Phoenix Comprehensive Downtown Transportation Study

The Downtown Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Study was accomplished through the City’s regional partnership with the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) in coordination with the larger Central Phoenix Transportation Framework Study. The effort focused on the area bounded by McDowell Road to the north, Buckeye Road to the south, 7th Avenue on the west and 7th Street on the east. The study explored and analyzed potential roadway, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. A set of transportation recommendations for three timeframes were developed using strategies and input gathered through a three-tiered collaborative public outreach process.

Stakeholder Focus Groups (3 sessions held from September 25-30, 2013) - various interest groups

Public Open Houses (November 12 and 14, 2013)

Public Open Houses (February 25, 2014 – two sessions)

Over 40 project meetings held in the Study Area during the 12-month timeframe

Plan recommendations adopted by City Council on July 2, 2014.

Years 0-5 Years 6-10

Years 11 +

Focus Groups Common Themes

Downtown Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Study

Downtown Livability

It is not about moving people out of downtown but encouraging people to stay in downtown.

Protect the quality of neighborhoods.

Provide safe, walkable streets that connect activities.

Economic Vitality

Balance between events and business vitality and neighborhoods.

Streets

Reduce speeds due to neighborhood impact and enhance downtown experience.

Consider the elimination of key one-way streets to alleviate neighborhood issues in terms of traffic volumes but evaluate all impacts.

Policies

Road diets.

Context sensitive solutions.

Complete streets. Multi-Modal Transportation

Need to think beyond just the automobiles; all modes considered.

Parking

Shared parking for venues; difficult when events increase in participation.

Provide additional on-street parking. Specific Improvements:

Improved gateways.

East/west connectivity needs improving – 19th Avenue to 16th Street on Roosevelt (bike/pedestrian boulevard).

Better east/west connector 1st Avenue and 7th Avenue; Van Buren to Fillmore. Transit Improvements

Any changes (one-way to two-way) needs to work with transit.

Need to accommodate the peak hour transit buses on the streets; this is a real problem.

First Round of Public Open Houses

Downtown Phoenix Comprehensive Transportation Study

Meeting Summary The purpose of these two public open houses were to review study work completed to date and provide input on a variety of potential scenarios to achieve the study goals. Participants were able to review numerous study display boards, talk to team members, and provide feedback via a comment card. Following is a summary of the comments received pertaining to the 3rd and 5th Avenue Study Area.

Third Avenue – bikeway dies leaving a gap in

Sonoran Bikeway; plan for southern connection in tandem with Maricopa County.

Integrate Bike Master Plan work with our Downtown Comprehensive Transportation Study recommendations.

Extend the proposed two-way 3rd Avenue south to Jefferson.

Appreciate the multi-modal aspects of the project. Bicycle facilities must be continuous!

Conversions to two-way streets is not good, even bad, if there are no new stops to make the streets crossable by bikes and pedestrians.

Safe bike lanes - this will become more important as we implement bike sharing program.

Please make the 3’s and 5’s two-way. The current one-way status is confusing and disruptive to motorists and bicyclists.

Extension of Polk Street – yes please. The northwest quadrant of downtown is held back by absurdly large super-blocks. Making this area more fine grained is necessary for its development.

Favor converting 3rd and 5th Avenues to two-way over 7’s improvements.

Support an extension of the pedestrian plaza past Taylor Place, but have concerns about the feasibility of dissecting parcels.

What about east/west bike lanes? How about Roosevelt?

Make Third Avenue two-way all the way to Jackson.

5th Avenue two-way full study area.

Second Round of Public Open Houses

Phoenix Comprehensive Downtown Transportation Study

The purpose of this second round of public open houses was to review study work completed to date and provide input on a variety of potential scenarios to achieve the study goals. Participants were able to review numerous study display boards, talk to team members, and provide feedback via a comment card. Following is a summary of the comment cards received that pertains to the 3rd and 5th Avenue Study Area:

There currently is no traffic control (stop signs) on 3rd/5th Ave on McKinley and Fillmore intersections. Traffic speeds on northbound 3rd Ave when the city and county parking garages exit at end of turns into a drag race. Accidents are prevalent at these intersections. Can stop signs be added at these intersections?

3rd Ave & 5th Ave between McDowell & Van Buren should be prioritized for 2 way flow. Until the ADOT HOV lane is constructed along I-17, 2-way traffic can still occur for the Express Bus service. There have been significant safety issues/accidents because of the 1 way traffic. This is a priority for the residential neighborhood.

More consideration should be given for segregating vehicular and bike traffic in place of sharrows. Bike lanes are needed on Roosevelt between the 7’s. Parking should be allowed on more streets either in the form of parallel parking or back-in diagonal parking to account for bike safety.

Turn one ways into two ways where possible (Wash/Jeff & 1st/Central will likely remain one way). More bike lanes, especially PROTECTED bike lanes. Parallel parking is the pedestrians friend—don’t forget! No more 15’ lanes, 10-12’ will do just fine. More painted crosswalks please. Ideal bike lane placement is b/w parallel parked cars & sidewalk, not on driver’s side door of cars

I really love switching from 1 way to 2 ways. Yes, it will slow traffic and create congestion—good! Speed reduction city wide. Downtown and Central City traffic travels entirely too fast.

Bicycling—larger picture suggestions. Please be radical in your thinking about bicycle infrastructure so Phoenix does not get left behind in this regard! Consider protected bike lanes and cycle tracks! Road diets! Decisions need to be made at the expense of motorists sometimes—fewer lanes, lower speeds.

Please consider making 4th Avenue between Washington and Jefferson a two-way street. Every day I see someone going the wrong way. Thank you for creating road diets in the plan.

Would like to see 3rd/5th Ave & 3rd/5th Sts. converted to two way traffic earlier than 11+ years.

Timeframe of Ph. 1 should be accelerated—0-5 years is too long to establish much-needed bike lanes and improved pedestrian infrastructure.

Second Round of Public Open Houses

Phoenix Comprehensive Downtown Transportation Study

Put the bike lanes between the street parking and the sidewalk. We are the only major city not doing this yet.

Look at various forms of protected bike lanes to the right of parallel parking, planters, pylons, and curbs.

Potential bike lanes – like the 3rd/5th Street/Avenue proposals.

Make 3rd Avenue 2-way prior to 11 years!

Make 3rd Avenue 2-way as soon as possible – definitely to Washington instead of Jefferson in the next 5 years.

5th & 3rd Avenue 2-way traffic flow – move to Phase I.

I like the focus on making downtown more living friendly for families, bicyclists, and pedestrians. I would like to see a comparison of current traffic to anticipated traffic. For example, if a one-way street is being converted to a two-way street, will the traffic increase or decrease? Without more information on how changes will decrease traffic, I am opposed to changing one-way streets to two-way (instead of rush hour traffic one time/day, it would 24/day). However, I’d like to know if numbers support the assumption that we would have twice the traffic/day.

Present concern: I live on Portland and 3rd Avenue. We need more directional signs or painted directional arrows on the street. People regularly make left hand turns from the right lane and in the process cut off vehicles in the left hand lane vehicles regularly drive the wrong direction down 3rd Avenue.

Get a lot of cut through traffic on Portland Street from 3rd Avenue as a short cut to the freeway. Concerned this will increase cut through traffic when 3rd and 5th Avenues turn into 2-way.

Currently there are frequent accidents on 3rd Avenue south of Roosevelt due to cars turning across lanes onto side streets not knowing they are in a one-way road. I strongly urge use of pavement directional arrows.

Protected bike lanes.

3rd/5th Avenues – accelerate implementation of safety measures immediately. I witnessed last week’s fatality on 3rd Avenue. Inaction will result in more suffering.

Conversion of one-ways to two-ways – yes please. One-way streets confuse motorists and encourage speeding.

Not in plan but worth considering: Fillmore has more capacity than it needs. Eliminate one travel lane in each direction and then replace the sharrows with protected bike lanes – an element that is sorely lacking in this plan. Put bike lanes on Van Buren to connect to Grand Avenue green lanes at 7th Avenue.

October 2015

Corridor Progress in the Phoenix Comprehensive Downtown Transportation Study Area

Phased Improvements Completed or Construction Underway Pre-Design/Design Underway Project in CIP

A. Improvements on Grand Avenue (completed in 2013) B. (CIP) Pre-design - 3rd Street, Indian School Road to

Garfield Street - completed C. (Pre-design) Van Buren Street, 7th - 24th Street -

completed D. (CIP) Design - 1st Street, Moreland-McKinley Street E. (CIP) Design - Washington/Jefferson Street -7th Avenue to

7th Street – Bike Lanes F. (CIP) 5th Avenue – McDowell Road to Washington G. (CIP) 3rd Avenue – McDowell Road to Washington H. (CIP) 3rd Street – Roosevelt Street to Washington I. (CIP) 3rd Street – Jefferson Street to Buckeye Road J. (CIP) Buckeye Road – Central Avenue to 16th Street K. (CIP) Phase II - Roosevelt Street Improvements – 4th to

6th Street L. (CIP) Warehouse District/Economic Development Area

B

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City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department

G H

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Roosevelt Street

McDowell Road

Van Buren Street

Fillmore Street

5th

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Washington Street

3rd A

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1st A

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Interstate 10

Traffic Characteristics Signaled

Intersections

Average Daily Traffic

Volumes (2010-14)

Additional Signage for Safety

Accidents

Minor

Serious

Fatal

7th

Aven

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Lig

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Rail L

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City of Phoenix Street Transportation

Department

October 2015

2,8

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4,7

65

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5,3

27

3,4

49

4,1

33

5

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3

1,8

96

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Background Information

Other Street

Issues/information

High crowns in street Discontinuous street cross-

section Express bus traffic (AM and PM

Peak) on both 3rd and 5th Avenues

Posted 35 mph speed limit

One-Way or Two-Way Traffic - What Benefits the Neighborhood Most

“Vehicle speed and efficiency through one-way conversion was first promoted in the 1930s by traffic theorists “because they required the driver to pay less attention” (Lyles, Faulkner, Syed 2000).

In the last ten years many areas in or near downtowns have begun to change their one-way streets back to two-way traffic including:

Denver San Francisco Louisville Dallas Sacramento Tampa San Jose Portland Miami Buffalo Milwaukee Colorado Springs

Louisville, Kentucky-Case Study- in 2011 converted one-way traffic streets near downtown each a little over one mile long to two-way. The result in three years was a reduction of traffic collisions by 36% and 60% on the two streets. Crime dropped by 25% while crime in the city as a whole was rising. Property values rose, as did business revenue and pedestrian traffic. (Gilderbloom and Riggs, 2015, Journal of Planning and Education Research)

“Children’s injury rate was 2.5 times higher on one-way streets than on two-way streets” Conversion of one-way to two-way traffic is seen as one of the best traffic calming measures because it slows cars down. (Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2000 study in Hamilton, Ontario)

According to “the Institute of Transportation Engineers the three major reasons for traffic calming as neighborhood livability, crime prevention, and urban redevelopment” Ewing, Reid, Traffic Calming: State of the Practice, 1999)

“While recent moves toward “complete streets” policy throughout the country have allowed for more dollars to flow toward bicycle and pedestrian oriented projects, many streets are still plagued by unsafe conditions. This is especially the case for multi-lane one-way streets, which some studies show as creating unsafe crossing conditions for pedestrians and cyclists” (East Breckinridge: A Case Study of One vs. Two way Streets; Riggs, William, City and Regional Planning, California Polytechnic State University)

One-Way Streets

Risk of crash due to higher traffic speeds and wrong way travel

Permit higher traffic speeds which result in less air pollution due to less stop-and-go traffic

Circulation conflict, because one-way roads do not allow you to travel one way to your destination

Historically used to move traffic out of downtown

Streets appear empty and void of activity

Save space (no left turn lanes: no delay by special left turn signals)

10-20% less capacity with two-way traffic

Why Convert to Two-Way Traffic?

Lower speeds and reduced accidents and severity of accidents for cars and pedestrians

Circulation system that is easier to understand and navigate

More livable neighborhood designed for people

Has shown to increase property values

Increase in private investments in streetscape projects due to two-way conversion.

Crime dropped due to more “eyes on street “

One-way streets can be intimidating for visitors

Better accommodation of all modes of transportation

Increased bike lane implementation and associated street trees Supported by National Main Street Center, part of National Trust for Historic Preservation

One-Way or Two-Way Traffic - What Benefits the Neighborhood Most