Safety upgrades for dangerous Fresno intersection. Here’s plan to reduce crashes
The most notorious and perhaps most dangerous intersection in the Fresno area is receiving $2.5 million in upgrades to improve safety.
Nicknamed “Friant Roulette” because of the number of crashes and occasional fatalities, the three-way intersection at Friant Road and Shepherd Avenue in northeast Fresno had some work completed recently.
And additional projects are expected to be completed by the end of the year, including reconstruction of traffic lanes and widening of the median on Friant, according to City of Fresno councilmember Nick Richardson.
“Safety wise, this has been one of our priorities since I’ve been in office,” said Richardson, who was sworn into office in January 2025 as the representative for District 6, which includes the Friant and Shepherd intersection. “It’s easy to say people need to pay more attention. But how do you build a system that’s safer? Because hoping and praying is fine, but that doesn’t always save lives.
“The city is trying to take as many variables out of the way, eliminate the excuses, and make this area safer for those traveling through the intersection daily and for the residents who live nearby.”
The first change to the intersection occurred Monday, with all five lanes for northbound Friant now equipped with their own traffic lights.
Previously, the inner right lane of traffic that required vehicles to go only straight on northbound Friant did not have a traffic light lined up and above the lane.
The far right lane that required vehicles to turn right, however, had two traffic lights.
Some believe that created confusion since there would be times that traffic going north would have a red light, but those in the right-turn-only lane on northbound Friant would have a green light at the same time.
The culprit to the majority of the red-light runners who caused T-bone crashes or near-collisions often had been traveling in the inner right lane going north, said Dan Wells, a nearby resident who runs the Friant Roulette YouTube channel that shows a live stream of traffic and clips of collisions at the intersection.
Wells estimated that a major collision unfolds at the intersection at least once a month.
Late last month, Wells’ cameras captured video of a Fresno City garbage truck running a red light on northbound Friant and T-boning an SUV. The same week, a white SUV ran a red light and hit a pickup truck and another car.
Richardson said the plans to improve Friant and Shepherd were already in the works, but the collisions late last month “just made us more anxious to start the projects.”
Other changes on horizon
Richardson cited other changes coming to Friant and Shepherd:
- On northbound Friant, protective coverings will be installed for the outer right-turn-only lane to prevent drivers heading north in other lanes from seeing the protective green arrow signal that sends traffic onto Shepherd.
- On southbound Friant, the ability to turn left at the intersection and onto Shepherd will be reduced from two lanes to one lane.
- The median will be widened in place of the turning lanes.
- The sound wall located on the southeast corner of Friant and Shepherd will be removed “so it’s less of a blind corner,” Richardson said.
- Every lane on northbound Friant will eventually be going straight, eliminating the current U-turn lane on the far left side of the five-lane road.
- A protective curb will be installed on northbound Friant to help separate and distinguish traffic that’s turning eastbound onto Shepherd from the traffic that’s going north.
In addition, the City of Fresno’s Public Works Department plans to install the Fresno County Intelligent Transportation System, which integrates electronics, communications and computers to improve efficiency and safety of roads.
“The Friant traffic lights will start talking to each other far better than it has been,” Richardson said.
Richardson said he expects all the projects will be completed by the end of the year.
“If you look at any intersection, you can always come up with ways to make it safer and slow traffic to a crawl,” Richardson said. “You can do this, you can add that. You can take things to a point of absurdity.
“When you have 1,000-plus cars every day coming through, you have to find a balance. How to make things as safe as possible but manageable for people so they can get to where they need to be in a timely manner.”
Funding for the projects will come from Mayor Jerry Dyer’s “Pave More, Pay Later” initiative, Richardson said. It is the city’s plan from 2025 to take on a $100 million bond to pay for deferred paving around the city.
Jose Benavides, president and engineer with JLB Traffic Engineering, Inc., said safety improvements are good but cautioned they still can’t eliminate the top reason for collisions: human error.
“Distracted driving, speeding, being inattentive. Drivers need to address their own behaviors,” Benavides said.
Richardson remains optimistic that the changes will provide a positive impact.
“I don’t have the jurisdiction to roll down people’s windows and slap their phones out of their hand when driving,” Richardson said. “But what we have planned hopefully cracks the code and makes things safer and as user-friendly as possible.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
