Nothing is worse than bumper to bumper traffic during rush hour and if you're driving to or from Durhman you might have noticed signs that now allow buses to drive on the shoulder of the highway.
This is a new project The Department of Transportation is trying out for a year. It wants to see if it helps ease traffic congestion while also encouraging the use of mass transit.
The stretch of highway the buses can drive on starts right after the 40 and 15-501 split going towards Raleigh at exit 270. It goes westbound all the way to the Durhman freeway at exit 279. For buses going eastbound it's the same route, but extends another three miles to exit 282.
Now what does this mean for you?
Buses can only move into the shoulder lanes when traffic is going slower than 35mph, but they can only go 15 mph faster than the passing traffic. If you're in a car accident, you have the right of way to pull over to the shoulder and the buses will have to change lanes.
I spoke to the DOT and Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation to see if we would ever have a similar plan in Greensboro and they said there isn't enough congestion in the Piedmont area to implement this.