Just a few observations from someone who lives south of town (Maricopa to be exact) and drives I-10 daily…
Inbound, the freeway bogs down at the 202 “Santan” and finally picks up at the Broadway Curve. While a few extra lanes might be nice from…
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Tempe, where U.S. 60 dumps drivers from the East Valley onto the interstate toward Phoenix
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…I would much rather have those extra lanes from the 202 to the 60. Or better yet, put in light rail (or even Commuter Rail) from Chandler to Tempe parallel to I-10. That would relieve some of the congestion on the southern (or should I say East) end of I-10.
Outbound, the freeway starts to bog down as it nears the airport, and doesn’t pick up again until around the 202 “Santan”. This makes me believe that the biggest bottleneck again is at the 202, helping back up traffic all the way into the heart of Phoenix. Again a few more lanes would be nice, but I would prefer more transit options instead of a 24 lane freeway. Or even some extra lanes in the center of I-10 that could be used by either direction pending on the need (I-15 toward San Diago has this option).
Another fix (that is even in the works) would be to finish extending the 202 from I-10, south of South Mountain, back to the 10. This would enable some of the traffic to just avoid driving thru the middle of Phoenix, putting less cars (and big trucks) on the road, alleviating the need for all those extra lanes.
I feel that this is so simple that a child… well at least a teenage commuter… could figure it out.
This fix is only for the south east end of the valley. Maybe another "expert" can give us their fix for the rest of it.
One last note… I moved here from Salt Lake City a few years ago, and loved their light rail system when I was there. When it came to ridership projections, SLC’s light rail currently has
four times as many riders then what they thought they were going to have. It works people. I just wish I could use it here…
Thank you all for letting me vent on the freeway issue, I will hold my ideas for light-rail for another time.