Orange County NC Website
33 <br />COLLECTOR /SUBCOLLECTOR ROAD SYSTEM <br />Policy Issues <br />The functional classification of Orange County's road system identifies the major and <br />minor arterials as well as the collector roads. These form the basic roadway <br />infrastructure or skeleton for the movement of people and goods. In addition, there <br />are classifications below the collector which comprise the majority of the system <br />mileage where the greatest degree of interface occurs between roadway and land use. <br />A properly designed road system should have a sufficient number of properly spaced <br />roads of each classification in order to adequately serve the desired land uses and <br />intensity of development. However, it is generally not desirable to provide <br />significantly more roads than necessary to service this demand, due to consumption of <br />land and resources required by the road as well as capital and maintenance cost. A <br />proper balance in the roadway system should be sought in order to serve the existing <br />and planned land use as well as through or out -of- county travel. <br />Road System Assessment <br />In applying this philosophy to Orange County, a qualitative assessment of system <br />balance in the non -urban areas was made. Since the arterial system is fairly well <br />defined, it will be briefly discussed; however, the primary focus was on the collector <br />roads and the major local roads which are served by the collectors. <br />The arterial system provides good north -south and east -west movement, with the <br />primary demand being east and west. Based on the future land use plan, there is <br />adequate potential capacity to serve existing and future traffic volumes. The east -west <br />facilities are fairly well spaced, with NC 54 and Old Greensboro Road located in <br />southern Orange County and the I -85 /US 70 corridor located slightly north of the <br />middle of the County. The north -south arterial demand is served by NC 49, NC 87, NC <br />57 and Dodson Crossings Road. In addition, there are other north -south arterials <br />located within the urban study areas -- NC 86 and Old NC 86. <br />15 <br />