Good roads in Tucson (to work, community, about)

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by BillyBaroo

There's also a lot of work being done all the way to Picacho Peak, it's almost finished and we'll have three lanes and a 75 mph speed limit.

Oh, is it about done? That's good news! With that and I-10 in town finished, we'll finally go to Phoenix and CA in peace.

Tucson messed up twenty or thirty years ago when they didn't build an east-west freeway through the city. It would have been a lot cheaper and easier than it would be now. Oh well. I don't know if it's even possible now. That's something Phoenix took care of and now they have a very nice system of roads. It's hard to blame the government for that one, the citizens of Maricopa County were voting to approve the necessary taxes while Pima County residents were voting them down. There's a bloc of voters around Tucson that always vote against any kind of progress. Their motto, if you don't build it, they won't come.

That's true. And the damn people keep coming anyway!

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by Spot

Even in its best condition, I-10 goes absolutely nowhere in Tucson and right now it is a disaster. Tucson is the only city of its size in the US that doesn't have a business loop. I-10 is little more than an escape route from the city and serves almost no purpose as a "road" in Tucson.

I-10 was most definitely NOT built to get Tucsonans around town...don't assume it was....

it was built as part of a transcontinental highway system between LA and Jacksonville to aid in moving interstate traffic....

Tucsonans should feel lucky to have even what little I-10 does for them here in town....

only when traffic becomes a crisis, and we're definitely not there yet, will the majority of locals demand improvement....it became a crisis in Phx by 1986 and the locals finally approved a system of limited access freeways...we're more than ten years away from that point here in Tucson....

in the meantime, city and county will do what they can with the money they have...scattered widenings here and there, repaving there and here, potholes filled when they get to it....

not an easy thing to solve....a million people, a million opinions

[BillyBaroo]

Originally Posted by sierraAZ

Oh, is it about done? That's good news! With that and I-10 in town finished, we'll finally go to Phoenix and CA in peace.

There's still work to be done around the Picacho Peak exit, but everything south of there is almost done. I'm loving it! From my place, I can get to Chandler in less than an hour and my drive to work is only 15 minutes.

[azdr0710]

I think the Tucson/Marana/Red Rock area is very lucky to be getting I-10 widened clear out to Picacho Peak....admittedly, there are highways in the Phx area that could've used that construction money first...

[BillyBaroo]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

I think the Tucson/Marana/Red Rock area is very lucky to be getting I-10 widened clear out to Picacho Peak....admittedly, there are highways in the Phx area that could've used that construction money first...

I think the goal is to widen I-10 to three lanes all the way from Tucson to Phoenix. That's long overdue. When those big trucks start passing each other on two lanes, it slows everyone down and makes for some dangerous conditions.

Plus, with all the growth to the northwest of Tucson, it's nice to have a project like this completed in anticipation of the heavier traffic.

[Chorizo]

Good Road: Alvernon north of Ft. Lowell to where it merges with River Road.

It is only good because it is not old enough to be screwed up yet!

[M.A.]

I honestly don't think the roads are *that bad* in Tucson. I've driven all over the country. I'm from NJ - try driving on 78 from Hunterdon County to NYC. Talk about potholes! You feel like you've lost half your car by the time you got to the city. I made that drive hundreds of times, and it never got better. I go home every year and while some parts of the highway get better, others get worse. The back roads are in bad shape, too. The roads there are terrible!

Two years ago the roads in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio - pretty much all the way to NJ were atrocious. Maybe they are a little better now. I just remember leaving here thinking our roads were crap and by the time I got home I realized that ours were in pretty good shape compared to other places. I was just in San Antonio and their roads (in terms of deterioration) weren't much better than in Tucson.

If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of potholes, you need to write some letters and speak up. You can get the city to come out and fix them with enough persistence. I did property management in my neighborhood and we put together a binder with maps, photographs of all the potholes, letters, etc. We called the city every few days. We called and wrote to our local ward. It took a few months, but the city came out and fixed the roads. They even did the designated alleyway. Not only do I enjoy driving in our neighborhood now, riding a bike is also much more pleasurable!

As far as traffic - yeah, the traffic here can definitely be bad. But again, nowhere near as bad as other cities. Getting around in Austin - it can take forever! Taking 78 in NJ? It is quite common to crawl along at 20 mph for two hours to get where you're going. Phoenix - forget getting home if you leave at rush hour. Los Angeles - terrible almost all the time! I've been in a lot of cities and a lot of traffic. Tucson traffic is nothing. Even little towns can have ridiculous traffic. I lived in Frenchtown, NJ. Quaint little tourist town. Coming home from work? You could sit in line at the light for an hour just to get home (sad when you can actually see your house from your car as you wait).

Could our infrastructure be better? Certainly. Would it be easier to get around? Yes. Would you get somewhere even faster than say, taking Speedway across town? Maybe, maybe not.

[ZonyPony]

Originally Posted by M.A.

I honestly don't think the roads are *that bad* in Tucson. I've driven all over the country. I'm from NJ - try driving on 78 from Hunterdon County to NYC. Talk about potholes! You feel like you've lost half your car by the time you got to the city. I made that drive hundreds of times, and it never got better. I go home every year and while some parts of the highway get better, others get worse. The back roads are in bad shape, too. The roads there are terrible!

Two years ago the roads in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio - pretty much all the way to NJ were atrocious. Maybe they are a little better now. I just remember leaving here thinking our roads were crap and by the time I got home I realized that ours were in pretty good shape compared to other places. I was just in San Antonio and their roads (in terms of deterioration) weren't much better than in Tucson.

If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of potholes, you need to write some letters and speak up. You can get the city to come out and fix them with enough persistence. I did property management in my neighborhood and we put together a binder with maps, photographs of all the potholes, letters, etc. We called the city every few days. We called and wrote to our local ward. It took a few months, but the city came out and fixed the roads. They even did the designated alleyway. Not only do I enjoy driving in our neighborhood now, riding a bike is also much more pleasurable!

As far as traffic - yeah, the traffic here can definitely be bad. But again, nowhere near as bad as other cities. Getting around in Austin - it can take forever! Taking 78 in NJ? It is quite common to crawl along at 20 mph for two hours to get where you're going. Phoenix - forget getting home if you leave at rush hour. Los Angeles - terrible almost all the time! I've been in a lot of cities and a lot of traffic. Tucson traffic is nothing. Even little towns can have ridiculous traffic. I lived in Frenchtown, NJ. Quaint little tourist town. Coming home from work? You could sit in line at the light for an hour just to get home (sad when you can actually see your house from your car as you wait).

Could our infrastructure be better? Certainly. Would it be easier to get around? Yes. Would you get somewhere even faster than say, taking Speedway across town? Maybe, maybe not.

Excellent post, MA. Appreciate you being here in Tucson!

[Chorizo]

See I have to disagree. I don't think we should have to write letters or make phone calls to get the city to do the maintenance on roads that they should be doing on their own.

[M.A.]

See I have to disagree. I don't think we should have to write letters or make phone calls to get the city to do the maintenance on roads that they should be doing on their own.

I completely understand your point of view. But I prefer to be proactive. If something isn't being done you can either wait around for some progress or do something about it. I didn't say that I enjoyed having to be so persistent! It actually made me mad to have to work so hard to get something done. But in the end I'm happy to have our small community's roads repaired.