Ingham County's most dangerous intersections
The LSJ has an article listing the 10 most dangerous intersections based on traffic incidents per year.
Here's the list:
1. Grand River Avenue at Hagadorn Road: 68 crashes
2. Saginaw Street at Clippert Street, 58 crashes
3. Jolly Road at Cedar Street, 55 crashes
4. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Holmes Road, 52 crashes
5. Miller Road at Cedar Street, 41 crashes
6. Dunckel Road at Jolly Road, 41 crashes
7. Coolidge Road at Lake Lansing Road, 39 crashes
8. Grand River Avenue at Clippert Street, 37 crashes
9. Grand River Avenue at Howard Street, 35 crashes
10. Saginaw Street at Homer Street, 34 crashes
What do you think should be done to these intersections to make them safer?
Also, it would be helpful if the data said what type of accidents happen. Do they involve people turning right-on-red? Pedestrians? Left-turns? Protected lefts? etc.
Speaking on a couple here:
#1 The intersection isn't oddly shaped. It's a standard four-way intersection with protected left turns and no right-on-red. When I drive this intersection I usually see people rushing to make the left-turn because the light doesn't seem to last long enough.
#2 On Clippert just north of this intersection driving southbound there are some really bad humps in the road that throws off most people. High speed traffic on Saginaw combined with potentially slower traffic on Clippert (especially due to the humps) doesn't help. Saginaw is one-way here, and Clippert is two-ways. I know turning left from Saginaw on to Clippert can be a tight squeeze.
#8 This one is only about 360 feet away from #2. I think the heavy one-way traffic on both Grand River Ave and Saginaw Street make traveling this section of Clippert pretty scary. Crossing Grand River here along Clippert is very dangerous, as the road is 5 lanes wide and traffic is coming from Saginaw, Grand River, and also numerous businesses such as the Speedway and Burger King.
Comments
I am not quite a senior citizen yet, but I find driving in this area quite frightening and confusing. It's the one place in Lansing that reminds me of Boston and not in a good way. There is not much room to change the traffic pattern there, maybe dividing the through traffic from the local. If you go into the through traffic lane you would be restricted from turning say until you pass 127, or perhaps a traffic circle where Saginaw and Grand River cross. Speed limit and traffic enforcement, and coordinated lights might help.
With #10, Homer Street could have a stop sign added for those already traveling on Homer and forcing them to yield to traffic that is exiting 127 North. This is very common in the Detroit area freeways (at least the Lodge and parts of I-75) with service roads.
A stop/yield sign would be a great idea at the 127 exit, a traffic signal may work but I'd be worried about traffic backing up onto the freeway when the exit's light was red. They really need to do something with that exit though, along with the Clippert/Saginaw/Grand River intersections. I've never noticed anything too bad about any of the other intersections on that list though.
It would be interesting to look at a pre frandor 127 map to see where and how a better street grid could have been built in the area. 496 and 127 are poorly designed with many exits that should have much slower speed limits on exit ramps as they approach the city streets and cross roads.