The Worst Traffic Light in Richmond Proper

A few weeks ago, we announced that we would be looking for the Worst Traffic Light in Richmond (and surrounding counties).

We hoped that we’d get one or two submissions to find a few poorly timed / often run local traffic lights that we weren’t already aware of, so we called on readers to send in some of their picks.

And boy did you. It turns out frustrating traffic lights is a very Richmond-area thing. So now we’re breaking it down by city / county, and from here, we’re going to put it to a vote and ask you, readers, who has the worst traffic light in each jurisdiction.

Then we’ll look at the worst overall. Last week we did Chesterfield; this time, Richmond proper. So take a look at the list below (some appear twice, we know, but the write-ins were so fun, we wanted to share them all), and then tell us in the comments which light you think is the worst – in Richmond proper.

Richmond

1. Third and Leigh. Because about half the time, it’s blinking and not working. A mess in the morning.
2. Thompson and Broad...everyone runs it.
3. This is easy: First & Grace.
4. Broad & Belvedere during rush hour. Actually, any part of Belvedere in the downtown area during rush hour. Ugh.
5. Forest Hill and Westover Hills Boulevard, specifically at rush hour. Traffic headed west on Forest Hill gets backed up for at least a mile, and the-only-three-cars-allowed turning lane to make a left on Forest Hill backs up all south-bound traffic.
6. Turning left off Meadow onto Cary. No left turn arrow. Lucky to get 1 car through on each green.
7. My vote goes to Forest Hill & Semmes for 2 reasons.The timing doesn’t allow for walkers to cross easily (I’m not certain there’s a combination that allows you to cross across both Semmes & Forest Hill without crossing a green light.
8. Everyone that parks at the small group of shops. I appreciate their willingness to pull up on the curb, but it should be a no parking zone. The burned out mansion should be torn down and turned into a parking lot for the restaurant, barbershop & new bicycle shop. With that house gone, their might even be room for another shop.
9. I gotta go with the light at Jahnke and Old Jahnke road. I have no idea why that light is there – as far as I can tell it is there to make traffic worse. Nobody ever seems to be coming or going from Old Jahnke or that apartment complex but it always seems to be red.
10. The light at Roanoke and Forest Hill is one to watch out for, too. I see that one pop up on the traffic incident website constantly. I think folks try to blow through the turn when it’s turning red and get creamed.
11. The Westover Hills/Dunston light used to turn simultaneously, which made it even trickier. They put a delay on it a few years ago.
12. One block south at Westover Hills and Dunston. I give it a good wait before I cross at a green there. One day I watched a line of several grannies very slowly running the red, clearly following the first granny who ran a yellow. Yikes.
13. Forest hill and Jahnke runs a close second ...
14. That's an easy one, ALL Robinson lights.
15. Roseneath/195/Clay streets. Colliding intersection at 195 off ramp. Terrible intersection and light takes forever.
16. Libbie and Patterson. @I get stopped there for what feels like a solid 5 minutes everyday.
17. Maury St. I95 intersection is terrible, and so are the roads between Maury St. and 14th St.
18. I agree with Meadow and Cary - also Cary at Nansemond ( Near the Kroger) and Ellwood at Thompson.
19. The light at Jahnke and Old Jahnke road - it should be set up so that anyone coming out of the town homes will trigger the light - instead you have to stop at the light and wait a long time for absolutely no one!
20. Midlothian Tnpk. and Roanoke St. Meadowbridge Rd. and Patrick Av.
21. I have one more 10th and Marshall during the day (especially lunch). Making a legal left on 10th from Marshall is impossible. It needs a separate left turn signal (just has the yield one).
22. Hull St. , Hey Rd. and Derwent Rd. ( Hull Street East of Chippenham Pkwy. )
    
    This already makes the official worst list. According to V-Dot data, this intersection has a 440% accident rate. This makes this intersection one of the most dangerous in the state. The traffic signal controls are designed by the City of Richmond done on the cheap. An approved $800,000 Federal Safety Grant may help some in the future. Meanwhile there is property damage continuing with some loss of life.
23. Turning right from N 14th Street onto E Broad Street/I-64/I-95.
    
    Only one lane is available for the right turn onto Broad and the I-64/I-95 on-ramp.　During rush hour, traffic in the right lane on 14th gets so backed up that only 3-4 cars from Franklin/Bank Street can pile in per-light. Cars pile onto 14th street coming off I-64 via Franklin westbound, from downtown via Franklin eastbound and 14th northbound, and a very busy parking garage with three separate exits... all onto 14th. To top it off, there's a ton of (slow) pedestrian traffic crossing 14th to get to said parking garage, sometimes preventing ANY cars through the light.
    
    While I mention the Franklin intersection quite a bit, the problem still lies at 14th & Broad, because the solution would be so easy... if they allow the left hand lane to turn right during green lights (onto Broad, but not I-64/95) it would　alleviate the problems.
    
    So this intersection has my vote... I have to deal with it every day as the last stretch of road of a 25 minute commute.
24. I think that westover hills and forest hill is definitely the worst, though it has gotten better. it used to be that if you were heading east on forest hill and wanted to turn left on westover hills, you had approximately 5 seconds to do so. sometimes it took me 3-4 light rotations to get through the light! but now some kind soul has fixed the timing a bit so that the light is much longer--thank god! another horrible light (someone already mentioned it) is the one at jahnke and old jahnke road. nobody is ever crossing jahnke there but it stops traffic all the time.
25. Monument and Thompson!