East End Connector gets a regional branding push
(Bull City Rising blog – December 11, 2009)
If you're looking for a lesson in branding, you could do a lot worse than the Regional Transportation Alliance's new campaign to push for the East End Connector.
Wait, make that the Triangle Connector, as we learn from WRAL's reporting: The Regional Transportation Alliance has a new top freeway priority in the Triangle for 2010 that would reduce travel time from Interstate 85 to Research Triangle Park. The Triangle Connector to Interstate 85 would be the final piece of roadway that would create a stoplight-free connection from U.S. Highway 1 in southwest Wake County to I-85 in Research Triangle Park....
"It will allow the Triangle region as a whole – Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, Research Triangle Park – to connect to Interstate 85," Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, said.
What's in a name? Well, regional support, for one thing; the repositioning helps to show the road as a facility that doesn't just matter for Durham, but for the entire Triangle and beyond. Less-reported but omnipresent in discussions these days of the East End Connector is why that matters.
In an interview earlier this fall, District 5 BOT rep (and past BCR guest columnist) Chuck Watts noted that the new, data-driven process would impact the East End Connector, which hadn't made the last 60- month "let list" for projects under the old methodology.
Watts echoed the point the Regional Transportation Alliance is making: namely, that the EEC isn't a road uniquely suited for the Bull City, but one that would serve a wide regional need.
"You'd be able to go from north of Durham down to almost Pinehurst at highway speeds without having to go on back roads," Watts said. "The term East End Connector describes it from a Durham-only perspective. It's really more of a Triangle expressway that would help to promote a loop all around the Triangle, not just Raleigh and Durham."
The bottom line? Keep on keeping on with that regional perspective, RTA. Because the EEC's chances seem best when we think of this project as part of a Triangle-wide vision.