RICHMOND, Va. — A new traffic light was installed at the intersection of Chamberlayne Avenue and Bacon Street as part of a plan to make one of Richmond's busiest roads safer.
Dorothy Leftridge has lived off of Chamberlayne Ave. for almost 4 years at senior living apartments. She describes the driving as dangerous.
"Something seriously needs to be done about that traffic flow," she said. "A lot of the residents here still work, and having to come out early in the morning, traffic flying."
She said speeding has been an issue on this road since she's lived here.
"I don’t care what time of day it is but as soon as traffic gets to flowing, work hours or whatever, people typing to get to work, they just zooming up and down the street, I mean it’s ridiculous, people are in walkers," she described.
Leftridge has spoken up about the need for more safety precautions on the road before. In 2023, she and other residents expressed their concerns about not being able to cross the busy street after some of them got hurt trying to cross.
This moved the city to install a new pedestrian signal at Chamberlayne and School St. Now, more than a year later, she says she’s not sure how much of an impact the new traffic light will have.
"A stop light, I don’t know that that's going to help," she said. "It’s not enough and I don’t mean to say that ungrateful, but it’s important."
According to Richmond City’s Department of Public Works, the traffic light installation at Chamberlayne Ave. and Bacon St. is just one of the things they are doing to slow drivers down and make the road safer for pedestrians.
Leftridge said the city needs to do all it can to make it happen as soon as possible.
"They don't pay any attention to that speed limit sign, everybody’s in a hurry, they got somewhere to go, something to do, somewhere to be," she said. "But in the process, somebody’s going to get hurt seriously because of their impatience."
In the meantime, she encourages drivers to please pay attention and simply slow down.
"I don’t know how to say that there needs to be some consideration because it could be your family member, their family member, somebody’s family member that’s going to lose their life," she said.
D.P.W. said the traffic light will first be set into flash mode, and then pending the weather, will be up and fully operational by mid-December.
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