NDOT will ban right turns on red lights at these Nashville intersections

Turning right at a red light will soon be banned at seven Nashville intersections. The Nashville Department of Transportation will also make changes to signals at several more intersections to improve pedestrian safety.

The changes are much narrower than a proposed blanket ban on right turns at red lights, which Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda filed this summer. She later dialed back the proposed ban to a few dozen stop lights. Then Tuesday, after weeks of debate, Sepulveda withdrew the legislation after assurances that NDOT would implement the ban at a handful of intersections and study the issue at others.

The push for improved pedestrian safety comes as the city has seen a high number of pedestrian deaths this year.

In a statement to WPLN News, NDOT public information coordinator Brendan Scully wrote, “Right turn on red restrictions are one of the many tools in NDOT’s toolkit for making streets safer for people walking.”

He wrote that NDOT’s engineers use data to determine on a case-by-case basis what restrictions are needed to improve safety at intersections across the city.

“Pedestrian safety is a top priority for the department and we will continue working to make streets safer for people walking, biking, rolling and driving,” Scully wrote.

NDOT will be banning right turns at red lights at these seven intersections in the next couple of weeks:

• Third Avenue North and Commerce Street
• Fourth Avenue South and Korean Veterans Boulevard
• 12th Avenue North and Broadway
• 25th Avenue South and Children’s Way
• Nolensville Pike and Welshwood Drive
• Rosa L. Parks Boulevard and Church Street
• Smith Springs Road and Old Murfreesboro Pike

NDOT will also alter the traffic and walk signals at seven intersections to add leading pedestrian intervals. That gives pedestrians a head start to establish control and visibility in a crosswalk before vehicles may begin turning. One intersection, at 25th Avenue South and Children’s Way, will get both the right-turn-on-red ban and the updated signals. The intersections getting leading pedestrian interval changes are:

• South Seventh Street and Main Street
• Ninth Avenue North and Buchanan Street
• South 10^th Street and Woodland Street
• 17^th Avenue North and Jo Johnston Avenue
• 25^th Avenue South and Children’s Way
• 49^th Avenue North and Charlotte Pike
• Dr. DB Todd Jr. Boulevard and Jo Johnston Avenue