Delineators Target One of the City’s Most Crash-Prone Intersections
The city of Twin Falls has installed delineators along Washington Street near Addison Avenue in an effort to physically prevent drivers from making illegal left turns at an intersection long identified as one of the most dangerous in the area.
The stretch of Washington Street features a protected median marked by two sets of double-yellow lines. Crossing that median to make a left turn has been prohibited under Idaho law for more than two decades — yet drivers continued to do so, contributing to a pattern of collisions that education campaigns and traffic enforcement alone could not eliminate.
Twin Falls Police Sgt. Ryan Howe said the city tried a measured approach before escalating to physical deterrents. “It’s been illegal to turn left there for over 20 years and what we did is just decided to put up a visual and a physical deterrent to keep that from happening,” Howe said.
Officers issued warnings and citations over the years, but the crashes kept coming. “We’ve written citations, we warn people, we’ve done that for years and it just keeps getting crashes and a lot of those crashes are related to the left turn,” Howe added.
A Proven Strategy Already Working at Other Twin Falls Locations
The Washington Street installation is not the city’s first attempt to use physical barriers in place of signage and enforcement alone. Delineators have already been placed at three other Twin Falls locations, and officials say those earlier installations produced measurable results — fewer crashes tied to illegal turns at each site.
The Washington Street and Addison Avenue location now becomes the fourth such site across the city. With a track record of success at the previous three intersections, city officials and law enforcement are optimistic the same outcome will follow.
The approach reflects a broader shift in traffic management philosophy: when driver behavior proves difficult to change through warning or penalty, engineering the road itself to make the dangerous maneuver harder to execute can be more effective. Rather than relying entirely on a motorist choosing to follow the law, the delineators make ignoring it physically inconvenient.
Infrastructure improvements like this one are part of a wider series of road-related projects across the Magic Valley. Twin Falls County is also preparing for a year-long resurfacing project on a stretch of Highway 30 beginning this summer, and regional road safety remains a priority for local and state transportation officials heading into the warmer months. Recent crash incidents on I-84 near Burley have further underscored the importance of maintaining safe corridors throughout southern Idaho.
What Comes Next
City and law enforcement officials will monitor the Washington Street location to track whether crash rates decline following the delineator installation, consistent with outcomes seen at the three previous sites. No additional locations have been publicly announced, but the success of the program at each new intersection could prompt consideration of further installations at other high-crash areas throughout Twin Falls. Drivers unfamiliar with the median restrictions along Washington Street should note that left-turn crossings remain illegal and are now physically restricted near the Addison Avenue intersection.