Grant Road - one of Tucson's busiest East-West arterial streets, is going to become 6 lanes wide in the future. Tucson City Council approved plans to add a lane in each direction by a 6-1 vote on January 13th. The Grant Road Improvement Plan has been in the works since the passage of the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) plan in May 2006.
While many Tucsonans will welcome the results of the widening along a 5-mile stretch between Oracle & Swan, it will have a great effect on hundreds of small businesses on the corridor. In my opinion, while I feel for the business owners, this is something that must be done, as cross-town traffic is quickly becoming a real problem on Grant Road, and many people avoid it altogether-which increases traffic on smaller streets in residential neighborhoods that aren't equipped to handle it.
Above is a satellite view from Google Earth of the intersection at Grant Rd & Campbell Avenue, just 1 mile north of the University of Arizona. Though this is an image several years old, and the traffic is very light for a typical day, one can see that it is a major intersection, and that any widening will have a direct impact on the businesses along Grant.
One measure that has been tried (and failed) to alleviate congestion on Grant Road was to turn the middle lane, normally used for left turns, into a travel lane that alternated directions according to the time of day. Locals took to calling it the "suicide lane" due to the failure of drivers to understand how to use it properly. It was only after a policeman was killed by a head-on collision a few years ago that the idea of the "suicide lane" was discarded.
The specific design of the approved widening has not been finalized yet, only the footprint and a rough outline. Work is not scheduled to begin until 2013. Tucson has grown spectacularly in the past 20 years, and is playing catch-up with streets and traffic plans. We're now a metro of around 1 million people, and growing pains are felt in many directions. It is my opinion that we must tackle these issues and deal with them decisively or suffer the fate of a town strangled by its growth instead of managing it in a manner that allows Tucson to maintain its character & charm.
Sure, we're a town of a million residents, but we can keep that nature & not have it be a nightmare to go from one side to the other.
Specializing in Buyer Representation in the Tucson, Arizona real estate market.
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