Glenwood @ Westgate revisited: more unintended consequences

View Glenwood Ave. @ Westgate Road, Raleigh in a larger map

Uh oh. Duffy Heath says it could be happening again: a safety fix that introduces new danger at Glenwood and Westgate.

DOT traffic engineers recently made changes intended to improve safety at the Glenwood Avenue intersection with Westgate and Lumley roads in northwest Raleigh (see this week's Road Worrier column).

But Heath says the changes contributed to a scary brush with death there recently. He inadvertently ran the red light and nearly got creamed by two cars rushing down the off-ramp from westbound Glenwood.

Back in April 2005, a different DOT effort to improve safety at this same locale had the opposite effect -- it sparked a series of 16 red-light crashes in 23 days, which ended after DOT undid the changes.

Now DOT traffic engineers are trying to cut the number of drivers on Westgate who run the red light at westbound Glenwood. Among other things, they have raised the signals themselves a few feet higher above the roadway.

So high, Heath says, that the signal disappeared from his view after he stopped for the red light there on Oct. 7:

I was headed south on Westgate after dark and stopped for a red light. I did not notice that when I pulled up to the intersection the light disappeared from my windshield, obscured by the roof of my car.

I was tired from being out of town for three days and preoccupied with a song on the radio. After I sat there for a short period, I noticed the green light at the intersection of the eastbound lane of the off ramp onto [Lumley] Road.

It was the only traffic signal in my line of vision so I took off. As I entered the intersection I noticed two cars [hurtling] down the westbound off ramp. I did not have sufficient time to clear the intersection so I stopped in the middle.

One car passed in front of me and the other behind me.

I was almost killed. Granted it was my fault but the height of the traffic light directly contributed to the sequence of events.

Heath has asked DOT engineers to reconsider their solution to the problems at Glenwood and Westgate.

Meanwhile, two other readers recall that DOT used to add white strobe lights to call attention to some red lights that drivers seemed to ignore. Maybe these flashing lights could help here, too?