Here and Now - Transportation Issues

In my opinion, much of the traffic and congestion issue comes from how residential growth has been through the roof, but major job providers are mostly in the metro area. If you want to cut congestion, encourage the development of office parks in the outlying areas to give those residents options. It has to be more affordable for state money to go to this kind of development than to widen freeways and add roads.

About the Light Rail December 2008 Start Date - When will those of us who use public transportation now have an opportunity to provide input into the re-alignment of the bus routes to integrate with the light rail?

Edward,

We'll get to light rail and mass transit in about 10 minutes and will pose the question to our guests then.

In regard to the South Mountain Freeway - Chandler set aside the land bordering the freeway for light industrial. Why did Phoenix not do the same? Now the taxpayers have to pay to remove the development along the freeway and pay again to build the freeway.

I have three questions…

1. Was elevated light rail looked into instead of being on the surface? I feel that way sections could have been prefabricated and put in place like a causeway bridge. Businesses would not have been harmed and the trains would not be impeded by surface traffic when completed.
2. Why were the needs of the far east, north and west valley residents not addressed by having the light rail go along freeways to the outlying malls (were there is parking already getting people out of their cars and promoting spending in the malls after work) then underground in the downtown Phoenix area first?
3. There were streetcars in Phoenix and all of the tracks were removed to much celebration. Why put them back just to probably remove the another 60 to 70 years from now? Thank you.

are there any ideas for making the hunt hwy area better, there are currently only 2 routes in and out of the florence/queen creek area. south area of it at least. there is hunt hwy and ironwood, or go around south through coolidge like i do to get to work im tempe daily. hunt hwy is only 1 lane on each side for most of it. there are tons people out there and so little expansion going on. any idea of when this will change or anyplaces for that much talked about north south freeway ?

You mentioned the Avra Valley By-Pass route around Tucson. Is the route south of Aravaipa Canyon over the Galiuros off the table?

It would be a huge mistake to allow outside private entities to have control of our transportation routes. Wake up.

What upsets me most about the modern Toll Road trend is when governments contractually agree not to improve other roads in the area that might compete with the toll road. I think that is very wrong, just makes the problem worse, and should not be allowed.

I am a young professional that lives and works in downtown Phoenix, and I am really thankful that this topic is being addressed as it is often a topic of discussion between my friends and I. A couple questions:

1) what is the 5 & 10 year light rail growth plan? I feel like the current artery that is being constructed doesnt connect the people that will use it, nor does it address the current traffic congestion on the major highways.
2) what are the proposed hours of operation of the lightrail? I think its extremely important to continue service late at least until midnight during the week and 2 AM during the weekend. This will help link entertainment areas and reduce drunk driving incidents.
3) To what extent are other cities' growth models taken into consideration? I feel like we could learn a lot from bringing in outside opinions and experts from other cities.
4) And in an effort to reduce location based transportation (i.e. within downtown Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale), what about encouraging alternative methods of transportation (i.e. bicycles) by having bike racks that are secure and well lit?

The key to solve transportation in the valley is to bring here people with knowledge and VISION in city planning!! The people we have now (mayor, city councilman, planners) are people responsible for creating a disgusting "monster city" (a "city" just like Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles) designed with the cars in mind rather then people needs. It's not too late to fix this problem, but we need good people and serious professionals. LET"S LEARN FROM PORTLAND!!

How about restoring Amtrak to Phoenix and creating higher speed connections to Tucson, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, Las Vegas etc to get some of those cars off the roads. And within the Phoenix area, in addition to faster public transportation, what about designing the roads to encourage bike and pedestrian traffic instead of discouraging it (especially in a place with such great weather so many months of the year)

A couple questions:
What are the plans to accomodate bicyles on light rail and will there be bike lanes to all the stations?
Is it true that light rail speed will be that of the bus, about 12 to 15mph?
Last question: have either of you heard of the system in Brazil. where they studied mass transport and concluded that most people don't ride buses because they are slow. So they developed a system where the buses have their own lane. riders pre pay and wait in an air conditioned tube to board. If you'v heard of this, was this system considered?

I once lived in chandler. I heard a story on Morning addition about a families carbon foot print. I think they have some good ideas for your panel http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89250244