Stay in Your Lane

And if you have to drive past STARS Charter School on U.S. 1, maybe start your morning commute a little earlier next week. From Sept. 15-19, the NCDOT has decided to test how traffic flows in and out of the school each morning without the direction of Moore County Sheriff’s Deputies. Yikes.

• DOT engineer Matt Kitchen said that section of U.S. 1 was updated about six years ago but was never given the opportunity to function alone. “We might get out there on the first day and see that it is that bad,” he told The Pilot. “But we want to give (the intersection) a chance to operate and have people drive it under normal conditions.”
• STARS Executive Director Wesley Graner does not agree with the plan. He said removing the deputies might allow better traffic flow for commuters heading south, but people on the other side of U.S. 1 still need to make a left turn into the campus. “My question is: traffic isn’t stopped now; everybody can move. But what about the people trying to get across? Is that just their problem?”

The DOT and sheriff’s office will stay close to monitor traffic and gather data via drones and other tools. Will it be a cluster? Reply with your predictions.