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Background:
Cheryl Toy of Maricopa County Transportation Department is the
Project Manager for the Aqua Fria Crossing Study. She presented this
study to Tom Stolt, President of the Sun City Home Owners
Association. Mr. Stolt, without consulting the HOA Board of
Directors, or other Sun City citizens, told Maricopa County that
Peoria Avenue would be the lesser of evils in Sun City, agreeing to
the construction of a bridge structure on the Peoria alignment.
Later, Mr. Stolt found residents and Home Owner Association members
adamantly in opposition to his view, and he retracted his statement
as representative of the HOA membership.
Norm
Dickson, President of the Recreation Center Board in Sun City, but
acting as a private citizen, strongly objected to changing Peoria
Avenue from a residential street to a heavily-traveled arterial
street.
After
reading about this discussion in the local newspapers, Mr. Gary
Bourne, a transportation engineer, and a local citizen of Sun City,
decided to get involved.
Mr. Bourne
contacted Mr. Dickson and informed him that Mr. Dickson was correct
in his opinion of not changing the status of Peoria Avenue.
Mr. Dickson
proceeded to gather six people to form the Sun City Traffic Impact
Committee. The purpose of this on-going committee is to
professionally promote traffic patterns which will maintain the
leisurely lifestyle that has always been in Sun City since its
conception in 1959.
At the
present time, Sun City has three high volume streets which cut
through Sun City. Sun City was built sort of an “Island in the
Desert.” It was located, in 1959, 17 miles from downtown
Phoenix. It had very little traffic through it on Grand Avenue.
Sun City has
always been an “origin of destination” of traffic, not a location
which needed through traffic to survive. It has hospitals and
medical facilities. It has pharmacies and small stores for senior
citizens. It has a couple of grocery stores and a few
restaurants. Some gasoline stations have finally left, partly
because of no through traffic, but partly because the 20,000 golf
cars are electric or gas and do not use much gasoline.
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If the Peoria bridge is approved:
If the Peoria bridge is approved, it would cut off the bottom two
square miles of our city. Now good planners do not cut up areas such
as Sun City. They would not cut through Disneyland, Epcot Center,
Solvang or, closer to home, Anthem.
Sam
Phillips, for Del Webb, designed Peoria Avenue with medians and
restricted intersections so that it would not only discourage
traffic but would slow up the traffic. Also, he made Peoria Avenue a
residential street by subdividing the abutting residential areas
which placed homes facing Peoria Avenue.
Let us
suppose the County would reconstruct Peoria Avenue.
1.
They would tear out the medians.
2.
They would put in service roads for the residential
properties – which do not work.
3. They
would bring in the noise of trucks and additional traffic with high
speeds and additional noise.
Now in Sun City we roll along at a
slow speed. Drive our golf cars – yes 20,000. Some people have two:
one for Dad and one for Mom.
We go out at 10:00 am and come back
by 2:00 pm -- nap time. We sure do not cause traffic problems. We
roll up the sidewalks at 8:00 pm to enjoy the evening at home.
All of this is the purpose of life
for us whose average age is 74.
Now the Citizens of Maricopa County
passed the Proposition 400, which has $16 billion for roads. (Yes
“B” as in Billion).
The politicians say "the people have
spoken – spend the money."
The Engineering Consultants say “I
want part of that money to design the project.”
The contractor says “I want part of
that money to build the project.”
It is up to the Planners to resist
the pressure until they have fully checked and rechecked; until they
are sure there are no problem areas.
The County report has I-10 on the
bottom and Bell Road on the top. This is divided into three segments
by the county: Northern, Central and Southern.
Now it appears the County went to
Tom Stolt, President of the Sun City HOA and said “pick one.” This
is similar to someone who has diabetes and having a person come in
with a dozen beautifully decorated donuts and saying “pick one.”
The answer should be “No Way." That
should have been Mr. Stolt’s answer to that question on the Peoria
Avenue structure.
Now along comes this “The Aqua Fria
Bridge Study,” which wants to change Peoria Avenue from its
residential status to arterial status with trucks, automobiles,
noise and pollution. The county predicts 26,000 vehicles per day,
which is a D level, with starts and stops.
Now, in order to calculate traffic
flow, transportation engineers use a figure of 7,000 vehicles per
day per traffic lane. To get this traffic volume, one must extend
the streets from 303 to 101, so the County is predicting that to
happen.
If they do not go clear through in
their analysis, then they have a break down. The county plan also
uses many six lane arterials (Bell Road-type streets).
The typical street cross-section,
which the advanced planning team used for the City of Phoenix and a
lot of Maricopa County, has 64 foot roadway on 80 foot Right of Way.
This is used through Phoenix and all arterial streets, which are
located every mile such as Camelback, McDowell, 59th
Avenue, 19th Avenue, and others. This cross section
(64 ft on 80 ft), four to 10 foot lanes (two in each direction and
one 10 foot left turn in the center plus ample room on the sides for
distressed vehicles).
This gives reasonable access for
business. Developers may design their home subdivisions with the
homes backing onto the arterial streets.
Six lane streets do not work.
1.
Businesses do not like them (as they are hard to get in and
out).
2.
Developers do not like them (because too much land is taken,
and they add noise and pollution. Also, developers cannot put
residents near them).
3.
The public hates them.
By the County using four lane
streets, they probably have been given the 80 foot right of way and
64 foot pavement by the developer. Therefore there has been No
County Expense.
In looking at the County report they
admit in 2025 they will be short or need additional 24 traffic lanes
that they do not provide for, even though they
turn many arterial streets into six lanes.
This does not work.
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Mr. Bourne's analysis:
Following is Mr. Gary Bourne’s analysis of The Aqua Fria River
Crossing Report.
Mr. Bourne has used the Maricopa
Traffic Predictions as shown in the report. Traffic engineers always
predict traffic for 20 years, therefore the report uses predicted
traffic volumes for 2025.
Since the county used three segments
for their report, the analysis also uses the same segments. These
segments are Northern, Central and Southern.
The Northern segment predicts
145,000 vehicles per day (vpd). This is made up of Bell Road: 60,000
vehicles per day, Thunderbird: 22,000 vehicles per day, Grand
Avenue: 43,000 vehicles per day, and Peoria Avenue: 26,000 vehicles
per day. Bell Road we should eliminate, because with 60,000 vehicles
per day it is already 50% over-capacity. Thunderbird may be omitted,
because it will not be touched. By subtracting Bell Road's 60,000
vehicles per day and Thunderbird's 22,000 vehicles per day from
145,000 we have remaining 63,000 vehicles per day.
Now if Grand Avenue is built to six
lanes (which the State of Arizona is proposing for 2008), and if
Peoria Avenue remains the same (as is), we have 43,000
vehicles per day on Grand Avenue and 26,000 on Peoria Avenue. Adding
the Grand Avenue's 43,000 and Peoria Avenue's 26,000 together, we
get 69,000 vehicles per day. This compares to the previous 63,000
vpd. Now in using 70,000 vehicles per day capacity per lane, we have
10 lanes or 70,000 vehicles per day capacity.
Therefore, Peoria Avenue does not need to be reconstructed nor a
bridge structure located on the Aqua Fria River.
To carry this analysis further, we
have the Center segment with 145,000 vehicles per day. Olive Avenue
has 52,000 vehicles per day, Northern Avenue has 55,000 vehicles per
day, and Glendale Avenue has 57,000 vehicles per day. Since Bethany
Home does not go from the 303 to the 101, nothing is assigned to it
(it "stubs out" at Luke Airfield). Adding these three (Olive,
Northern and Glendale) together, we have an anticipated volume of
164,000 vehicles per day. Now, if all these arterial streets were
four lane facilities, the capacity would be 84,000 vehicles per day.
Subtracting 84,000 from 164,000 we are short 80,000 vehicles per day
capacity (more traffic than the arterials can handle).
On the Southern segment, Camelback
has 37,000 vehicles per day, Indian School has 32,000 vehicles
per day, Thomas has 23,000 vehicles per day and McDowell has 40,000
vehicles per day. The total of these four arterials is 137,000
vehicles per day. If all four arterials were four lanes then the
capacity would be 112,000 vehicles per day. Subtracting 112,000
vehicles per day from 137,000 vehicles per day we would be short by
25,000 vehicles per day (capacity).
Adding the 80,000 vehicles per day
from the Center segment and the 25,000 vehicles per day from the
Southern segment we have a capacity shortage of 105,000 vehicles per
day. This means we need to add 18 lanes of arterial streets ( this
compares to the county shortage of 24 lanes).
Now a six lane
controlled access freeway will carry 120,000 vehicles per day to
140,000 vehicles per day. If placed near Northern Avenue it would be
nearer to the 80,000 vehicles deficiency.
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Mr. Bourne's recommendations:
Therefore, it is recommended that a Road of Regional Significance is
built near the Northern Avenue alignment.
Note: the above
analysis is not attempting to tell the Maricopa County what they
must construct but showing Mr. Bourne’s analysis of the Aqua Fria
Bridge Study.
There is opposition:
There is opposition. Do not be fooled if you are told “We will
not touch Peoria Avenue in Sun City”. Then ask
“Why are you building a Peoria Bridge?”. The $8 million to $12
million could then be used by Maricopa County on other needed
projects.
Conclusion:
There has always been a good relationship between Sun City and
Maricopa County, therefore, we are merely showing Maricopa County
that they can provide streets which will move traffic around
Sun City without destroying Sun City.
Sun City, Arizona, should be
permitted to remain an “Island in the Desert.” Sun City can remain
as it has been for 50 years, if Maricopa County will help.
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