48th Street; Piedmont to Guadalupe gets SLMs (sharrows)

I have a lot of thoughts about this stretch of roadway in Phoenix: 48th Street (turns into Guadalupe Rd), north of Piedmont.
It involves the odd geographic position of the Ahwatukee area of Phoenix; and the the almost complete lack of connectivity for Ahwatukee residents to anywhere else, (Tempe, Chandler, and indeed the main portion of Phoenix) except by car-choked umteen lane roads.

Ahwatukee is called — sometimes derisively, sometimes happily — the world’s largest cul-de-sac. Setting aside 48th street for a moment; Ahwatukee’s ONLY ingress/egress is Pecos Rd (which is loop 202, a limited-access highway), Chandler Blvd (10 lanes?), Ray Road (10 lanes), Warner Road (only 6 lanes?), Elliot Road (10 lanes?). So these are all either a limited-access freeway, or humongous monstrosities that have interchanges with I-10.

In short, these are all car-choked, car-sewers. They are not particularly bad for cyclists; two (Ray, and Chandler) have wide-curb lanes; Warner has nice narrow lanes;  I find Elliot road to be most annoying as it is (or was?) “critical width“; that is to say not wide yet not narrow enough to be perceived as too narrow to share by many motorists. Yet many cyclists, understandably, don’t want to do it. It is a thoroughly obnoxious experience for pedestrians, too.

48th Street/Guadalupe is the ONLY bridge over I-10 that is a reasonable human scale, it is 2-lanes (only 1 in each direction!), and has no interchange with the freeway, it’s just a bridge. Thus this makes a vital connection for anyone wishing to bike between Ahwatukee and, say, Tempe/ASU. And it also forms the ONLY connection for Ahawatukee bicyclists wishing to get to the rest of Phoenix  (through The Pointe at South Mountain, now called ???. Using what are actually private streets but there’s some sort of public easement). Read the rest of this entry »

Loop wall down, loop wall down!

12/29/2011: A wrapped (i couldn’t quite read what it said?) pickup pulling a trailer apparently lost control and (of course) drove over the sidewalk and knocked down a wall on the Warner-Elliot loop near Nambe Street. Here is the ahwatukee.com story; following their pattern, police didn’t identify the driver saying only he was a man in this 60s.

This is less than a mile away from the site where a driver lost control and iced a jogger, Rene Karlin, on the sidewalk back in August. Whatever happened to that investigation of the un-named driver? Why is the driver un-named? Nobody bothers to report. Nor did police bother to release the name of the elderly driver who drove into Lakewood’s fountain last year.

For some more wall knockings down see here, very popular pass-time.

In other news, I usually consider residential streets pretty calm and serene, and they usually are — then there was this parked car that got whacked on Desert Broom Way just two-door away from my house on (i guess the early morning hours of) 12/28/2011… It got hit really hard, though it’s not apparent from this pic, besides the obvious side-swipe damage, the rear wheel was pushed way ahead and the tire flattened; this car is going to need a LOT of work to get it right.

And while I’m on the subject, here’s a pic of a car I discovered abandoned a couple of weeks ago that had run off of Ray Road, crossed the sidewalk, and landed in the bushes. It must have been going pretty fast becasue jumping the curb flattened all of its tires. Sheesh. I imagine it was stolen.

Motorcyclist killed by driver making a bad left

Off duty Tempe police officer Scott Saffell died in a motorcycle-car wreck at an Ahwatukee intersection. The motorcyclist was proceeding straight through southbound 48th Street, when the unnamed driver made a bad left just north of Elliot Road. The “enhanced” criminal traffic charge would be 28-672.

I don’t know why they don’t release the 24-yo female driver’s name. Now looking up court records to find out if she will actually be charged becomes that much more difficult.

According to police, according to the driver this is “Looked but Failed to See” collision. Read the rest of this entry »

Another Ray Road Wreck in Ahwatukee

Westbound, single-vehicle, presumably one or more fatalities occurred Sept 24, 2011 early morning hours. The vehicle was apparently going way too fast, lost control and smashed into some trees in the median. I didn’t see any skids. The palm tree got decapitated, and a smaller tree was snapped off (you can see the original trees in the google maps streetview, below). The picture barely shows the twisted wreckage. The cops were keeping people way way way away. To the extent one wonders what was trying to be hidden? I was told I “can’t” take a picture. Weird.

google maps view of the vicinity; E. Ray Road about mid-way between 33rd and 34th St.

News Report

Press coverage was brief; e.g. az rep piece that appears to have been drawn from a police statement:

One woman was killed early Saturday morning after her car crashed into a palm tree, Phoenix police said. The crash occurred just before 2 a.m. Saturday near E. Ray Road and 33rd Street, said Phoenix police spokesman Tommy Thompson. The victim, 28-year-old Nicole Johnson, was driving at high speeds when she entered the center median and collided with the tree, Thompson said. She was taken to a local hospital where she died as a result of her injuries, he said. Police said Johnson was the only occupant in the single-vehicle collision, and it is unknown at this time if impairment was a factor.

The KPHO piece is very similar, but mentions the model of vehicle was 2007 Mitubishi Eclipse.

The Walls Continue to Keep Tumbling Down

This area is the scene of many wall-knockings-down. There were two I know of in broad daylight within this past year. Here is a pic of one in the east 3200 block from March 2011. Less than a month before that, another careless driver knocked down a wall exactly 2 blocks west of here, that time at 34th Street.

These are the result of extreme negligence, and it’s only by happenstance that no one gets killed. The broad sidewalk and shoulder attracts all manner of pedestrians, joggers, dog walkers and bicyclists.

I haven’t seen the Phoenix Police Department doing any speed enforcement here in ages. Years. Don’t they love us?

… update: on Sept 30, there was a motorcycle unit monitoring speed at 32nd Street and Ray at ~ 7:30 AM (which, by the way, is when traffic is pretty heavy, and it seems to me, less likely to be speeding.

They Drive among Us

Story and pic from the Ahwatukee Foothill News.(via archive.org)  Note that this turn the driver inexplicably failed to execute has an enormous radius. I note that police are unsure if any of this is illegal, how about “failure to control”? :

Car lands on Lakewood fountain, Doug Murphy, 2010-04-12

A crash Saturday afternoon stopped traffic when a crane was brought in to remove the vehicle off the fountain at the entrance to the Lakewood area…. Read the rest of this entry »

Christmas Eve ’07 crash trial, verdict: guilty

This has been a long and arduous journey legal journey.  The human and societal costs are staggering.

For starters, one victim, a motorist, dead. A number of injured motorists. The suspect, locked up since the crash on December 24, 2007.

Christopher Lee Smith, 32 years old, stands accused of DUI and manslaughter in a wrong-way, head-on collision on Pecos Road near 14th Street in Phoenix, AZ.

According to the Ahwatukee Foothills news story; “At the time of the crash, Smith was on probation for a previous misdemeanor DUI…”

Superior Court case number CR2008-102616 or search on supremecourt.az.gov

The “Sleep Driving” defense?

The so-called “sleep driving” defense may be employed, see e.g. this minute entry “Defense expert witness re sleep driving is discussed”

Trial delayed again due to a death in one of the victim’s family. The AFN is reporting (Oct 30, 2009? but i can’t find online) that the defendant has rejected a plea deal (no details given) and trial is scheduled for February 2010. The defendant remains incarcerated.

The Trial and Guilty Verdict

Trial coverage. Verdict, guilty. 2nd Degree Murder, and 3x aggravated assault.

Sleep driving. Sleep driving? SLEEP DRIVING!? What will the defense lawyers think of next? Does this ever really work? “…But defense attorney Charles Shell told the same jury that the tragedy was not his client’s fault because Smith was driving in his sleep and was unaware of what he was doing”, “An expert witness hired by the defense, Dr. Dave Gaither of Illinois, testified that if Smith had gone to sleep first, then he was probably sleep driving and unaware of what he was doing.” Hmm, what kind of doctor? apparently not a physician.

Sentencing

Wrong-way Christmas Eve driver sentenced to 23.5 years in prison. The print edition, which strangely varied from the online version, and was much longer.

“he asked for the minimum 16 years, base upon the fact that Smith was on probation at the time for endangerment stemming from a Tempe incident where he reused to pull over of a police officer, then drove toward the officer requiring him to jump out of the way and later attempted to flee on foot…” “smith also had an extensive juvenile court record and a previous DUI”. “In sentencing Smith, Myers gave him 16 years for the second-degree murder of Vo, and 7.5 years for each of the three aggravated assaults…Myers ordered that the murder time be served first and that the three aggravated  assault terms could run concurrently. Smith plans to appeal the jury’s verdict”. [court minute entry on sentencing]

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Pecos Death Trap?

Is Pecos Road here in Ahwatukee (Phoenix, AZ) a death trap?

UPDATE SEP 22,2010: AFN reports that that there was an injury wreck at 32nd and Pecos resulting from a “bad left”. The 17 y.o. EB driver turned left into the path of the WB driver, who was injured “seriously but not life threatening”. Bad lefts were the cause of both a 2003 fatality and a 2007 very serious injuries; both of those were at 40th and Pecos.

UPDATE OCT 16, 2009: More dangerous automobile driving — the AFN reports a 4 car pileup with no serious injuries: “two vehicles heading west were driving aggressively when one changed lanes and clipped a vehicle. A third vehicle was hit and spun into the median, went airborne and hit a eastbound vehicle”. no mention of any charges, or even citations, as usual — aggressive driving is a CRIME…. will we see any charges?

UPDATE OCT 8, 2009: A fifth fatality occurred just east of 40th and Pecos when a westbound driver crossed over the median and hit a dump truck head-on. A car like the one that crashed had been reported as speeding and driving erratically on 202 just before the collision. Brian P. Evans, 31, of Chandler died at the scene. [afn article]. While I’m on the subject, a Pecos Road tragedy was narrowly averted Sept 28th: “Police arrested [suspicion of DUI] Rogelio Hernandez Castillo, 40, near 40^th Street and Pecos Road for traveling east in the westbound lane in a white Ford F-150.” [afn article]

UPDATE 2, another fatality;  at the I-10 to Pecos transition, in the wee hours of Dec 30, 2007.  Weerasak Senaprakome, 21 hit a barrier or something was the driver in a single car collision. This probably doesn’t have anything in particular to do with Pecos Road. But would be five for those keeping a body count. In the Ahwatukee Foothills News story, Doug Murphy wrote “…While Pecos Road doesn’t have an unusually high number of crashes, motorists have often complained that speeds far exceed the posted 55 mph speed limit”. (I think the limit is actually 50, by the way). I don’t know about the crash rate but the fatality rate sure seems high(?).

UPDATE: A fourth fatality plus serious injury occurred Christmas eve 2007. Trang Vo (34 y.o. female) was killed, plus 3 more seriously injured. Christopher Smith, 30, of Tempe was apparently driving the wrong way and caused the head-on collision — DUI possible in Pecos Road fatal collision, The Ahwatukee (Arizona) Republic, Dec 27, 2007. Trial to be held in early 2010.

In the recent past there have been 3 fatalities along Pecos Road. The most recent serious collision which occurred Friday September 14, 2007 is strikingly similar to the crash on December 2, 2003 that took the life of Sarah Wintz. On November 28, 2003, just five days earlier Phuong Pham was killed while attempting to enter Pecos Road at Desert Foothills Parkway, which at the time was before the traffic signal was installed. And in November 2004 cyclist Don Anselmo was killed on the shoulder as a driver simply drifted off the road.

…

A motor vehicle driver was negligent in all the deaths, as well as all of the many (maybe all, details are sketchy on some of the injuries) serious injuries.

Read the rest of this entry »