I agree that this is an extremely dangerous intersection. I, too, was involved in an accident here: Three broken ribs and my car was totaled when a truck on Chamberlayne ran a red light. I've had a number of near misses at this intersection, too. The traffic on Chamberlayne frequently speeds past the light. It's a perfect set-up for more accidents.
Susan Saavedra

I am sorry to hear that Susan. I have sent an email to the engineers at the DPW as well as Chris Hilbert and Mark Olinger. Hope fully some changes will be made.

The first thing that needs to be done is to tell the owner of the house at the southeast corner of Chamberlayne and Westwood avenues to cut down their hedge. A lot more visibility can be achieved by this simple step. I was under the impression that landscaping on corners wasn't allowed to grow so high that it impeded traffic safety.

City of Richmond - please see my issue id# 2899741. It was submitted last fall and nothing was done. Now you can see there have been at least two accidents and many near misses.

My father was almost killed here about 6 years ago because tree branches made it difficult for drivers heading north onChamberlyane to see the stoplight. Branches have regrown and I reported this to an officer who was present at a recent accident at this intersection. Also the short duration of the light for Westwood makes drivers on Westwood hurry to make the light when they should be looking to see traffic on Chamberlayne which may be coming and not stop.

This is the same story as mine and my daughter's. We were T-boned and the driver of the other car never even touched his brakes. Had we been a half a second off, my daughter would not be here and I would not be writing this post. The trees need to be limbed, the hedge on the corner needs to come down to about 3' and signs need to be posted warning of the intersection. Since it sits at the crest of the hill you can not see any pavement markings.

I wrote a brief article in the GPRA newsletter about this intersection over a year ago, before the tree branches had grown out once again to partially block the stoplight when coming north on Chamberlayne.

The gist of my article was that since the stoplight sequence was changed a few years ago, allowing rush hour traffic on Chamberlayne to have very long green lights, some vehicles are travelling at speeds well in excess of 35 mph. Also, the very short green lights for Westwood at rush hour have resulted in drivers on Westwood taking more chances in crossing Chamberlayne.

A real breakthrough on the issue of this dangerous intersection, (and so many others in the city), is for the city to join other cities in the US and Europe in setting lower speed limits and strictly enforcing them with stiff fines. In Oslo, for instance, the speed on roads like Chamberlayne is 30 mph and you can be fined for going 31. Pedestrians also have strictly controlled right of way. Some US cities are adopting these safety policies.

This also has the effect of making travel for vulnerable people, (pedestrians and bicyclists, eg. ) much safer.