Queen Creek

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Town starts traffic study; Population boom cited for road needs

This article talks about a new proposed freeway called the "North-South Freeway" (hopefully that's just a working name) to run east of Queen Creek, along Meridian or Signal Butte up to the U.S. 60.

According to ADOT spokesman Doug Nintzel, the North-South Freeway study's second stage - the design concept phrase - will begin at the end of this year, and could take about two years to complete.

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I love how retroactive the Valley is. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, try driving down Hunt Highway in Queen Creek, even at 10am on a Saturday. Despite all my views on the symbiotism of roads and sprawl, Queen Creek needs new infrastructure.

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Most Queen Creek residents work in Maricopa County. Even the most expensive high-capacity rail corridor leading out of the town won't do residents there much good if there's no suitable public transportation system in Maricopa County to connect it to. So I agree, Queen Creek needs a freeway or something connecting it to the Santan or Superstition Freeway as one option for commuters. Hopefully they won't limit themselves to a single mode of transportation when they get that freeway.

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Town halts bus route; Starts study on better options

So they stopped running route 534, a commuter route from Queen Creek to downtown Tempe, due to lack of ridership. Only 5-6 people rode it every day.

I think it would have worked better if both ends of the route had adequate public transportation systems. What's the point of parking your car at one end if you need it again at the other end? Northern Tempe (the terminus) is adequate, but once you venture outside of that area, all bets are off.

Perhaps when the light rail starts up, routes like this will be more popular.

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Maybe they weren't ready for it.

Why didn't it go into Downtown Phoenix though? It seems like an express route from Queen Creek to Mesa, then onto Tempe, then onto Phoenix would be nice. Thataway, you hit all those major employment centers and connect with other bus routes.

But I totally agree with you: putting in before the light rail opened was not necessarily the best idea. Now, when Queen Creek is more ready for transit, people will be more cynnical.

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It seems like an express route from Queen Creek to Mesa, then onto Tempe, then onto Phoenix would be nice. Thataway, you hit all those major employment centers and connect with other bus routes.