From the Tucson Citizen , By Garry Duffy, April 27, 2007
U.S. road guru likes Tucson's approach
The Tucson area is on the right track in planning transportation improvements to exist in harmony with new development, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said Thursday.
Peters, a native Arizonan from Phoenix, is here meeting with transportation officials from area jurisdictions and agencies to hear about regional needs in dealing with congestion and traffic safety issues.
On Thursday, she got a whirlwind tour from city officials. It highlighted transportation improvements just down the road: a modern streetcar from University Medical Center to west of downtown, street level railroad crossings soon to have overpasses, a "smart" traffic signal system that will help ease congestion and improve emergency vehicle response times, and "transit oriented development" planned for the city's Rio Nuevo downtown rejuvenation project.
"Building new roads will not necessarily solve Tucson's mobility problems, or any other community's traffic woes for that matter," Peters said.
Mayor Bob Walkup led Peters, transportation planners and reporters on a bus tour of the planned alignment of the city's modern streetcar, which should be running in 2012.
The city is following a national trend among progressive cities that have or are planning transportation improvements to fit with urban development such as Rio Nuevo, she said.
"It's all about development along the corridor that is within walking distance," Peters said, describing a trend in many cities to include businesses, shops, restaurants and housing in neighborhood planning during redevelopment.
It's a trend likely to continue, she said, especially with the end of high gasoline prices nowhere in sight.
Peters accompanied city officials to Sixth Street and Ninth Avenue, where Union Pacific Railroad tracks divide the downtown area. As if on cue, two long freight trains passed within minutes of each other, giving the secretary a close view of irritated motorists backed up east and west on Sixth Street.
The city joined with the Arizona Department of Transportation and communities in Maricopa County to submit a joint federal Urban Partnership application for grant money to develop strategies to ease congestion and use existing roadways more efficiently, Peters noted.
Today, Peters is to co-host a North AmericanTransportation Summit among transportation officials from the U.S., Mexico and Canada to plan improvements to travel between the three countries.
Co-hosting the event at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Tucson Resort & Spa will be Luis Téllez, Mexican secretary of communications and transportation; and Lawrence Cannon, Canadian minister of transport, infrastructure and communities.
< Return to Updates & Events
