Chandler "vs" Surprise Highway #303 (Phoenix, Tempe: 2014, neighborhood, construction)

[sunniaz]

How would you compare the 2? What is the distance from Chandler to Phoenix? What is the distance from Surprise to Phoenix? I read something about they are going to extend highway 303(i think this was the route #) from Surprise Az to Phoenix and it will make it much quicker to get to Phoenix to Surprise. Is this true?

[Ponderosa]

The 303 hiway is mostly a two lane road south of Surprise all the way to I10. To make matters worse it is heavily used by cement and gravel trucks and has traffic controls along its length. It is anything but a super highway. Eventually (years from now) it is supposedly going to be a freeway down past I-10 (in Goodyear) and then all the way to I 8.

Getting to central Phoenix from Surprise is an awful drive even in normal traffic as there is no easy way to do it. One choice is bad, another worse. This is the main knock on Surprise. Again, in time, things will improve, but it is going to be many years and in the construction phase things get much worse before they improve.

Chandler is not a walk in the park to downtown either during rush hour. But outside of that it is pretty stress free.

Chandler is the hands-down winner if commuting to downtown ranks high on your list. Surpise is a better choice if going to Las Vegas, Lake Pleasant or Flagstaff/Sedona etc is tops with you.

[CodyW]

The bulk of Loop 303 to I-10 should be finished by 2014, according to ADOT. Should make things easier, but it will still be quite a commute to central Phoenix.

If you're going to do this commute, Chandler would be the way to go. Lots of traffic, but still a much easier drive.

[sunniaz]

Thanks to the comments, very helpful

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by CodyW

The bulk of Loop 303 to I-10 should be finished by 2014, according to ADOT. Should make things easier, but it will still be quite a commute to central Phoenix.

If you're going to do this commute, Chandler would be the way to go. Lots of traffic, but still a much easier drive.

It may be. They started utility relocation where the interchange with I10 @ Cotton Lane will be today! But yes, 303 will still only get you to Goodyear and then you still have to face the I10 going east into town.

[azriverfan.]

To be fair, it depends where you live in Chandler. Chandler is huge. It can extend so far east that you feel you are in Gilbert and so far south that you don't feel like you are in Maricopa county any longer. It can also extend pretty far north to where you are practically in Tempe. Northwest Chandler is not far from downtown. From northwest Chandler, it's 25 minutes to the ballparks in downtown and 15 minutes to the airport. From Ocotillo and Far East Chandler, it's about 45 minutes to downtown and 25 minutes to the airport.

[ibarrio]

The misinformed. You can get from Surprise to downtown in 35-50 mins using Grand ave. There are lights but it is not bumper to bumper. No need for the freeway. The drive.from Chandler to downtown is much harder despite being freeway

[stevek64]

Takes me 40 minutes to get from Surprise(close to Bell Ave) to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, and that's taking the current 303 with all the potential starts/stops. After 303 is completed down to I-10 as a freeway, I'm guessing easily it will save me at least 5-10 minutes time to get to the airport/Phoenix/areas east down I-10.

I've found this site from ADOT to be a good overview of the schedule of the 303 work:

Loop 303 North of I-10

Big time work going on now/looks to me like they're moving along nicely.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by sunniaz

How would you compare the 2? What is the distance from Chandler to Phoenix? What is the distance from Surprise to Phoenix? I read something about they are going to extend highway 303(i think this was the route #) from Surprise Az to Phoenix and it will make it much quicker to get to Phoenix to Surprise. Is this true?

It really depends on where you are in Surprise. The town covers 70 square miles of area and it isn't square. I'm in the Marley Park neighborhood and it takes me about 5-7 minutes to get onto the 303. Right now, it's takes about the same time for me to go downtown via the 101 or driving west 1st in order to get on the 303. The when the 303 is done, it will be faster for me on the 303 (but a few more miles of backtracking).

Now if you live farther east and closer to Grand and Bell like the Litchfield Manor neighborhood, I don't think you will save time by going on the 303. On the other hand, the 303 will be an obvious time savings for the folks living in Surprise Farms.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by ibarrio

The misinformed. You can get from Surprise to downtown in 35-50 mins using Grand ave. There are lights but it is not bumper to bumper. No need for the freeway. The drive.from Chandler to downtown is much harder despite being freeway

With all due respect, this is simply not true.

Grand avenue moves slow. It's a two lane street with stop lights. I commute to Del Webb 4-5 times per month and Grand is slow even during non-traffic times. With traffic, I've waited as long as 40 minutes to get from Grand/101 to Del Webb. From the 101 to Del Webb taking Grand is another 20 minutes at least so there is no way you can get from Surprise to downtown Phoenix in 35 minutes taking this route.

Chandler to Downtown is much closer even for Ocotillo residents than Surprise residents. The 202 to I-10 and I-10 to downtown is much faster than taking Grand to the 101 and then 101 south to I-10 and then I-10 to downtown...that is a much slower process. And we are talking about downtown, to the airport it's about 10 minutes closer. If I was concerned about commute times, I would never choose Surprise over Chandler, Chandler is much closer.

Furthermore, the AM traffic going west on I-10 relatively stops once you get past Broadway on I-10. A lot of the people who don't live in Chandler don't know this and see that I-10 traffic and assume it's like that all the way to downtown and it's not. Furthermore, some people may have lived in the Chandler area years ago and moved to the West Side, they also have a wrong perception because since the completion of the 202 and extension of the 101 south, a lot of the traffic on I-10 has improved and it's no longer bumper to bumper like it was in the first part of this decade. Sure, there is a lot of traffic and it can come to a stop but it will also quickly catch up and move, and it's only like that up to the 60 exchange and once you pass Broadway, it is nearly eliminated. And then you are going against traffic the rest of the way particularly if you take the 51 North (all the traffic heads south on the 51 in the morning). From Warner/I-10 to Union Hills/51, it takes me 35 minutes departing at 7:30 AM during height of traffic because once I'm past Broadway, I can comfortably drive 60 mph or more without interruption.