple for politicians to implement

8/25/2008 4:35:49 PM

Quote :

"what's actually confusing is when I'm about to get on and I see signs for I-440N and I-440S IT'S A GODDAMN CIRCLE, WTF DOES N/S mean?"

Exactly. Inner and outer was much better.

8/25/2008 4:35:52 PM

i liked inner outer, and the new idea, but they just need to fucking stick with one

8/25/2008 4:36:01 PM

Big doughnut, Lil' Doughnut

8/25/2008 4:36:04 PM

i even drew a pic of it yesterday

8/25/2008 4:36:53 PM

I didn't think it was that hard

8/25/2008 4:37:41 PM

now in Charlotte, they have an Inner and Outer 485.

8/25/2008 4:39:28 PM

its a haff circle. on the northside is 440. the ssw side is 40.

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 4:40 PM. Reason : not even more of a curved line]

8/25/2008 4:39:58 PM

What if they painted the inner beltline road completely blue, and the outer beltline completely red, and called them the red and blue beltlines?

Yes, it would cost mucho dinero and take up a lot of time, but no one could ever again complain about being confused as to which beltline to take.

8/25/2008 4:40:30 PM

yeah, ppl are just fucking idiots

8/25/2008 4:42:55 PM

except people still wouldn't understand which goes in which direction

8/25/2008 4:43:27 PM

this is the signage i would propose

i think that would help when you're actually on the road

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 4:59 PM. Reason : +]

8/25/2008 4:49:27 PM

OUTER -> COUNTER

8/25/2008 4:56:03 PM

They can't continue to call 440 inner/outer because, when 540 is complete, they will start referring to 440 as the inner beltline and 540 as the outer beltline. That makes sense to me.

But this east/west bullshit... there has to be a better way

8/25/2008 4:56:59 PM

well once all the fucking retards realize that 440 is just a loop, the signs make sense

sadly, this doesn't occur

8/25/2008 5:10:26 PM

i dont understand why people have such a hard time with the betline... i mean its a fucking circle for chist sakes

Quote :

"its a haff circle. on the northside is 440. the ssw side is 40"

its technically still 440 on the bottom half also

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 5:14 PM. Reason : jhkjh]

8/25/2008 5:12:27 PM

obviously you seeing as its NOT a circle

8/25/2008 5:14:15 PM

the whole east and west thing is even more confusing. How hard is it to figure out if you are on the inside of a circle or on the outside? (for people that live here) for out of towners they'll be lost and confused anyway and just have to follow the signage that corresponds to their google maps directions.

8/25/2008 5:15:51 PM

Quote :

"obviously you seeing as its NOT a circle"

definatly a circle but nice try though

8/25/2008 5:17:37 PM

the clockwise/counterclockwise thing still won't help if people can't visualize where they are in relation to the rest of the city

8/25/2008 5:27:16 PM

i STILL am reading this thread title as "Reaming the Beltline"

sounds like some kind of midget transexual porno flick

8/25/2008 5:28:32 PM

the problem with inner outer is that most people don't know which side is the inside until they are on it or where they are going is on the inside or the outside. for ppeople who don't know where they are or where they are going relative to downtown then inner ourter is impossible because it appears straight until your first little curve on it after its too late

east west is simple because even though at times it is oriented n/s it is ultimately oriented e/w and always progressing in the e/w direction


the read is 40 as you see what i was saying


and its not a circle. the red isn't technically part of 440.

8/25/2008 5:28:40 PM

This new naming convention will really mess people up.

For example, using the new names, if you take the 440 East exit 297B from 40 East, eventually you will be travelling on 40 West if you do not exit. This does not compute.

8/25/2008 5:31:27 PM

it is 40 and 440 i dont know why thats hard for you to understand. look at the signs next time you are on that stretch. i worked as a traffic reporter for 2 years and know the roads in raleigh like the back of my hand. just like 40 and 85 are the same road for awhile, i know the concept may be hard for a simple mind, but i am right.

8/25/2008 5:32:27 PM

its been changed from that and some people let it go that way for the simple mind. tom bradshaw is not 440. i dont know if you are young or from somewhere else but they fairly recently built 440 before then it was just 40. think about what you are saying. how could they call it east west if it was a circle. east would start going west and west would start going east

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 5:39 PM. Reason : there has been flip flopping but they leave it so pple like you won't get lost]

8/25/2008 5:38:33 PM

hell you can even zoom in just a little bit more on that google map you posted and you will see that it is 40 and 440


so i guess the signs say its 440 and the maps say its 440 and the traffic reporter says its 440 but wetthebest says its not so its probably not

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 5:44 PM. Reason : ,]

8/25/2008 5:41:33 PM

you can spend about 10-20 minutes memorizing a map of Raleigh. I promise, this is less time than you will spend if you get lost trying to figure it out.

^^ and being young or not from here doesn't matter, I know Raleigh better than everyone else I know from Raleigh does.

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 5:50 PM. Reason : .]

8/25/2008 5:47:14 PM

I thought this said "Reaming"

8/25/2008 5:48:59 PM

they carry the signs were not trying to debate that. the highway has been there. they are 2 seperate highways. you dont just stay on 440 smoothly when you reach the westside you have to EXIT onto the part of 40 you think is 440 dual and on the eastside you come to and end and it gives you 2 options of 40 which you JOIN up with. same highways are just constant highways like 540 will be. im not going to tell somebody to get on 64 or 1 and point to 440 even though it carries the signs.

64 and 1 are the same in cary. 40 and 85 are the same in that area you said but this is not the same with 40 and 440. sure it will lead to 440 so they keep the signs there so people who are somewhat lost can have a bit of hope.

8/25/2008 5:50:39 PM

i thought this was because they didnt want it to be confused with the inner/outer of 540

8/25/2008 5:54:03 PM

they aren't debating why the name is being changed, they're debating why the name is being changed to East/West as opposed to say, Clockwise/Counterclockwise

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 5:57 PM. Reason : .]

8/25/2008 5:56:20 PM

I just love the idea how who ever wins the resigning contract, they will get 1 million to redo it... Seriously... wtf? That's just a waste of our tax payer's money. Considering, we'll be in this situation again not to far off down the road and resign the damn thing again...

I like marko's idea too. Marko, you should definitely make a formal proposal for it and get some petition signatures too.

8/25/2008 5:59:08 PM

well the problem is most people can't grasp highway systems so it will always be confusing to the majority of the population. just goes to show when you have a thread about it and most of the people suggesting new ways or explaining it don't even have a clue themselves.

8/25/2008 6:05:49 PM

Quote :

"OUTER -> COUNTER"

thats how ive always remembered it

8/25/2008 6:10:59 PM

they should just name it "towards capital blvd" and "towards ncsu". that'd work just fine for me.

8/25/2008 6:17:13 PM

Quote :

"they should just name it "towards capital blvd" and "towards ncsu". that'd work just fine for me."

8/25/2008 6:20:42 PM

Quote :

"what's actually confusing is when I'm about to get on and I see signs for I-440N and I-440S IT'S A GODDAMN CIRCLE, WTF DOES N/S mean?"

EXACTLY. wtf is this stupid shit? inner and outer is so fucking easy

8/25/2008 6:22:43 PM

dont ever come to atlanta then

8/25/2008 6:23:15 PM

Quote :

"The eight miles where I-40 and I-440 overlap from Exit 293 to Exit 301 will be re-labled simply as I-40."

shoulda been like this anyways imo

8/25/2008 6:23:35 PM

yet more proof that people are idiots

8/25/2008 6:23:40 PM