Neighbors push for change on busy Richmond road: 'We don't want to keep having this situation happen'

RICHMOND, Va. -- Residents along Semmes Avenue in Richmond are once again calling for improvements to make that stretch of road safer after a crash on Wednesday left one motorcyclist dead.

Pippa Holloway and Amanda Kail have lived at a house about four blocks away from that crash since 2021.

"Living on Semmes is quite an adventure," said Holloway. "It's loud, it's scary, it's a tough street."

"We often hear squealing tires and collisions and crashes and, you know, it's concerning," added Kail.

Holloway said they have seen so many crashes that neighbors have developed an ad-hoc response to them.

"I've got a safety vest that I wear. We know to be aware of people -- after an accident, they tend to get out of their car and head into the street. So we've learned that if we're helping someone out of a car to bring them this way. We get them a Coke or a drink -- we've had people go into diabetic shock," she added.

WTVR

Kail even took the front bumper of a crash about two years ago in front of their house and painted "Hey, slow down" as a message to other drivers.

"Because I want people to understand that their actions are causing problems," Kail said. "I want people to have the message that they need to do something differently if we don't want to keep having this situation happen over and over again."

While the cause of Wednesday's crash, which killed 30-year-old Merquan Robinson is still under investigation, the couple said it is another example of why more improvements are needed. The crash happened in the stretch of Semmes where 17-year-old Josie Cox died in a crash in 2022. Friday afternoon, Richmond police were responding to a two-car crash one block over.

Holloway, who is a member of the Semmes Avenue Safety Committee, said she understands it is a complicated issue that has no one fix.

"If there was a way to wave a magic wand and eliminate all wrecks and fatalities on Semmes or any other street in the city, I'm quite confident our city leaders would do that," she said. "The problem, I think, is it's a series of small changes that will affect human behavior as well as will affect the infrastructure of the street and we just have to keep pushing at them."

According to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles' Traffic Records Electronic Data System (TREDS), there have been dozens of crashes on Semmes Avenue between Forest Hill and Cowardin. By CBS 6's count, there have been 110 crashes involving property damage in 2019 and 42 crashes where one or more people were injured.

RPD notes the number could be higher as not every crash that occurs is reported and entered into the TREDS system. Officials noted there is a delay in the uploading of crash data. Wednesday's deadly crash was not showing on TREDS as of Friday morning.

WTVR

"We need these changes and we need them yesterday," agreed Stephanie Lynch, 5th District Representative for Richmond City Council. "We're going to continue to advocate for the fixes and the changes that we know will make a difference and we know will make an impact. But, we shouldn't have loss of life, injury -- by pedestrian, bicyclist or vehicle or motorcycle to make that point."

Lynch said among recent improvements made along Semmes was the installation of two hybrid pedestrian beacons and speed cameras in front of the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts (PHSSA).

She said work is also planned for the intersection of Semmes Avenue and Forest Hill.

"That will add a traffic light and turn Forest Hill into a one-way going eastbound and will bring what we think is great needed traffic calming to that area."

A spokesperson for the Richmond Department of Public Works said preliminary construction has begun on the $2.5 million project and more impactful construction should begin it one to two weeks. It is scheduled to be completed by summer 2025.

Among the improvements Lynch and Holloway would both like to see added to that list is an expansion of the speed cameras (which would require state approval), altering the off-ramp that dumps southbound Route 1 traffic onto Semmes, and a narrowing of the street -- something Lynch called a "road diet".

"The real change that we need is to narrow this road. I've been saying it for four years since I've gotten on council," Lynch said. "Speeding behavior will not change until that happens. People are going fast down this road because they can."

WTVR

Completed/In Progress/Potential Projects

CBS 6 reached out to DPW and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) about the concerns raised and asked what has and is being done to address them.

The DPW spokesperson added it has taken several actions over the past few years to "address safety on Semmes Avenue and the surrounding area in preparation for the larger project in the immediate area of PHSSA within the Woodland Heights community that is now under construction."

Along with the work mentioned by Lynch, DPW said it has improved traffic signal visibility at three intersections (Forest Hill & Semmes Avenues, 26th Street & Semmes Avenue, and Cowardin & Semmes Avenues), installed "pedestrian safety improvements" at Cowardin & Semmes Avenues, and:

• "Installed Buffered bike lane infrastructure with resurfacing to provide space for people who bike and to narrow the travel lanes to better manage speed through narrow lane widths.
• "Reduced speed limits to 30MPH [down from 35MPH] and included additional $200 fine for speeding in residential streets.
• "Conduct three citywide Speed Management Symposiums over the past 1.5 years to raise awareness about speed’s exponential impact on crash severity
• "High visibility crosswalks installed at signalized intersections and at school crossing guard locations. (Construction Completed
• "Lane delineation improvements at 7th and Semmes."

WTVR

DPW added it "is currently seeking transportation funding through the Smart Scale Program to make multimodal improvements at the intersection of Cowardin Avenue and Semmes Avenue."

It said the following projects were either under construction or design (aside from the Forest Hill/Semmes project):

• "New traffic control signal at 34th and Semmes (Under Construction)
• "New pedestrian hybrid beacon at Carson Street with new traffic pattern at Semmes and Forest Hill (Under Construction)
• "Signal modernizations at the following locations:
  
  • "Forest Hill Avenue at Roanoke Street (Construction Completed)
  • "Forest Hill Avenue / Bainbridge Street at Broad Rock Boulevard (Under Construction)
  • "Midlothian Turnpike and Roanoke Street (Construction Completed)
  • "32nd Street and Midlothian Turnpike (Under Construction)
• Bike infrastructure on Broad Rock Boulevard between Hull Street and Forest Hill Avenue. (Designed for Resurfacing Program)."

A VDOT spokesperson said it conducted a traffic safety study of Semmes Avenue from Cowardin Avenue to Roanoke Street and it came back with four recommended improvements:

• "Convert the Rte. 60 (W Roanoke Street) and Forest Hill Avenue intersection from a conventional signalized intersection to a hybrid roundabout.
• "Add a pedestrian hybrid beacon (PHB) at the Rte. 60 intersection with W 31st Street, across the east leg.
• "Convert the southbound channelized right turn to a signalized right turn at the Rte. 60 and Cowardin Ave. intersection. Add protected Bike lanes along the Rte. 60 approaches to Cowardin Ave.
• "Convert the Rte. 60 cross-section to include one shared bike/transit lane per direction, wider sidewalks, and a center turn lane." 

WTVR

Police Enforcement

Meanwhile, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) said it is consistently conducting traffic enforcement along Semmes Avenue.

"Most recently…we received a complaint of speeding in the area and we've been out here ever since that doing a blitz. And since we started that blitz, which was on the 19th, we've already written over 38 summonses in this general area," said Special Operations Division Capt. KeShawn Manns. "In addition to that, in the area next to the school we know that we have the photo speed cameras up there and since we've gone live with those on March 18th, there's been over 1700 violations."

Manns said they also deploy message boards to warn drivers to slow down but will continue to deploy enforcement as needed.

Kail and Holloway do not see that need ending anytime soon and say they'll keep pushing for change -- not only for Semmes, but the whole city.

"We can't just give up and let it continue, when there's something we can actually do," said Kail.

CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.