Traffic lights being added to the George Washington Way and McMurray Street intersection.

After much discussion about the method, city of Richland traffic technicians began working to make the George Washington Way and McMurray Street intersection safer for pedestrians and students riding their bikes to and from Chief Joseph Middle School by installing a new traffic light and also a flashing sign that says “Yield to Pedestrians.”

After the installation is complete, a pedestrian or biker can push a button for a walk signal that also stops left turning traffic. Recently, three students on bicycles have been struck in the crosswalks by left-turning automobiles.

After the first collision, bicycle and pedestrian advocate Francesca Maier asked for hardened center lines to prevent drivers from making the diagonal turns that had occurred when the students were struck.

City engineers determined that changing the traffic lights would be safer than hardened center lines. McMurray Street was retrofitted with left turn lanes after it was designed and constructed. It isn’t wide enough to allow two cars coming from opposite directions to safely turn simultaneously if there are hardened center lines.

City Manager Jon Amundson wrote to Maier, a former Richland Planning Commission chair and the wife of Councilmember Kurt Maier, describing the plan to install the lights before school started.