Twin Falls Installs New Barrier to Reduce Collisions at Dangerous 5-Points McDonald’s

For years, people have made dangerous and illegal choices when they get a craving for McDonald’s food in Twin Falls. Why? Because it’s not easy to get into the parking lot of three of the restaurants in town if you are headed north. Heading south, and you’ve got it easy.

The Pole Line McDonald’s requires a quick merge from Blue Lakes if you are heading north to get into the far right lane to turn into the parking lot. The restaurant on Blue Lakes requires a left turn at the light if you are headed north, and then there are two entrances into the parking lot, but you can’t go in the first one...well, you aren’t supposed to.

New Traffic Barrier in Twin Falls Will Make it More Difficult to Get McDonald’s

The third difficult McDonald’s is probably the most dangerous because, again, you have to turn left at the light on Addison from Washington (if you are heading north - if you are heading east, forget about it) and quickly merge to the right lane to get into the parking lot. The problem? A lot of people go straight through the intersections and then stop in the middle of Washington Street, often half in the left northbound lane and half in the southbound turning lane on a double-double yellow line. That equals dangerous, annoying, and illegal.

Recently, I’ve seen police in the area pulling drivers over who cross those yellow lines, but it wasn’t enough. So the city has decided to make it impossible to cross those lines to get to McDonald’s or the Chevron gas station. On Monday, crews installed a long line of barrier posts called traffic delineators that stretch along Washington Street from the Addison 5-points intersection all the way to Shoup Ave. This will also cut down on cars illegally turning left out of Swensen's.

Photo Credit N8 Bird

Will this cut down on bad driving choices in the area? I hope so, though I did see a cop pull over a car at the intersection while I was taking photos of the delineators. But at least it wasn’t for crossing the double-double yellow lines.

We are glad the city has decided to make the area safer, even if it is a little more difficult to get a Big Mac and fries now. Too bad they can’t do anything about this list of things that should be illegal but aren’t.