someone please tell me why! (Phoenix, Tucson: transplants, neighborhoods, construction)

[mir86]

All of Tucson has to be under construction and at the same time?? its a band-aid..not a cure to our infrastructure. Why can't we vote to build a freeway system like in Phoenix instead of bandaging our streets for the millions of people that are moving here? I don't really keep up with politics here, but maybe I missed the vote for that one? This place is going to be way too congested in a few years since our population is only growing. I'm more concerned for my mother (since I'm moving) because she doesn't drive well in heavy heavy traffic and we all know traffic causes aggression which I'm afraid will put her in another accident in a few years. Our streets aren't meant for the growth we're seeing..and after I lived in LA for a year, I defintely noticed the change in traffic here and its getting worse and the attitude of drivers are also getting worse.

It took me almost an hour to drive a 15 minute commute this morning because of construction on Wilmot by 22nd, all for the building of a bandaged street. I would expect this in LA..not Tucson. and the fact that everyone was tailgaiting one another in the right lane on 22nd prevented me from being able to turn onto Kolb instead of Wilmot in the first place..another point in the terrible attitude of drivers here.

Anyone else see my point of view or am I just crazy? lol

[azdr0710]

as happened in Phoenix, voters here will not vote for freeways until they perceive a true crisis....not until 1986 did Phx voters see the traffic crisis that existed up there and vote for higher taxes to build the now-existing freeway system up there.....

things aren't bad enough here, evidently...

best thing you can do now is sit back, take a deep breath, don't tailgate, and drive carefully....

believe me....traffic here is much better than Phx and the drivers are MUCH nicer, on average, here!!!!

[Bummer]

Simple answer to your question, Mir86 . . .

COWTOWNS don't need and/or want freeways!

[mir86]

haha...we're not a big city..but we're not a cowtown either! its definitely getting more congested here and I foresee it becoming a huge danger, and more and more people are commuting from the outer areas too. My friends who were born and raised here are terrified of the idea of a freeway, it makes me mad..people like them are the reason why nobody votes for a freeway system. Its also kind of funny since all they say is "freeways scare me! I could never drive in a city based on freeways!"..wimps. Everyone else I know is totally for it!

and don't worry, I don't tailgaite. I try to ignore the stupid/abnormally slow drivers and I drive super carefully after being in 2 accidents (neither were my fault but still) and after numerous speeding tickets (oops).

[sickofIL]

All of Tucson has to be under construction and at the same time??

This is the way of the world! err... USA

It's the same everywhere there is a city. I don't know about how Tucson does it but here they re-pave then tear it up to fix what is underneath. This way nothing last very long and they can grease their buddies again sooner I guess.

When or if they ever build another freeway in Tucson (of if like here..tollway) it will likely be too small before it is finished. Seems that is the way of politics and cities.

[mir86]

you live in Chicago right? I don't know much about chicago, but I imagine its pretty huge, almost the size of LA?

Tucson is small..I mean, I drive 15 minutes north to work and I'm outside of city limits already. So when 5 or more of our main roads are under construction at the same time, its a huuge pain!

You have a point about all that construction being the way of the world, but I remember in LA, minor construction projects (the size of the ones that are all over Tucson) were finished in around a month, I could be wrong though, but they were pretty quick there, where as here it takes at least 5 months, minimum. One of our main roads, River road was under construction for 5 years! it was only 3 or 4 miles they re-did! insane! now I don't know anything about construction, but I sometimes wonder what they are repairing and ripping up that it takes so long!

the other thing, they keep ripping up the same roads here..what on earth are they doing? fill in the pothole and move on! I really would just like to see my tax dollars spent on a freeway system, so I can escape the 20,000 construction zones and only have to deal with 10,000 of them instead!

Do you mean the city of Tucson would be too small before a freeway is finished, or that the freeway would be too small? lol

[LinaJo76]

I can tell that Tucson is getting congested, because the last time I took a greyhound bus (last year) and went to Tucson, they had moved the bus station to a more open, larger area. I liked it really. It was easier to get in and out of the station now.

[mir86]

yes, this city is growing super fast! everyday I meet new transplants!

[actinic]

New roads? Tucson can't even maintain the existing ones, their definition of traffic remediation is speed humps, neighborhoods are seeing increasing traffic as a conveninet shortcut with all the major roadways getting more congestion, signal timing is a joke, NIMBY's have repeatedly shot down initiatives, and good luck getting stuck behind a bus with the scarcity of cut outs for them. Sure there's problems in other growing cities, Tucson's are just worst considering the population.

[mir86]

exactly my point. our infrastructure is absurd! with all the transplants, the money will be there to build freeways...I dunno what the deal is..but its time to leave