10 August 7 - 13, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents intersecting with Colorado Boulevard, it takes only a smattering of rain before the junction turns into a vehicular slip-and- slide. The road straightens out when head- ing south towards Kidd Springs Park — a straight that seems to inspire drivers of all kinds to gun it. A sudden roundabout just af- ter the park serves, for most, as a traffic calming measure. But for the truly ambi- tious, it’s a launching pad into the adjacent townhomes, an accident you wouldn’t be- lieve has happened twice this year if the footage hadn’t made it onto CNN. Once you make it out of the roundabout, the road’s right lane turns into parking, then moving traffic, then parking again, which leaves drivers unfamiliar with the area dart- ing right-left-right-left at 30 miles an hour as they attempt to avoid the parked cars. The combination of these elements has made the roadway notorious for accidents, the most recent of which have been so bad that the rest of Dallas is finally catching on. On the evening of July 19, one driver, whilst fleeing from a hit-and-run that oc- curred when he turned onto Tyler Street from 12th, ran a red light and crashed into three other vehicles. Six victims, including a young child, were taken to the hospital in sta- ble condition, Dallas police said, while the suspected driver was in critical condition. Police have not confirmed whether the suspect who caused the accident was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but a nearby business shared security video foot- age of the crash with the Observer. While the posted speed limit in the area is 30 miles per hour, the video shows the driver was go- ing so fast during the collision that the car appears as a blur. The accident knocked out power in the area after one car rolled into an electric pole. The crash occurred a tenth of a mile south of the roundabout, where one town- home is still boarded up with plywood after being struck by a drunk driver in May. Dallas may be paying attention to this area now, but for neighbors, the street has long been a problem. The Need for a Fix L ast fall, Alejandro Gonzalez opened a home decor boutique in Oak Cliff, the neighborhood where he was raised. The first thing he heard from customers was complaints about the traffic. His shop, Tlazo Home, is located in a storefront on Tyler Street, between 7th and 8th streets. These streets carry drivers east into the heart of the Bishop Arts District, a half-mile down the road. Kings Highway ends at the Tyler/7th Street junction, feed- ing more cars into that intersection and cre- ating what Gonzalez calls the “great Bermuda Triangle” of traffic. “All of my customers that come in com- plain about the streets and how they’re scared to even walk across [Tyler Street], or open their car doors, because someone’s al- ways flying down the street,” Gonzalez said “One of the girls had their car door broken by a [passing] car. It just took her door off.” He sees an accident a week, he said, usu- ally just fender benders or other “hiccups,” but sometimes more serious. In May, Gonzalez approached Dallas City Council member Chad West about his con- cerns regarding the “really dangerous” traf- fic environment in the area. City leaders were responsive, Gonzalez said, and he has been satisfied with some of the changes pro- posed for the road directly in front of his store, like the traffic study planned for this fall when school resumes. The study will as- sess whether additional traffic lights are ap- propriate along the stretch to help slow down drivers. He said that the District 1 of- fice also encouraged Gonzalez and other neighbors in the area to attend upcoming city budget town halls to advocate for in- creased city funding for streets. Other solutions to Tyler Street’s vari- ous problems have been proposed over the years and spear- headed by West’s of- fice. Last year, nearly $4 million was ear- marked in the city bond to completely redesign the Tyler/ Colorado intersec- tion, which saw 46 accidents between January 2020 and De- cember 2024, city data shows. After the most recent roundabout incident, in May, West helped arrange for a contractor to in- stall water barriers around the circular roadway after the city’s transportation de- partment denied the request. In 2023, the D1 office announced that rumble strips would be installed along Tyler Street to help keep drivers alert and encour- age them to slow their speeds. When neigh- bors complained about the noise, the strips were removed. Gonzalez acknowledges that these are all steps in the right direction, but there’s only so much a city council office can do regard- ing what he sees as widespread street design issues. He’d feel better about the situation if the city’s Transportation and Public Works De- partment could look at Tyler Street holisti- cally — from the Colorado intersection slip-and-slide down to the is-it-or-isn’t-it right lane parking situation — instead of leaving neighbors to cobble together solu- tions one block at a time. “I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. City planning, road designing, I know that’s a hard job. But I think this should be looked at as a whole instead of piecemealing it as problems arise,” Gonza- lez said. “You can fix one area, then it causes another problem, so you have to go back and fix that.” The Transportation and Public Works Department oversees major road design projects. Gonzalez said that, back in May, he was given the impression that Tyler Street was low on the department’s priority list for assessment. He hopes that recent attention on the area might change that. After the July 19 four-car accident, the Observer asked the Transportation and Pub- lic Works Department if the intersection at Tyler Street and Davis Street would be eval- uated to determine whether street design contributed to the crash. In a three-para- graph statement that largely amounted to a “No,” the department said that engineers must conduct a “thorough study and design” before traffic safety improvements can be implemented in an area. “The goal is to make streets safer for all modes of transportation. Also, it is important to remember that all traffic safety measures work best when all road users — drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians — heed those mea- sures and abide by all traffic safety laws,” the statement said. In West’s most recent district newsletter, released Thursday, the council member an- nounced a town hall will be hosted on Aug. 5, dedicated to addressing traffic safety measures. Environmental Factors W ithin hours of the accident at Ty- ler and Davis streets, a second crash happened just two tenths of a mile west of the intersection. In the early morning hours of July 20, Dallas police arrested an intoxicated man who they say drove a pickup truck into a small business on Davis Street before reversing and attempt- ing to flee the scene. At the business, Bruno’s Place dog wash, a large tarp is secured over the gaping gash left in the building. While this accident did not occur on Ty- ler Street, it did add to the fears that neigh- bors in the area have about the environmental factors that can lead to un- safe driving, exacerbating complicated road designs. Late-night entertainment spots flank the Tyler and Davis intersection; there’s the Bishop Arts District to the west of the intersection, a smattering of bars along Davis, and another congested nightlife area on the other side of Bruno’s around Edgefield and Davis, where the Kessler The- ater is located. Natalie Gomez has worked at Joy Macar- ons, a dessert shop located in the TyPo shop- ping center adjacent to the Tyler and Davis intersection, for less than a year. Still, she’s already witnessed enough accidents to be concerned about the shop’s position on the street corner. Footage of the crash at Bruno’s only amplified those fears, she said. “I do worry, but I’m a big worrier. I’ve seen somebody run into that pole before, and just seeing how brutal it was, I [worry],” she said, pointing to a lamppost on the side- walk across from the shop. “It’s just very congested right here. … And people always are honking at each other at the light. No- body’s ever paying attention.” “Reckless and impatient” drivers seem to make up the majority of drivers who go through the intersection, said Lani Morales, an employee at Tiny Victories bar, “but that’s Texas drivers” for you. The most common type of accident she’s witnessed while working in the bar, which overlooks Tyler Street as it ap- proaches the intersection, is drivers head- ing north ramming into the parked cars that suddenly appear in the right lane. And though Morales and her coworkers usually head home hours after the late- night crowd, once the bar is closed for the evening, she says she worries about her friends and the Tiny Victories patrons who drive home on weekend evenings when the roads seem especially wild. Dallas police data shows that between Jan. 1 of this year and July 21, 15 arrests were made for driving under the influence in the Bishop Arts District and surrounding neigh- borhoods, including the TyPo area. That’s similar to data available for the same time period in 2024, when 13 arrests were made in the area, and a significant jump from 2023, when the first seven months of the year saw only three arrests for DUIs. According to the Dallas Police Depart- ment, the Southwest Patrol Division and Traffic Unit have increased patrols in the Bishop Arts area in recent months, “includ- ing the roundabout near Tyler St. and Davis St.” and enhanced enforcement in entertain- ment zones is a departmental priority. Still, Morales said she’d like to see more Dallas Police officers patrolling the streets during weekend evenings, when she worries drunk driving is more likely. “I get it, though, they have a higher vol- ume of [calls] on the weekends, because ob- viously things happen everywhere on the weekends and people are out more,” Mo- rales said. “The risk is just higher.” Emma Ruby An online fundraiser has raised several thousand dollars to repair Bruno’s Place. Unfair Park from p8 “YOU CAN FIX ONE AREA, THEN IT CAUSES ANOTHER PROBLEM, SO YOU HAVE TO GO BACK AND FIX THAT.” – ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ
