Raleigh leaders propose nine different concepts to improve safety at Five Points intersection
Business owners said the intersection where Glenwood Avenue, Fairview Road, Glenn Avenue and West Whitaker Mill Road meet needs to be safer.
Posted — Updated“It’s almost like a drag-strip here sometimes,” said Lola’s Beach Bar owner Larry Carter. “You can just sit out here and be amazed at how fast cars go by, and how many accidents there are.”
“Something had to be done, so that’s the reason we installed our own impact bollards here,” Carter said. “They will stop a car traveling at 60 miles per hour on a dead stop.”
Dean Acheerman works near the Five Points intersection.
“They call it ‘Five Points,’ but it’s really like 6 or 7 roads that come together,” Acheerman said. “You really never have any idea from which direction you might be getting traffic from.”
The city has proposed nine concepts to improve safety at the Five Points intersection:
- Changing signal timing to give traffic on Fairview and Whitaker Mill the green light at different times
- Convert Fairview Road and Glenn Avenue to one-way streets
- Cutting off access to the intersection from two neighborhood streets
- Eliminating left turns from Glenwood
- Prohibiting traffic from crossing Glenwood
- Adding a median on Glenwood through the intersection, only allowing right turns
- Single lane roundabout
- Multi-lane roundabout
- Combination single & multi-lane roundabout
“All of these things in some way or another reduce the level of conflict between turning vehicles and pedestrians or turning vehicles and vehicles going straight, and all of those things should make it safer,” said Raleigh Transportation Supervisor Jason Myers.
Carter said the city will have to make some tough decisions to make Five Points safer on the street, and from his patio view.
“They’re going to have to do something dramatic, and I’m not sure just a roundabout or traffic pattern change is going to be enough,” Carter said.
District E Councilmember David Knight explained the next steps for how city leaders will try to improve safety at the intersection.
“The city will narrow down the concepts to a few this winter to bring back to the community,” Knight said. “We should update the design proposals then.”
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