Is the traffic bad in Phoenix? (house, moving, commute to)

[ijamez]

I love PHX traffic...Especially now that those stupid cameras are gone! Wait they haven't brought them back in the last two years have they?

[new2colo]

I've been noticing backups at very odd times during the day on the 17 north just after the 10 split near the airport. My job requires me to travel out of the office quite a bit during the day. I have noticed that the freeway often clogs so severely that the three right lanes on the westbound 10 to get on the 17 northbound are bumper to bumper. I don't know if there are disabled vehicles or accidents causing these routine backups, but it is strange in Phoenix to see backups during what are supposed to be off peak times.

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

That TomTom website you provided which ranked Phoenix as 56th is very flawed. There is no truth to it whatsoever. I agree that Phoenix's traffic isn't horrendous like L.A., Chicago, etc. ... but it's still bad enough. The following website is much more reliable and ranks Phoenix as 14th in the nation as far as traffic congestion.

14. Phoenix, Arizona | Top 15 Cities with the Worst Traffic | Comcast.net

That makes more sense.

With the crush hour traffic mess I have to deal with everyday I sometimes think Phoenix is top ten in worst congested areas but I can go along with fourteenth, it's more realistic than 56th.

[mikejjones1234]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

That TomTom website you provided which ranked Phoenix as 56th is very flawed. There is no truth to it whatsoever. I agree that Phoenix's traffic isn't horrendous like L.A., Chicago, etc. ... but it's still bad enough. The following website is much more reliable and ranks Phoenix as 14th in the nation as far as traffic congestion.

14. Phoenix, Arizona | Top 15 Cities with the Worst Traffic | Comcast.net

That's just US cities, where as Tom Tom gives you an idea what driving in the rest of the continent is like.
Look at the list, cities with a million rank way up there in congestion because they have no freeways.

yeah com cast is better than a GPS company who monitors traffic 24/7/365 around the world.

you have no idea what UGLY traffic is.

[PhoenixSomeday]

Originally Posted by bantam88

Got back from San Francisco. Counting my blessings.

I live in Silicon Valley. Visited Phoenix for a week in September 2012. We were all over the valley. Compared to what I'm used to in the bay area, it was a joke, even in rush hour. And rush hour didn't even seem all that long. Here, rush hour is bumper to bumper from around 2:30PM to 7:30PM or so. 5 hours. It's bad the whole time, and just plain heinous from 4:30-6. Moreover, during off peak hours here, there is still heavy traffic. You are looking at 2 minutes per mile or so anywhere you go, average trip duration from jumping in your car at origin to getting out at destination. In Phoenix, we were minute per mile or faster. 35 miles in the bay is kill-me-now. In Phoenix it was "wheeeeeeeee!"

This is all just for the one week we were there in September 2012. Granted things change from week to week, month to month, season to season.

What is phoenix's rush hour traffic pattern like? Honest, not rhetorical.

Originally Posted by Desertspiritsteve

It's a big old mess. There is so much road rage bubbling just beneath the surface. For the most part, people who are wandering about are concentrating on a cell phone in front of them. I get tailgated on the freeway and at Phoenix stop lights in the city, people are very careful to leave a car link or two between themselves and the car in front of them. Stopped. The city is busily cutting city streets from four lanes to two, so that they can put a bike lane in each direction which no one uses. My favorite is Grand Avenue where the lanes have been cut back from four lanes to two so that they could put big concrete planters out in the street by the art walk area. I'm wondering who will water those plants in July and August.

Are you kidding? They're doing that in Phoenix now too? They started doing it here in my part of silicon valley in the last year. It's horrible. Traffic is an order of magnitude worse on those streets now (HEAVILY traveled ones), and, as before, the bike lanes are completely unused. I'm curious if anybody anywhere did studies on this, or if cities are just randomly doing this now to be "green" or whatever.

[Desertspiritsteve]

Cities are probably getting matching grants or Federal monies for the, "Feel good," bike lanes. We want the money. It's creating a real snarl for the car traffic. Bike lanes may be used around ASU but they are a mess in residential neighborhoods.

[timothyaw]

Here is shows Phoenix is 37th 50 Worst Traffic Cities in the U.S. (PHOTOS) - weather.com

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by timothyaw

Here is shows Phoenix is 37th 50 Worst Traffic Cities in the U.S. (PHOTOS) - weather.com

How did weather.com suddenly become experts on traffic?

I don't know how all these different rankings come to play, one site says Phoenix is 56th, another says 37th, another says fourteenth.

I experience very heavy traffic daily, brakelights for miles on the I-10 coming in from the west valley in the mornings and even worse in the afternoon crush. Traffic reports on the radio indicate just about all freeways experience the same kind of congestion.

Phoenix traffic to me seems very congested, not Los Angeles bad but still bad enough.

[Scottay]

Weather is a big factor I'm sure. The only time Phx has weather affects traffic is during dust storms which only happen about 5 or 6 times a year.

[grassfeeder]

I live in Bangkok for 10 years....you want to see real traffic, go there! You could turn your car off and take a nap for about 3 hours and still not move. No joke.