Ahwatukee gets a new road

Since Ahwatukee, part of the city of Phoenix, has been built-out now for years, I don’t get to say this much. Ahwatukee is getting a new road. It connects 40th and Pecos to the Wild Horse Pass (new) Hotel-Casino / Resort  / Rawhide on the Gila River Indian Reservation. The road opened to traffic to coincide with the grand opening of the new hotel/casino, Oct 30, 2009.

Views of Estrella Mountains westbound on Willis Rd

For cyclists going “around the mountain”, this means it will no longer be necessary to cross over I-10 to get to Maricopa Road, usually via S 56th Street, and then cross back over to pick up Maricopa Road. Here is a map of the general vicinity (the new road is not shown yet).

For us less-ambitious Ahwatukee area cyclists, it provides a pleasant connection to some enjoyable scenery; particularly the area around the resort (NOT the new hotel-casino which is boring, and out by the I-10) which is beautiful natural desert surrounding a lush golf course all with sweeping vistas of the Estrella Mountains. The area around the new road itself is still just raw dirt, as this land was most recently (years?) agricultural.

The road is actually in 3 segments, a  short piece extending 40th St, a one mile (exactly!) stretch called Willis Road,  and finally a short stub of 48th Street connects to the casino and whatnot. The road is built to (strangely?) high traffic standards, with two wide-ish (12′ foot) lanes in each direction plus a bike lane. There is a fully divided median w/curbs, and curbs on both outsides.

Concerns about the Pecos and 40th intersection

40th St. southbound, just before intersection with Pecos Rd. Oct 28, 2009.

40th Street in Phoenix has full (real) bike lanes between Chandler Blvd and where it presently ends, at Pecos Road. This will be a nice addition connectivity wise. One concern I have is that southbound on 40th approaching the intersection with Pecos the bike lane is to the right of a straight/right combo lane. The predominant traffic flow will be right-turn — thus a straight-thru cyclist in the bike lane will be to the right of predominantly right-turning traffic — this is a recipe for right-hooks.

Another concern is signal timing. I was pleasantly surprised that my bicycle triggered the demand light northbound on 40th street (by stopping in the right hand lane, and not the bike lane… there do not appear to be sensors under the bike lane). However, the green cycle seems waaaay too short — 3 seconds, if that’s possible? — and Pecos is a wiiide road. It’s hard to say for sure, due to other traffic showing up what the whole timing scheme is. I was under the possibly mistaken impression that 5 seconds was some sort of bare minimum. There are several dilemmas involving signal timing and cyclists (Forester discusses them at great detail here), so…

I don’t usually say this — and there is no obligation to do so — but cyclists should consider dismounting and pushing the pedestrian button, thus insuring a full cycle time. The level of dangerous driving there is off the scale. Dangerous drivers have killed 5 people along Pecos Road, including one cyclist (see Pecos Death Trap?), not to mention a bunch of injuries. We’ve had drunk drivers, wrong-way drivers, drivers who inexplicably crossed the median and smash head-on into dump trucks, drivers making bad lefts, along with the usual “inattentive” drivers like the one who killed Don Anselmo.

Lack of connectivity

By the way, for those keeping count, there are no bike lanes on Pecos road (though the paved shoulders are generally okay), and there are no connecting bike lanes on 40th Street north of Chandler Blvd., the lane just unceremoniously ends. The contiguous roadway officially changes names at Chandler Blvd, south it is 40th Street, north it is S. Mountain Parkway. This is one piece of crappy planning, as there is a bike lane just 1000′ north at Ranch Circle South.