CARY - Dan Epstein moved to Cary from New York to get away from the hustle, bustle - and complicated traffic patterns - of big-city living.

But the things from which he sought refuge appear to have followed him south, and he's not pleased.

Epstein is among the vocal group of western Wake County residents who last year fought a proposal to turn U.S. 64 into an elevated expressway.

The N.C. Department of Transportation dropped that idea and a few others Wednesday. "The public felt that an elevated expressway through their community would be too intrusive and would move the traffic way too fast," said Dan Thomas, a DOT planning engineer.

DOT planners also backed away from other unpopular ideas as they released a new plan for easing traffic jams and handling growth over the next 30 years on a 19-mile stretch of U.S. 64 between Cary and Pittsboro.

But Epstein and other organizers of Save 64, a grassroots group formed last year, said the new plan is still disappointing.

"We want to preserve the integrity of our community," Epstein said. "The real battle is that the state is trying to create an uninterrupted route between Raleigh and Charlotte."

The state said it wants to keep the busy part of U.S. 64 in western Wake from growing into a dreadful drive resembling the clogged Capital Boulevard in northern Wake County.

Much of the worst congestion is around traffic-signal intersections on U.S. 64. Drivers frequently are backed up waiting for others to make left turns, and cars on side roads face long waits for short green lights.

Part of the state's plan involves steps to block side-street drivers from crossing or turning left onto U.S. 64. Last year's version proposed new-fangled "superstreet" loops at seven intersections between U.S. 1 in Cary and N.C. 751 in Chatham County, and a few more between N.C. 751 and Pittsboro.

Under that scheme, all side-street drivers would have to turn right onto U.S. 64. To go back the other way, they would make U-turns across the median. Cars traveling in all directions would get more green-light time than they do now, and traffic engineers say even the side-street traffic would move more smoothly.

The new plan drops the superstreet idea at the clogged Laura Duncan Road intersection in Apex. Parents warned in a noisy public hearing last July that students from nearby Apex High would be run over by cars when they tried to walk across the new road.

So DOT came up with a new approach for Laura Duncan Road, something not seen before in North Carolina called a "modern roundabout interchange."

The intersection would be converted to an interchange, with Laura Duncan passing over U.S. 64. Instead of a simple overpass road, Laura Duncan would become a flattened circle - stretching across the bridge and connecting to the U.S. 64 ramps on both sides.

Drivers exiting from U.S. 64 would make a right turn onto the roundabout as it circles across the bridge. A sidewalk would take pedestrians around the outside of the loop.

"So the school students would not have to cross the lanes of U.S. 64," Thomas explained. "They would cross the bridge."

Rhonda Riley, an Apex High School PTA vice president, welcomed the proposed changes for Laura Duncan Road.

"There's only room for improvement for the folks in the cars and the students walking there," Riley said.

Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly said the new plan appeared to be less disruptive of current and future development along the corridor.

"And it is fairly consistent with the wishes of Apex representatives on the citizen review committee," he said. "But this is a long-range project and will warrant following up on and staying on top of it even before construction begins."

Critics such as Epstein said the best solution is for the road to bypass Cary.

"Cary is absolutely worth preserving, and we deserve a bypass like Pittsboro," Epstein said. "A community should have the right to protect itself."

He said Save 64 plans to mobilize against the new plan in the coming weeks.

DOT planners will accept public comment until June 30 and then forward the plan to state and regional officials who will decide how the region's transportation money is spent in future years. No money has been set aside for U.S. 64 improvements - estimated to cost $325 million - and no construction timetables have been proposed.

Staff writer Jordan Cooke contributed to this report.