College Avenue Traffic Calmers

The City of Tempe financially wasteful road construction to appease the bike groups isn’t occurring just in east Tempe.  College Lane, an artery from Southern Avenue straight north to Arizona State University has also had some recent changes.

College Lane historically has been heavily used by bikers going to and from ASU for class and sporting events.  It cuts through quiet and unique neighborhoods, and because it’s not a busy vehicular artery, cars and bikes have gotten along fine.

But Agenda 21 looms in Tempe, so something must be done to make us more like Europe. In the case of College Lane, the city installed traffic calmers, cut-outs in the middle of the street to slow traffic down and keep bikers safe.

Why do Americans feel they need to copy Europe?

Here are some photos of the College Lane traffic calmers:

Note as the driver turns to drive around the traffic calmer the car now aims for the bike lane.  Good thing they don’t sell beer at Sun Devil Stadium or there may be a few accidents after the football games!

 

The trees within the traffic calmers are pretty and it is nice to have shade during the hot Tempe afternoons.  What was the cost to tear up the street to run irrigation to the plant material in the median?  (Will Council’s response be “Well, we were tearing up the street anyway.”?) If Tempe’s water bills have increased as much as those of the Tempe residents’ bills, it must be costing a fortune to keep these plants alive in the middle of a hot street in July.

Are these structural changes to streets an opportunity to keep nicely-paid city urban planners and traffic engineers on the payroll?  The City Council tells us this is “free money” from the federal government.  Question for them, where did the federal government get the money in the first place?

 

 

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2 Responses to College Avenue Traffic Calmers

  1. Howard Roark July 2, 2017 at 1:28 pm #

    I often drive on College. It now appears to be dangerous to have both cars and bikes travelling at the same time; the medians (“calmers”?) tend to squeeze the cars and trucks into the bike lanes. I like to give bikers a wide berth, but these medians make that impossible.

    The only alternative is to stop until the bikers get past the median, but stopping in the middle of the street doesn’t seem safe either.

    • Peggy McClain July 2, 2017 at 9:11 pm #

      Tempeans aren’t supposed to criticize bike lanes. Tempe is already a pretty easy city to bike in, but we think the changes that have been occurring make the streets more dangerous for bikers. And what about the cost for it all? Thanks for reading and staying engaged.

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