A. All streets dedicated to public use shall be classified in accordance with Table 6.10.2: Street Classification:
Street Type [1] [2] | Description |
Interstate | Interstates are the highest classification of arterials streets and are designed and are constructed with mobility and long distance travel in mind. Access is controlled, intersections are grade-separated, and roadways are designed for high-speed travel. Roadways in this functional classification category connect the Town to other destinations in the State and connect major activity centers in the Town to one another. Interstates carry the highest traffic volumes. |
Principal Arterial | These streets provide a high degree of mobility both within the Town's urban areas as well as through neighboring rural areas. While principal arterials do provide direct access to adjacent land uses along their alignments, their primary function is to facilitate the movement of vehicles from one part of the Town's jurisdiction to another. Principal arterials are found in the most urban or intense parts of the Town and are generally not located within residential neighborhoods, office centers, or industrial parks. Vehicles move at moderate speeds and four-way intersections are often signal-controlled. These streets include at-grade intersections with other streets, but driveways to individual lots are kept to a minimum. The average number of vehicles trips can vary widely based on the urban or rural location of an arterial street. |
Minor Arterial | Minor arterial streets connect principal arterial streets to one another and provide for vehicle trips of moderate length within geographic areas smaller than those served by principal arterials. Minor arterials help to distribute vehicle trips across the Town and provide much more direct access to individual lots and land uses via driveways. Normally, the spacing of arterial streets should not exceed one mile in fully developed areas. |
Major Collector | Major collector streets gather traffic from local streets and funnel it to the arterial street network. They serve as traffic circulators as well as facilitators of direct vehicular access to individual land uses such as multi-family residential, commercial, and industrial developments. Major collector streets may also serve larger single-family residential neighborhoods. Most vehicular trips on a major collector street are longer than three-quarters of a mile. Collector streets accommodate higher vehicle speeds than local streets and often have a blend of signalized and non-signalized intersections in addition to individual driveways for larger developments. In rural areas, major collectors often facilitate intra-county travel of distances shorter than those typical to an arterial street. |
Minor Collector | Minor collectors also gather or collect traffic from local streets and connect it with the larger arterial street network. Most vehicular trips on minor collector streets are less than three-quarters of a mile. Typically, minor collector streets are shorter than major collectors, have fewer travel lanes, have a lower density of individual driveway access points, are designed for lower traffic speeds, and are spaced at greater intervals than major collectors. At the same time, the total lane mileage of minor collector streets in a community is greater than the total mileage of major collector streets. |
Local | Local streets occupy the largest percentage of lane miles across all types of streets and primarily provide direct access to individual lots. Local streets are often configured to discourage through traffic, though local streets can also effectively disperse local traffic when configured as part of a highly connected network offering multiple routes. |
Cul-de-Sac | A dead-end local street that terminates in a vehicular turnaround. |
Alley | A secondary street that provides direct access to a limited number of individual lots or land uses. In most cases, access is provided to the side or rear of the lot served by the alley. |
Notes: [1] The classification shall be based upon the function of the street and projected volume of traffic to be carried by the street, stated in terms of the number of trips per day. [2] The types of streets and their general locations are depicted on the NC Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's Functional Classification Map, as amended. | |
B. New streets constructed in the Town's jurisdiction shall be designated in accordance with Table 6.10.2: Street Classification.
C. Whenever a street within a new development continues an existing street that formerly terminated outside the development or it is expected that a new street will be continued beyond the development at some future time, the classification of the street will be based upon the street in its entirety, both within and outside of the development.
(Ord. 2020-36, passed 12-2-2019)