This is the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Washington Street, by the downtown Dairy Queen and Feist TV & Electronics. It’s also the home of a new waterpark built to replace the ailing Elks Pool. By day this intersection looks perfectly normal. But, like the rest of us, it hides a quirk.

The quirk has to do with the sign on the lower right of this photo. NO TURN ON RED. That’s a really good idea because the underpass to the left makes it very difficult to see oncoming traffic. Using this logic one could make a very strong case for a NO TURN ON RED on North 7th Street where it crosses Main Avenue. Can you see past the Bank of North Dakota? I can’t…not without poking out into the intersection and blocking the crosswalk. Anyway…

Late at night, when those of us who are getting old are tucked safely into our beds, the downtown stoplights change. They don’t grow hair and bark at the moon, but they do start flashing yellow and red. This particular intersection does the same thing, turning into a STOP sign for Broadway Avenue. But if it’s unsafe to stop and go during the day, why would it be safer at night?

One could make the argument that it’s easier to see headlights coming at night than a car without headlights during the day. I say that it’s dangerous no matter what, for the same reason that 7th and Main is dangerous.

So the next time you’re out after midnight and come to the flashing red at Washington and Broadway, be extra careful! This can be a dangerous intersection, no matter what time of day or night.