“Is there a button to push here?” muttered Joe Milazzo, standing on the corner of Chatham and Walker streets in downtown Cary, looking for a pedestrian crossing button.

He’ll have to look into that, he jokes.

As executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, a Raleigh-based organization dealing with traffic and transit issues, Milazzo knows the streets of Wake, Durham and Orange counties better than almost anyone.

“That’s what’s called a quadruple loop,” he said, motioning toward the hidden sensors in the Walker Street turn lane. “That’s what triggers the signal.”

As a civil engineer, Milazzo understands the intricacies of road infrastructure, the timed crossing signals, the physics of the roundabout, the science of the well-placed left turn lane.

As a businessman with a master’s degree in business management from N.C. State, he knows the financial and political challenges of creating plans for transportation in an area growing as rapidly as the Triangle.

“When your area’s named after a shape, that tells you that people are going from one place to another a lot,” he said.

RTA was established in 2001 by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Greater Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill-Carrboro chambers of commerce. More than 100 businesses and 22 other chambers in nine counties now work with RTA to deal with transportation issues in the extended Triangle area.

The group produces research, lobbies and works with local businesses and government.

Recent RTA projects in Cary and western Wake County include the widening of portions of U.S. 1/64, improvements to N.C. 54/Chapel Hill Road, the Interstate 540 extension to N.C. 55, reconstruction of Terminal 2 at RDU, to be completed in 2010, the proposed Triangle Parkway, which would run to Holly Springs, and roundabouts along Chatham Street.

Growing up in a Rust Belt town in southwestern Pennsylvania, cut off from Pittsburgh and other major cities by bad roads, Milazzo, 37, has long been interested in transportation.

“I realized almost instinctively what a difference mobility can make in people’s lives,” he said.

Driving around Cary in a gold Nissan outfitted with a car seat (he’s got three children under the age of 3), Milazzo pointed out recent traffic improvements. The turn lanes at Chapel Hill Road and Maynard have been widened, for example, making it easier to go left without an arrow.

“That’s a subtle thing,” he said. But it makes a big difference for drivers, who no longer have to idle for nearly as long. Less idling helps the environment too.

“They may not even realize what the town is doing for them,” said Milazzo.

The Triangle’s traffic situation is not that bad now, Milazzo says, but it has the potential to reach Atlanta-level snarls if not properly dealt with over the next few years. RTA is looking into train service, better bike paths and incentives for carpoolers.

If funding for the Triangle Expressway toll road is approved by the state legislature, people could one day drive from Holly Springs to Davis Drive with no traffic lights, substantially shortening commutes.

And a shorter commute has immense psychological benefits, Milazzo says.

“It’s hard to think of something that impacts quality of life more,” he said.

Joe Milazzo Bio
age: 37
lives in: Cary
family: Wife, Claire. Three young children.
job title: Executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance.
education: Bachelor’s in civil engineering from Pennsylvania State University, Master’s in civil engineering and Business Administration from N.C. State.
Goals: Getting funding for the Triangle Expressway turnpike passed, getting more direct flights at RDU to the West Coast, widening I-40.