TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A midtown neighborhood would like to see slower and safer traffic on East Pima Street and is taking action.
Residents of the Palo Verde neighborhood say driving on Pima Street isn’t safe because of excessive speeding and an increase in vehicles. They would like the city to reclassify Pima Street between Alvernon and Country Club as a local road.
Right now that stretch of road is called a collector street, which means it’s designed for public access. A local road provides access to neighborhoods but with the lowest amount of mobility.
A change in classification could mean a reduced speed limit and additional traffic mitigation efforts, such as traffic circles and speed tables.
Brian Maxwell lives in the area. He says Pima Street is becoming increasingly unsafe.
“People speed down it." Mawell said. "There’s a lot of neighborhood people that walk with pets and family members that are unable to cross from one side of the neighborhood to the other."
The Palo Verde Neighborhood Association (PVNA) has expressed these concerns to the Department of Transportation and Mobility as they discuss the city’s ongoing evaluation of the Major Streets & Routes Plan (MS&R).
The MS&R plan was established in 1982 and has been amended more than 30 times since its adoption to reflect changing conditions.
According to the City of Tucson, it identifies major streets with arterial and collector designations across Tucson. It also guides future street improvements and establishes zoning setbacks from the right-of-way width to accommodate for roadway uses.
The city released an MS&R survey to get resident feedback on the change.
Maxwell helped spread the word to his neighbors.
“We put together a survey sample to help guide neighbors to make it easy as they populate the MS&R tool and we’ve encouraged people through our newsletter and our Facebook group which had 768 members to go fill that survey out," Maxwell said.
Neighbors say they want it classified as a local road because it's not only a residential area, but there are two schools and a daycare between Alvernon and Country Club.
“Reclassifying Pima east of Country Club, to be able to replicate the traffic mitigations employed on Elm Street would vastly improve safety, walkability, and quality of life," Maxwell said.
16-year-old Oswaldo Hogrelius says he rides his bike on Pima and understands why PVNA wants this change.
“I think Pima is like historically a very fast and dangerous road, and as a cyclist I see that, and as somebody who lives here I see that," Hogrelius said. "I think obviously cyclists want safer streets. They want to be able to ride without the fear of being hit and the fear of just so much congestion that it makes it difficult to be on your bike."
Hogrelius said his family recently experienced reckless driving along Pima first-hand, when a car slammed into a wall along their property.
"A month ago, we had somebody driving down Pima, drive straight into our wall. We have a wall around our house and so we've had to repair that," Hogrelius said.
He says while there are many positive aspects to this initiative, he does have questions.
“With so many current construction projects going on in Tucson, how will we get something like this done without just massively reducing the amount of through roadways for commuters?," asked Hogrelius.
The deadline to fill out the survey is Sunday, though Maxwell is asking the city for a two-week extension.
"An extension would be very helpful. If the Department of Transportation and Mobility could accommodate that, I think we could get more voices heard," Maxwell said.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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