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Valley traffic planning still has potholes

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Grant
Klinzman

According to a recently released study, Phoenix is the most traffic-congested city in the nation. Despite this study, Valley transportation officials contend that traffic congestion has actually improved.

"We don't have any indicators that suggest our traffic has gotten that much worse," Eric Anderson, transportation director for the Maricopa Association of Governments, told The Arizona Republic.

You want indicators? I've got them.

I've lived here for two-and-a-half years, and my work commute to downtown Phoenix has substantially worsened during that time. I used to be able to make the trip in seven to nine minutes on average; now, I can't seem to break the 12-minute mark no matter how fast I drive,

Phoenix's official traffic rating is 1.43. This means a trip takes 43 percent more time to commute during rush hour than during non-rush hour times. In other words, rush-hour travel time in Phoenix has tripled over the last two decades!

Despite all of this, I have to give Valley transportation officials some credit - they have been working hard to ensure Valley roads keep up with the enormous population growth in the area. A $15.8 billion regional transportation plan is currently in the works that will help build new highways and fund "intelligent" traffic control, which warns highway drivers of upcoming congestion so they can pick alternate routes.

While there has been a huge focus on expanding highways (which should be done), some Valley regions are missing the little things that could help to alleviate traffic a little more.

A perfect example is the train on Rural Road. For those of you who don't live south of Vista Del Cerro and Rural, you may never have experienced the havoc wreaked by this friggin' train. I'm not sure if it runs at regular intervals - since I have been stalled by it at various times of day - but I never fail to miss it on the way to my 9:40 a.m. class.

While this predicament could easily be remedied by my taking McClintock or Mill to campus, that novel idea generally doesn't occur to me until my seventh Mountain Dew; and by then, I am already stopped at the train crossing.

The train clogs traffic on one of the busiest roads in Tempe during the most inopportune moments of rush hour - and it's not one of those short, really fast ones either. No, this train is of the really slow, seemingly never-ending variety that backs up cars for whole city blocks. No matter how long the lights stay green after a train has passed, it takes a long time for traffic to pick up the pace again - just in time for the next train.

While I understand the train is important to the local commerce, why does it have to cross over Rural? From my experience, the northbound traffic on Mill Avenue seems to be much less congested anyway, and it has the cool train bridge over the street, too.

So before Valley transportation officials put any more money behind highways, they should solve this Tempe train dilemma. Arterial roads, while not as glamorous as highways 37 lanes wide, are still an important component in traffic congestion and should not be overlooked.

The writer is probably sitting on Rural right now but can still be reached at grant.klinzman@asu.edu.


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