Phoenix City Hall has recently started studying the future of the city’s reversible lanes, which have been controversial since their introduction in the late 1970s. Locals in the Arizona capital do not seem too happy about the debate, however, as trust in local transportation authorities appears to be low.
KTAR News reported that the Phoenix Street Transportation Department will conduct a traffic study in the area between 19th Avenue and 16th Street, from McDowell Road north to Dunlap Avenue. This includes the two reversible lanes on 7th Street and 7th Avenue, which have long been controversial, as locals often claim they confuse drivers because the direction changes during rush hour.
Essentially, the department will look into the history of traffic in the area, including congestion, crash patterns and lane usage, to determine how to proceed and “balance” the traffic in the location. By its end, it’s possible that the controversial reversible lanes could be modified, improved, or even removed.
Phoenix Drivers Are Not in Love with Reversible Lanes
The online debate surrounding the traffic study in Phoenix has been heated, largely because people remain divided on reversible lanes. As one user put it, “Reversible lanes were invented to help suburbanites flee downtown faster after work at the expense of those living and owning businesses in the area.”
Some residents urged City Hall to “make public transportation better and the city more walkable with shade. Spend the money on literally anything else, I beg you.” Others, however, expressed concern about how confusing reversible lanes can be for drivers, saying, “Considering how many wrong-way drivers we seem to have, I can’t imagine this will go well.”
Some people simply did not seem to trust City Hall to conduct a study like this. “I understand they want to do a study on the impact on traffic, and I support decisions informed by data. I do have concerns about a few things, though, primarily around prioritizing traffic flow over safety and community input, as seems to have been the case up until now.” That sentiment was shared by others as well. One user said, “The study will just say what the street director wants. The street director will just say what the Council wants. We saw how the Council felt last time.”
Changing traffic patterns is not easy in any city, and whatever decision comes out of the study will likely not be welcomed by part of the population, as Phoenix residents have lived with these reversible lanes for decades.
