North Carolina Car Insurance

How Duke and North Carolina Fans Caravan to Basketball Games

The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center — locally known as the “Dean Dome” — is where the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) plays its home basketball games. Online mapping tools state that Duke University’s basketball arena, Cameron Indoor Stadium, is only 12.7 miles away, with an estimated travel time of 24 minutes between the two venues, according to Google Maps.

Traffic Issues

Anyone who has tried to travel between the North Carolina cities of Durham and Chapel Hill on game day — whether attending the game or not — knows full well that mapping tools’ estimation of 24 minutes of travel time at best is an example of uninformed optimism.

The primary road that connects Durham and Chapel Hill is one that carries US Highway 15 and US Highway 501, locally known as 15-501. The six miles of 15-501 outside of the city limits of either Durham or Chapel Hill are stuffed with one large shopping center after another. Shopping centers even are stacked two deep along one stretch of the road, contributing to a 44,000 daily traffic count as long ago as 2003, according to the 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan. Interstate 40 intersects 15-501 about halfway between the two towns, but I-40 is of no help when driving to either of the two basketball arenas. Whether the Duke-UNC game is in Durham or Chapel Hill, those driving from the other town ultimately leave the congestion of 4- and 6-lane 15-501 for a few miles of gently winding, tree-lined, two-lane congested roads.

There are several issues that complicate basketball fans’ ability to get to either arena:

• There is no public transportation between Durham and Chapel Hill. Each city has city buses, but neither invades the other city’s space.
• I-40 assists motorists in getting to 15-501, but the 15-501 exit is the only one of real value. The two roads form an “X” on a map.
• Traffic is heavy on 15-501, even when there is no game.

Facilities and Parking

Cameron Indoor Stadium was the largest gymnasium south of Philadelphia when it was built in 1940. After several internal redesigns over the decades, its current official capacity is 9,310, though Duke students have been known to stuff as many as 500 extra people into the student section as there are seats for them. There are six parking lots scattered around the campus that are used for game parking. Each of the lots has overflow parking contingencies, but anyone driving to a game at Duke will need to know exactly where they are going. There are no well-labeled, wide paths funneling drivers into any central parking area. Combined with the general seclusion of the campus, parking for a game at Duke can be more than only challenging. It is common to see cars lining the picturesque two-lane roads near campus, where they impede non-game traffic.

The Smith Center, on the other hand, is a much newer arena built in part to relieve earlier seating capacity problems. Official capacity is 21,750, but the Smith Center’s record attendance occurred in 2005, when 22,125 people gathered to watch a Duke-UNC game. There is much more parking near the Smith Center than at its Cameron counterpart, but it is no less difficult to reach. For big events such as the Duke game, Chapel Hill Transit operates a shuttle service from two of four park-and-ride lots in Chapel Hill. The buses run only for 30 minutes after the end of the game, however, for a high probability of missing the return ride to the car. Further, Chapel Hill Transit may run shuttles only from two of the four locations, or it may run buses from each of the four locations. There is no indication that any location decision is announced in advance.