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Old 01-10-2013, 08:08 PM
 
2,338 posts, read 4,697,205 times
Reputation: 2022

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Not sure who travels through the Old Town Scottsdale area on a regular basis as I do. It's amazing the lack of synchronicity of the traffic lights. It's largely the lights that involve left arrows off Scottsdale Road onto the likes of Camelback, Chapparal and Drinkwater. The left arrow lights turn yellow a matter of a few seconds after they turn green barely allowing two vehicles to turn left. It results in umpteen cars backed up and it can take 10 minutes to turn left onto Camelback if there are 10 cars in front. I've been here a year and this issue has persisted. Anyone else notice this ?
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Old 01-11-2013, 01:37 AM
 
Location: Phoenix,az
391 posts, read 838,660 times
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It's funny someone made a thread about the pain in the arse lights in old town. This is why I avoid old town like the plague.
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Old 01-11-2013, 04:12 AM
 
570 posts, read 998,358 times
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Maybe that's why they have Goldwater Blvd and Drinkwater Blvd to bypass Scottsdale Rd in Old Town. There aren't a lot of north-south options in that part of Scottsdale. 68th St? Miller Rd? Hayden Rd?

The other thing you have to remember is this time of year, more people are on the roads anyway. I imagine Scottsdale draws a lot of tourists, especially Old Town.
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Old 01-11-2013, 06:04 AM
 
Location: Phoenix, AZ
1,070 posts, read 2,937,157 times
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I usually just make 3 right turns...
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Old 01-11-2013, 06:42 AM
 
4,235 posts, read 14,023,513 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swbrotha100 View Post
68th St?
shhh....68th has been a local secret for decades....but watch your speed, lanes suddenly ending/starting, and realize it only goes as far N as Chaparral....
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Old 01-11-2013, 07:42 AM
 
357 posts, read 710,006 times
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I live on Miller and Camelback and yeah, it's an issue. The trick definitely is to just avoid that stretch of Scottsdale Rd. Hayden is super fast the entire stretch of Scottsdale and Miller/68th/64th are all good bypasses and much faster. The reality is with the amount of lights they have from Osborn to Chaparral I don't think there is a way to make it move smoothly since some of the cross streets (Camelback, Indian School) are major roads as well. When driving East/West it definitely seems as if they make it a goal to have Indian School lights move people in/out of Old Town quickly since that road is very fast. Scottsdale and Camelback is just a CF due to the amount of stuff on every single corner.

And for such a small area there are a lot of people driving in it - to restaurants, Fashion Square, hotels, etc. It's just a very dense area (for Phoenix metro) and since everyone drives in the Phoenix metro it's unfortunately bound to happen.
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Old 01-15-2013, 01:13 AM
 
Location: East Central Phoenix
8,028 posts, read 12,205,927 times
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Goldwater Boulevard serves as a bypass through downtown Scottsdale, but that can be just as bad with the reduced speed limit and almost as many stoplights as Scottsdale Road. Plus, when many people use the bypass streets, they can become just as congested (if not more so) than the main drags.

As far as the timing of the left turn arrows are concerned, I agree ... there should be longer durations. This can be an issue everywhere, not just in downtown Scottsdale. But in the meantime, drivers in the left turn lanes can help matters by getting their butts moving immediately when the arrow turns green. Too many people sit still at these lights & don't pay attention, or they move too slowly on the left green arrows that it causes others behind them to miss their turns, which causes more traffic backups.
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Old 01-15-2013, 08:13 AM
 
Location: La Jolla, CA
7,284 posts, read 16,627,785 times
Reputation: 11675
Scottsdale Road isn't a good thoroughfare between McDowell and Chaparral, unless you are going somewhere between those two roads. It might be unintentional that the lights are not timed, but it might not. Urban planning strategies include slowing traffic so that people have a chance to look around and notice local businesses and explore a little more. IMO, Old Town would be the ideal place for that kind of strategy because of the density of restaurants and stores. For locals, it's easy to say that Scottsdale Road is an annoyance because obviously it sucks as a thoroughfare when you don't have a destination somewhere in the area, but for tourists or people who are going to Old Town to look around, it probably goes unnoticed, and might actually help.
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