Crashes reduced at infamous Fresno intersection after safety measures. What’s next?
When Fresno Councilmember Nick Richardson first met Dan Wells at town meeting, the politician politely and respectfully told his constituent that he hoped to put him out of business.
Wells laughed — as both understood exactly what Richardson meant by the joke, which wasn’t fully a joke.
Wells has been operating the YouTube channel Friant Roulette, which has showcased for the past three years videos of numerous collisions that have occurred at the intersection of Friant Road and Shepherd Avenue in northeast Fresno. Wells’ home is adjacent to the intersection.
So if efforts to improve safety along Friant Road, in particular at Shepherd, work out as planned, then perhaps Wells’ YouTube channel will have nothing worth watching.
“You know,” Wells said, “that would be a good thing.”
Four months since the first wave of safety upgrades were made at the infamous Friant Roulette intersection, collisions have reduced significantly, both Richardson and Wells said.
Just one crash of note since April, to be exact.
Wells estimated that before the improvements that a major collision typically unfolded at the intersection at least once a month.
“Anytime we can go months without a major accident, that’s a great sign,” Richardson said. “I don’t want to jinx anything. But I don’t know if there’s enough wood to knock on (for continued luck and fortune).
“Bottom line, it feels so much safer.”
Extra light makes difference
What all has happened to make traveling through the intersection of Friant and Shepherd safer?
Much of the success in safety is attributed to adding one more traffic light for traffic flowing north on Friant Road.
Now, each lane going north has a traffic light lined above, making it a bit easier for drivers to identify which light to look at and follow.
Previously, there were five lanes flowing north on Friant while approaching Shepherd, including a left-turn-only lane and a right-turn-only lane.
But of the three lanes continuing onto Friant, there were only two traffic lights. The right lane that continued north did not have a traffic signal directly in line with the lane.
And it was that right lane going north on Friant where many of the crashes occurred.
Drivers would sometimes run the red light and crash into traffic that was making a left turn from Shepherd while trying to go onto southbound Friant.
That was the case two years ago when a UPS truck that was making a left turn from Shepherd collided with an SUV that ran a red light from the inner right lane.
That all said, during the one notable collision in the past three months at Friant and Shepherd, it was a red-light runner from the left lane going north that caused a collision with a car trying to make a left turn from southbound Friant onto Shepherd.
“Some drivers are still running a red light, but it’s happening less often,” said Wells, whose YouTube channel provides a live-look at the intersection throughout each day while recording the traffic from his back yard. “We’ve been recording the intersection still. But there really hasn’t been anything worth posting.
“I know the added traffic light helps. As someone who drives through the intersection myself, I know that’s helped. And I’ve had people also tell me they don’t take that route anymore for safety precautions. There’s also people who’ve told me that they’re just more aware of the issues with that intersection so they’re more cautious. I’d like to think our YouTube channel has helped.”
Move improvements in store?
The City of Fresno is still working on southbound Friant and reducing the ability to turn left at the intersection and onto Shepherd from two lanes to one lane.
But because of the early signs of improved safety, Richardson said other money from the $2.5 million that the city of Fresno received to make traffic improvements might be used to address other nearby roads rather than add more safety measures at Friant and Shepherd.
“Are there things we can do to step it up even more?” Richardson asked rhetorically. “Sure. But if you’ve achieved your goal making things safer through step one, do you need to take step two?
“Maybe we can use those funds for other problematic issues in our area.”
Nonetheless, Wells said he’ll continue to record and livestream traffic at Friant and Shepherd.
He said he’s already noticing some issues with traffic going southbound on Friant now, with vehicles sometimes on the verge of sideswiping each other.
Wells said he’s not sure if that was ever an issue before, because he was usually monitoring the traffic going northbound.
“As a concerned resident, I’m happy to see the changes made and the number of crashes go down,” Wells said. “Now, we if could just get more people to stop running red lights and get drivers to just pay more attention.”
