noisebeam

Off topic, but interesting, I just wanted to share a news article I found about this street (Southern Ave.)
https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/84314

Note the comments about the road having many intersections on the older stretch - there is later comment that bike lanes are in plan. I wonder how BL are going to be implemented?

"The factors that lead to fatalities vary from bad driving to speeding, inattentive driving, distracted driving and drunken driving, Mesa police Cmdr. Ron Kirby said.."

"The tragedies occurred when people walked outside crosswalks, followed motorists too closely or lost control of their vehicles and hit light poles. Crash victims died mostly west of Val Vista Drive. If there was a common thread in 2006, it would be fatal crashes that were the result of people failing to yield to oncoming motorists. The reports show that 19 of the 46 fatal collisions were because of failure to yield.
Richard Retting, senior transportation engineer with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said failing to yield is a nationwide problem. But he said Mesa could suffer from aggressive drivers traveling at high rates of speed. "

"WESTWARD EXPANSION
In its early boom days in the 1950s and 1960s, Mesa developed on the west side, where motorists now find a high density of businesses as well as apartments and houses.

Each corner gas station, restaurant, shopping center and apartment complex has its own entrance off streets that are narrower than those on the east side, said Derrick Bailey, senior transportation engineer in the city’s transportation department.

“You have so much more to pay attention to in the older parts of town,” Bailey said. “There’s a lot more pedestrians in the older parts of town, too, because it’s a higher walking population there and people biking where they’re not supposed to, and people pulling out of driveways.”

The west side offers a different layout than the east end of the city, which developed past Gilbert Road in the 1970s and 1980s and is now growing near Williams Gateway Airport, Bailey said.

In the 1970s, people recognized that access management is a good tool in the Valley, Bailey said. East Mesa roads were built to be wider and with fewer turn-ins, he said.

As motorists head east, the standard road is 88 feet wide with bicycle lanes and multiple turn lanes, Bailey said. In growing east side areas, there are also fewer driveways.

Bailey said there isn’t much the city can do about the perilous and numerous driveways on the west side. The city can’t take access away from people or fill in those driveways unless an area is being redeveloped, Bailey said."

"The preliminary plans call for street widening, adding left-turn lanes and bicycle lanes as well as sidewalks that are detached from the roadway, Bailey said. "

"Along several miles of Broadway, workers have already placed warnings on the backs of street signs that alert bicyclists that they are riding the wrong way."

Al