Traffic - I'd Like To Know Your Thoughts - If You Think It's Bad Overall On The Freeways And Off (Phoenix: neighborhoods, luxury)

[sunshinecities]

[b][/

IB]
I'm curious what others think of the traffic in Phoenix and in the surrounding suburbs - on and off the freeways. Especially regarding over the next decade. I've read the roads will get wider to accomodate the traffic. One article, believe it or not, even said a twelve lane in each direction could happen in the coming decades - that sure sounds extreme. I would imagine 6 lanes in each direction to be more accurate. Yet, they do estiimate millions of more people to come in. Please share your thoughts.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by sunshinecities

[b][/

IB]
I'm curious what others think of the traffic in Phoenix and in the surrounding suburbs - on and off the freeways. Especially regarding over the next decade. I've read the roads will get wider to accomodate the traffic. One article, believe it or not, even said a twelve lane in each direction could happen in the coming decades - that sure sounds extreme. I would imagine 6 lanes in each direction to be more accurate. Yet, they do estiimate millions of more people to come in. Please share your thoughts.

You know up until about 6 years ago I would always take the freeway to get where I had to go. The last 5 years have been a nightmare on it. I wouldn't touch the US60 in the rush hours. They widened the roads on it and their is an accident just about every single day in the afternoon E bound on either Gilbert or Val Vista. For some reason people can't seem to merge properly when the new lanes end. It's horrible! The other freeways not a picnic either but it depends a lot on the time of day. I'll take the freeway on a weekend as long as it's not closed which happens alot.

[sablebaby]

It's funny during a part of the year the traffic isn't as bad. Right now it's not bad (at least the time I go). I did jump on the 101 at cave creek at 530pm yesterday and it was a BREEZE! It boggles my mind. People tell me it's because the snowbirds are gone, but why are snowbirds on the freeways at rush hour??

Otherwise the traffic is annoying when it's backed up. I'd like to see our freeways expand. 6 lanes wouldn't do much, since our freeways are 4- (5 in lots of areas). If they expand then it will be a mess with construction though. They need to though with our growth and sprawl.

Traffic in neighborhoods are ok, not the greatest depending on where you are. Surprise is a mess! That place is crazy! Sun City has a lot of traffic as well.

[CodyW]

I wouldn't jump on the freeway unless I had to - Or unless I had to commute really long distances.

I much prefer the surface streets - though, for traffic, it can really be the luck of the draw. Alot of intersections aren't that bad when it comes to traffic, others are horrible. But yeah. It seems like the freeways are always bad.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by sablebaby

It's funny during a part of the year the traffic isn't as bad. Right now it's not bad (at least the time I go). I did jump on the 101 at cave creek at 530pm yesterday and it was a BREEZE! It boggles my mind. People tell me it's because the snowbirds are gone, but why are snowbirds on the freeways at rush hour??

Otherwise the traffic is annoying when it's backed up. I'd like to see our freeways expand. 6 lanes wouldn't do much, since our freeways are 4- (5 in lots of areas). If they expand then it will be a mess with construction though. They need to though with our growth and sprawl.

Traffic in neighborhoods are ok, not the greatest depending on where you are. Surprise is a mess! That place is crazy! Sun City has a lot of traffic as well.

It's not the snowbirds. In summer, the construction workers head off at 3-4 am or earlier and get off at 1pm or so. In winter, they are driving right along with the office workers. Construction is a huge employer in the valley as you know so that is a lot of vehicles that are off the roads. Get up to go fishing at 2-3 am in summer and you will see what I mean.

[Cj81]

I have a little secret that I want to share with everyone, just in case you guys didn't know this. I live downtown and anytime I have to drive out of downtown in the morning rush hour I deal with NO traffic. Of course I get to see everyone jammed up thats trying to get into the central city. Most people live in the burbs and drive to the central city so in the morning its jammed up going into the city and the afternoon its jammed up going out. I fortunatly live about 1 mile from work so i never deal with traffic anyway but on the occasion that I need to head out to a burb in the morning its often like driving on a Sunday, no traffic! At one point in my life I lived out in the burbs and did the commute into the city and I wanted to SCREAM everyday. That traffic sucks so bad. I moved into central Phoenix and I am soooo much happier, more time, less driving, never dealing with traffic plus I live right on the new light rail line. So in a year or so, I might not even need a car. Just a thought for the rest of you.

[Ponderosa]

The 24 lane plan is not a misprint. It is planned for only a short section though that is notorious for bottlenecks.

Freeways are fine after rush hour. I have the luxury of waiting until after 9 am to do whatever I want and I can zip anywhere on the freeway without any delays. Occasionally, there is a wreck and on weekends they like to close a part of one freeway or another for road work, so you have to avoid that. Even the worst spots like Dysart Road in the west valley and I-17 south of Anthem are pretty open from 9-2 pm or so. And help is on the way for both of those places. Rush hour is another story, but rush hour is a mess in every city I have ever seen. It goes with big city life. You can't live in a city of 3-4 million and expect wide open roads at peak use times. And our rush hours are mere annoyances compared to LA and other many big cites. I was coming back from Disneyland a few weeks ago and drove past gridlock going west for over 35 miles. There is nothing here that compares to that.

[Cyanna]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

And our rush hours are mere annoyances compared to LA and other many big cites. I was coming back from Disneyland a few weeks ago and drove past gridlock going west for over 35 miles. There is nothing here that compares to that.

I was never bothered by the traffic on the freeways in Arizona after having been raised in Los Angeles. It is an absolute nightmare to drive the LA freeway system. And then we drove to London. I never in my wildest dreams imagined ANY place could be worse than Los Angeles. I was never so wrong in my life. We had no less than 6 near-collisions within the space of an hour. All of these near misses took place within a one square mile area. Over an HOUR to get out of a one-mile area! We had one crazy woman come careening through 6 lanes of traffic going two-way, north-south bound. She was heading east bound! The motorcyclist in front of us almost went down due to her nearly hitting the rear of his bike. Another woman came at us head-on because she decided to drive south in a north-bound lane, doing at least 75 miles per hour, while at the same time a mini-bus full of elderly people was busy trying to push us into the oncoming traffic so the driver could get into our lane I won't repeat the very many cuss words we were using that day. As soon as we got out of London we had to pull in at a small cafe because we were shaking so badly and I was in tears!

Arizona traffic is sane compared to Los Angeles and London

[hughesgirl]

My husband and I made deliveries in the Phoenix Metro area for 4 years. I delivered mostly Chandler and Mesa and my husband did Central Phoenix. We found out quickly how to get around using side streets and little known roads. We had packages that had to be deliverd by 8 am and 10:30am so knowing these street came in handy. I tell people all the time to research the area they must travel to on a regular basis, this way if they find a traffic problem they know how to get around it. Case in point, we went to Challenger Space center last Tuesday (in Peoria) and after that we went to Central Phoenix to the Irish Cultural Center and the Japanese Gardens. We forgot about the march taking place and got stopped in traffic. My husband turned on a side street that he knew about and we bypassed all the traffic. It was great!

[MotleyCrew]

There is a good article on our traffic issues in this months U.S. News &
World Reports. Not too much is being done to address this problem and it looks like it will continue to get worse. You can go to www.usnews.com/roadwarriors for more info.