The 51 Most Dangerous Intersections in America

[Henry]

This is a list of the most dangerous intersections in each of the 50 states and Washington, DC, extrapolated from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-most-dangerous-intersection-in-every-state/ss-AAvb323?ocid=spartandhp#image=1

AL--University Blvd & 28th St, Birmingham
AK--Egan Dr & Yandukin Dr, Juneau
AZ--59th Ave & Olive Ave, Glendale
AR--Asher Ave & S University Ave, Little Rock
CA--Devonshire St & Reseda Blvd, Northridge
CO--MLK Jr. Blvd & Quebec St, Denver
CT--Merritt Pkwy & Mile 46.42-47.03, New Haven
DE--Market St & S Dupont Blvd, Georgetown
DC--Minnesota Ave NE & Benning Rd NE, Washington
FL--Hialeah Garden Blvd & Okeechobee Rd, Hialeah Gardens
GA--Memorial Dr & N Hairston Rd, Stone Mountain
HI--1250 block of Ala Moana Blvd, Honolulu
ID--I-84 & Highway 69, Kuna
IL--Stony Island Ave & S Chicago Ave, Chicago
IN--38th St & Guion Rd, Indianapolis
IA--Ankeny Blvd & 1st St, Ankeny
KS--Seneca St & Kellogg Ave, Wichita
KY--2nd St & Broadway, Louisville
LA--Canal St & N Dorgenois St, New Orleans
ME--Allen St & Route 2, Wilton
MD--Gwynns Falls Pkwy & Reisterstown Rd, Baltimore
MA--Columbia Rd & I-93, Boston
MI--Orchard Lake Rd & 14 Mile Rd, West Bloomfield Township
MN--Highways 14 & 15, New Ulm
MS--Routes 63 & 98, Lucedale
MO--N Grand Blvd & Montgomery St, St. Louis
MT--Front St & Orange St, Missoula
NE--132nd St, Industrial Rd, Millard Ave & L St, Omaha
NV--Cheyenne Ave & Rancho Dr, Las Vegas
NH--Main St & Broadway, Salem
NJ--E Jersey St & Spring St, Elizabeth
NM--Montgomery Blvd & San Mateo Blvd, Albuquerque
NY--Tillary St & Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn
NC--Patton Ave & Leicester Hwy, Asheville
ND--13th Ave & I-29, Fargo
OH--Broad St & James Rd, Columbus
OK--Memorial Rd & Penn Ave, Oklahoma City
OR--US 26 & I-405, Portland
PA--Knights Rd & Street Rd, Bensalem
RI--I-95 & Exit 20, Providence
SC--N Highway 17 & Seewee Rd, Awendaw
SD--Catron Blvd & Highway 16, Rapid City
TN--Poplar Ave & Ridgeway Rd, Memphis
TX--Bissonnet St & Sam Houston Pkwy, Houston
UT--Center St & I-15, Provo
VT--47 US 7 & US 4, Rutland
VA--Big Bethel Rd & Hampton Roads Center Pkwy, Hampton
WA--Stewart St & Denny Way, Seattle
WV--US 119 & Oakwood Rd, Charleston
WI--Capital Dr W & 35th St N, Milwaukee
WY--Central Ave & Yellowstone Rd, Cheyenne

[tradephoric]

Too bad these intersections couldn't be replaced by roundabouts to make them safer.  Oh wait... the most dangerous intersection in Michigan is at a roundabout.  In 2016, the 14 Mile and Orchard Lake roundabout had 163 total crashes including 27 injury crashes.  There goes that idea.

[MCRoads]

Too bad these intersections couldn't be replaced by roundabouts to make them safer.  Oh wait... the most dangerous intersection in Michigan is at a roundabout.  In 2016, the 14 Mile and Orchard Lake roundabout had 163 total crashes including 27 injury crashes.  There goes that idea.

DO NOT turn this into another "modern roundabouts" , we all know how that is going....

[jeffandnicole]

The source data is very suspect.  There's links, but then you notice the time period can vary greatly.

Too bad these intersections couldn't be replaced by roundabouts to make them safer.  Oh wait... the most dangerous intersection in Michigan is at a roundabout.  In 2016, the 14 Mile and Orchard Lake roundabout had 163 total crashes including 27 injury crashes.  There goes that idea.

So if the 50 other intersections are traditional intersections, then maybe they'll be safer with roundabouts.

[tradephoric]

^OK, I'll mention another intersection on the list that is totally unrelated to roundabouts.  The MLK Jr. Blvd & Quebec St. intersection in Denver, Colorado is known as a Town Center Intersection.  This is an innovative intersections that eliminates left-turn phases (improving capacity) and eliminates left-turn crashes.  In theory it should be safer than a typical signalized intersection so it's somewhat disheartening it's considered the most dangerous intersection in Colorado.  Here's the intersection:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.76174,-104.90304,18z/data=!3m1!1e3?dg=dbrw&newdg=1

[SectorZ]

CT--Merritt Pkwy & Mile 46.42-47.03, New Haven

Some of these locations are so dangerous that they picked themselves up and moved themselves somewhere else...

[NE2]

These are not the 51 most dangerous, even if they are the most dangerous in every state.

[SD Mapman]

The source data is very suspect.  There's links, but then you notice the time period can vary greatly.

Too bad these intersections couldn't be replaced by roundabouts to make them safer.  Oh wait... the most dangerous intersection in Michigan is at a roundabout.  In 2016, the 14 Mile and Orchard Lake roundabout had 163 total crashes including 27 injury crashes.  There goes that idea.

So if the 50 other intersections are traditional intersections, then maybe they'll be safer with roundabouts.

I know for sure SDDOT is replacing the Catron/US 16 intersection sometime; likely with a SPUI: http://www.sddot.com/transportation/highways/planning/specialstudies/docs/US16_16B_Intersection_Study_Final_Report_12232016.pdf

[Hurricane Rex]

Glad the I-405/US 26 made it although it is too bad that it is almost impossible to improve it.

I would title the article "Each State's most dangerous intersection.

[webny99]

These are not the 51 most dangerous, even if they are the most dangerous in every state.

Yeah, this. That was the first thing I thought when I saw there was one per state. 

[theline]

IN--38th St & Guion Rd, Indianapolis

That's a RIRO. I wonder how many others in the list are RIROs.

[Eth]

GA--Memorial Dr & N Hairston Rd, Stone Mountain

I don't make it over to that side of DeKalb very much, so I'm not all that familiar with this intersection, but this involves two major roads (a 6-lane and a 4-lane) meeting at an angle, with tight left turn movements from Hairston to Memorial, including a double left turn from southbound to NE-bound. It looks like there's a no-right-on-red restriction going northbound (probably a good idea), but not southbound for some reason.

[bzakharin]

I haven't been to any of these places, but wouldn't something involving Roosevelt Blvd (US 1) in Philadelphia be the most dangerous in PA? I think in the past it had the second and third most dangerous in the entire US, and having been there I can see why.

[doorknob60]

ID--I-84 & Highway 69, Kuna

There's no way that's true. And if it is true, it's not anymore. The aging intersection was replaced with a nice modern SPUI a couple years ago, no way that would be the worst. Also, it's not in Kuna, it's in Meridian.

But anyways, #1 for Idaho I would think would have to be I-84 and I-184. Maybe just because I drive it every day and it has more vehicles per day than any other stretch in the state, but that interchange has more accidents than anywhere else in the area for sure. If we disqualify freeway to freeway for some reason (there weren't many on the list, but I guess that's just the numbers), I suppose I-84 and ID-55/Eagle Rd might be it: it's certainly worse than I-84 and ID-69/Meridian Rd!

EDIT: Oh, looks like they grabbed it over a 10 year period. Well, duh! Take 8 years of the old crappy intersection, one year of under construction, and only one year of the new safer one, of course it's going to look bad...but it doesn't mean it's anywhere near the most dangerous intersection that you can put on a list in 2018!

[ET21]

Stoney Island and Chicago: 3 streets come together in a very wide intersection (Stoney Island, Chicago, and 79th Streets) plus elevated ramps from the nearby Skyway make some of the turns extremely hairy. Can understand why it tops the list in Illinois

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7515458,-87.5857663,523m/data=!3m1!1e3

[Chris19001]

I haven't been to any of these places, but wouldn't something involving Roosevelt Blvd (US 1) in Philadelphia be the most dangerous in PA? I think in the past it had the second and third most dangerous in the entire US, and having been there I can see why.

One would think so.  Grant and the Boulevard only got worse when they installed red light cameras and the rear-end collisions began.  Pedestrian deaths still occur and its not a lot of fun to navigate some of those intersections if you aren't familiar with them.  If it's consolation, MSN's pick of Street Road and Academy is only 2-3 miles from the Boulevard.

Edit: what the deal with the one chosen in St Louis?  It looks like an alley ending at an arterial?

[kurumi]

CT--Merritt Pkwy & Mile 46.42-47.03, New Haven

Some of these locations are so dangerous that they picked themselves up and moved themselves somewhere else...

One of my favorite pizza places is at the corner of CT 57 and CT 10 in New Haven

Zoom into the area (exit 42, MP, Weston (link) -- it looks like one of the safer interchanges on the Parkway. The ramps were modernized and deceleration lanes were added. (Older alignment (1951 map): http://docs.unh.edu/CT/wspt51nw.jpg)

[GaryV]

Hawaii's worst intersection isn't even an intersection.

[plain]

For VA, while the intersection of Big Bethel Rd and Hampton Roads Center Pkwy is indeed dangerous, I think the intersection of Harpersville & Saunders Roads in neighbouring Newport News is even more dangerous. I seriously can't count on two hands how many wrecks I've seen there in a year's time.

As for IL, as soon as I saw Stoney Island Ave I knew they were right on the money 

[Mark68]

^OK, I'll mention another intersection on the list that is totally unrelated to roundabouts.  The MLK Jr. Blvd & Quebec St. intersection in Denver, Colorado is known as a Town Center Intersection.  This is an innovative intersections that eliminates left-turn phases (improving capacity) and eliminates left-turn crashes.  In theory it should be safer than a typical signalized intersection so it's somewhat disheartening it's considered the most dangerous intersection in Colorado.  Here's the intersection:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.76174,-104.90304,18z/data=!3m1!1e3?dg=dbrw&newdg=1

That intersection hasn't changed much (if at all) since it was the main entrance to old Stapleton Airport (and since Quebec was supposed to nominally form frontage roads for the Quebec St Freeway that was supposed to lead south from I-70 to the airport).

[jp the roadgeek]

CT--Merritt Pkwy & Mile 46.42-47.03, New Haven

Some of these locations are so dangerous that they picked themselves up and moved themselves somewhere else...

Here is the correct aerial. It's a 1 mile strecth between a very steep grade and the West Rock/Heroes Tunnel.  The kicker is  the southbound entrance ramp that can be accessed from both CT 63 and CT 69.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN--Highways 14 & 15, New Ulm

I'm assuming they mean the one on the east edge of town? (They duplex from downtown eastward a short ways out of the city)

[Bickendan]

MN--Highways 14 & 15, New Ulm

I'm assuming they mean the one on the east edge of town? (They duplex from downtown eastward a short ways out of the city)

I'd imagine so, as there's nothing about the US 14/MN 15/68 intersection in New Ulm itself that's  particularly noteworthy.

Glad the I-405/US 26 made it although it is too bad that it is almost impossible to improve it.

I would title the article "Each State's most dangerous intersection.

Doesn't qualify, and shouldn't be on the list -- I-405 at US 26 isn't an intersection.
Pre-Burnside/Couch couplet, I would have said Burnside/12th/Sandy.

[Flint1979]

I'm surprised that Orchard Lake and 14 Mile made the list for Michigan. That intersection was just rebuilt with the last few years and I know that Northwestern starts right there but the movements aren't that bad. 14 Mile use to go straight through there instead of jogging at Northwestern like it does making it worse.

[froggie]

I find this list and results highly suspect.  The intersection the author claims is #1 in Minnesota isn't even on MnDOT's Top 10.  The author's claim for Vermont is actually #84 on the VTrans list and has not had a fatal crash since before 2012.