Triangle Terminology

You’re considering a move to the Raleigh area of North Carolina, but as you’re doing your research, you keep coming across all this newfangled terminology that leaves you scratching your head. From the Triangle to the Beltline and RTP to RDU, I’m here to break it all down for you here.

RTP
So let’s start with an anchor term, and one that’s pretty well known outside of this area: RTP. RTP stands for Research Triangle Park, and it refers to the 7,000-acre business park that drives the region’s economy. RTP is located smack dab in the middle of three of the state’s most prestigious Tier 1 research universities: Duke in Durham, UNC Chapel Hill, and NC State in Raleigh to the southeast, and if you were to draw an imaginary line between them, you’d get the triangle shape that RTP derives its name from. RTP is the #1 largest research park in the country and employs nearly 50,000 workers across 300 companies, including such titans as IBM, GSK, Cisco, Microsoft, and NVDIA. It was recently ranked one of the top biotech hubs in the country, only trailing the much larger cities of San Francisco, San Diego, and Boston. Not only that, but the amazing work coming out of RTP coupled with the area’s reputation for top tier talent (we have the 4th highest concentration of PhD’s in the country!) is causing some of the world’s biggest companies to take note and expand beyond the traditional borders of RTP, with the likes of Apple and Google making recent announcements to open shop in the area.
The Triangle
OK, so now that we understand what RTP is, we can dive into a term you’ll hear a lot more commonly around here: “the Triangle.” Technically, the Triangle is only made up of the three cities we already discussed – Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh – but it’s been co-opted by many of the surrounding suburbs and towns to create the greater triangle region. This one’s up for debate, and there’s no clear cut answer on the boundaries of the Triangle region, but in its most generous form, the Triangle consists of most areas within about 20-30 minutes of RTP. So in other words, it’s completely lost its triangle shape and is now more like concentric rings that fan out to include places like Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Wake Forest, Rolesville, Garner, and maybe even as far out as Wendell and Clayton. This means that the Triangle encompasses multiple counties, but the predominant ones include Wake, Durham, Orange, and even parts of Johnston County, or JoCo for short. In general, the term “The Triangle” is used to include any town whose residents regularly commute to, and enjoy the amenities of, the main anchor cities of the technical triangle, and as more and more businesses continue to come to the area, the boundaries of “The Triangle” will inevitably continue to grow.
The Triad
While we’re on the topic of triangles, let’s touch quickly on the Triad, even though this term takes us away from the area. Like the Triangle, the Triad is a region of North Carolina that gets its name from the shape that would be formed if you drew an imaginary line between the region’s three anchor cities, in this case Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. Depending on where you are in the Triangle, the Triad region is anywhere from about 1 - 1.5 hours west on I-40, and you’ll definitely pass through it on your way to the mountains. 
The Beltline
My focus, however, is on the Triangle region, so let’s get back to that, and specifically let’s narrow in on Raleigh. The next term you’re going to hear a lot around Raleigh is “The Beltline,” which refers to the freeway loop that encircles Downtown Raleigh. A lot of large cities have similar loops that go by various names - you have the Beltway in DC, the Perimeter in Atlanta, and the Loop in Houston – but here, it’s The Beltline; sure, people will understand you if you say the other terms, but they’ll know you’re not from the area. The Beltline is primarily made up of I-440 to the West, North, and East of Raleigh, while the Southern portion of the Beltline is technically I-40, which is one of the main feeder freeways to the Beltline along with I-87 and multiple highways. You’ll notice when you move to the area that the highway system is in mega expansion mode, so many of the major roadways will carry multiple designations to account for the many smaller roads that may feed into them. But that’s one of the great things about this area: they are investing billions of dollars into the infrastructure to account for the huge growth in population.
OK, so I know I said it’s just called The Beltline here, but I kinda misspoke: it’s also referred to as the “Inner Beltline” because construction is underway on the expansion of I-540 to create a second beltline that’s we so originally call the “Outer Beltline”. As of August 2023 when I’m recording this, about half of the outer beltline is already up and running and covers the areas from the southwest of Raleigh (Holly Springs, Apex, Morrisville), up through RTP and the airport, into Northern Raleigh, and over east to Knightdale. But that’s about to change next year, when the new segment of 540 is allegedly slated to open, which will connect Apex over to I-40 in Garner – in fact, if you look at the satellite view in Google Maps, you’ll see the entire expansion carved out already. Once this is open, it’s going to make travel much more convenient for those living in areas like Fuquay Varina, Garner, and Clayton, which is why we’ve seen so much new construction going up around there. Because the Outer Beltline runs right to the airport and RTP, its expansion is going to completely transform the landscape of the region. There will be one more phase of construction to complete the loop and bring it from I-40 to Knightdale, but there currently isn’t a timeline for that phase.
ITB & OTB
So now that you know about the Inner Beltline and the Outer Beltline, we can talk about ITB and its less often used cousin OTB. ITB stands for “Inside the Beltline”, and as its name implies, it refers to the neighborhoods of Raleigh located within the Inner Beltline. Homes in this area are closer to downtown and all the amenities of the big city, and they also represent some of the oldest and most historic in the area. Because of their convenience and proximity, ITB homes are in high demand, which means home prices are typically higher here, and often these homes will have smaller lots with less privacy and possibly no garage. While ITB historically has carried a bit of a cache, that is changing as more and more people start pushing outside the boundaries. In fact, some of the most expensive neighborhoods in Raleigh are located well OTB, or “Outside the Beltline”, where you can typically find larger lots, more privacy, and a much more suburban or even rural feel.
RDU
And finally, let’s talk about the last acronym you’re going to hear a lot here: RDU, which is our airport code where the R stands for Raleigh and the DU for Durham. RDU is currently a 2-terminal airport located smack dab in between Raleigh and Durham, just 11 miles from each of the two downtowns, making it incredibly convenient for almost anyone living in the region. While not as robust as our sister airport in Charlotte, which is the main hub for many international and national flights, RDU was ranked the #4 Top Large Airport in Customer Satisfaction in J.D. Power’s 2022 North America Airport Satisfaction Study. RDU currently, as of August 2023, offers over 60 non-stop destinations, including 7 international cities. My favorites are London and Paris, since that opens the doorway to a ton of other European destinations, but you can also travel non-stop to Iceland, Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas. And the airport is only going to get better as plans are underway to replace our current runway to better accommodate larger jets, followed by a planned expansion of Terminal 2 and whispers of a future Terminal 3. 
So, that’s your Triangle vocabulary lesson for the day. In no time, you’ll be talking just like the locals! If I missed any that you’d like to better understand, please leave me a comment down below. Or if you’re looking to relocate to the Triangle Region - however we want to define that - I’d love to chat with you.