TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — New changes along a stretch of Sarnoff Drive between Broadway and Kenyon Drive have left some Eastside residents and business owners frustrated and confused about what exactly is happening to the roadway.
Many have voiced concerns about the road’s new layout, which includes flexible white pylon cones, and a new configuration of parking and bike lanes.
For Debi Browne, who has owned the Dairy Queen on Sarnoff for more than 50 years, the changes are both perplexing and unnecessary.
“I don't understand all the white poles. They're just, they have them here in front of the businesses so that no one parks there. No one's ever parked in the middle of the road. That, that's not necessary,” she explains.
She is concerned that because of the white pylons in front of her building, traffic will extend onto Sarnoff, if there’s a line to pick up ice cream. “We pay a lot of money to do business on this corner, so we need a place for our customers,” Browne says, ”they're gonna be right in that single lane of traffic now and you're coming right from an intersection, that's gonna cause major backups, major mayhem.”
She said she has attended meetings about the changes but doesn’t feel like community input is being taken seriously.
Browne said she supports safe biking infrastructure but believes the city over complicated something that could have been simple.
“Really all they needed to do was paint next to the parking a bike path with a white line done. Everybody's safe. The bicyclists are safe. The parkers are safe. The customers are safe. The guys walking, the people crossing are safe, and they’ve done all of this,” she says.
Beau Borboa shared similar frustrations. He has lived in Tucson for his entire life, and is also a contractor.
Borboa said he’s not against infrastructure improvements, but questions whether the city's vision aligns with what the neighborhood actually needs.
“There's a lot of studies you do definitely, but I think community input is huge and then unfortunately when you get community input, it usually doesn't go with the vision of what the city wants, so that's where the separation is,” he explains.
"This is part of Proposition 407, which was a half cent sales tax that passed, and part of it was to facilitate the actual paving of the road of Sarnoff which is a collector's street, which it's hard to get money for. The other thing is it was to construct a bike lane and a parking area," Ward 2 Councilman Paul Cunningham says.
Cunningham explains the changes were designed using best practices from traffic engineering and are intended to enhance safety, especially for cyclists.
“This is a best practice. Those parked cars act as a buffer between traffic and the bikes, so the bike path is actually safer,” Cunningham explains, “I know it looks weird and it's not what people are used to, but all in all I think it's going to calm traffic. I think it's going to give a smoother ride.”
Cunningham acknowledged the confusion and said his office has taken feedback seriously.
“We got some feedback from folks and they were pretty upset and kind of like, hey, what's going on?” he said. “We've since then put some signage up.”
The signage now indicates which lane is designated for bikes and which is for parking.
“When you have to explain what you did, that makes no sense,” Barboa says, regarding the added signs.
Cunningham asked residents to give it a chance. “This was done through best practices with engineering. I can't have people just stand over the engineer while they're trying to design something.”
Browne acknowledges Cunningham’s efforts, saying, “Paul Cunningham's office has been good about answering, responding, but Paul is evidently what we need down here and people keep saying he's a sports enthusiast, he'll fight for the park. Well then, where is he?”
But, Cunningham says the way the road is laid out now, will give riders a smoother ride. “All in all, I'm really proud of the project and happy that we were able to get Sarnoff repaved.”
So, what’s next? Cunningham says traffic engineers are driving around the new construction, looking for any flaws. He says if they do find any flaws, “if there's anything that doesn't make sense, then we'll switch some things up.” He did not provide a timeline of when any changes could be made.
Cunningham claimed people have called his office in support of this new construction. You can find contact information for his office here.
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Athena Kehoe is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2024 after graduating from Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Athena by emailing athena.kehoe@kgun9.com or by connecting on X/Twitter.
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