The Tucson community can celebrate a creative achievement by its citizens. They have understood balancing the needs of the historic business district of Broadway just east of downtown with the demands of king car.
For many years, decision-makers only considered ease and convenience of driving, ignoring all other values, concerns and users: historic, environmental, economic vitality, neighborhood preservation, pedestrians, transit users and bicyclists.
After three years of tough negotiation, the Broadway Citizen Task Force recommended to the City Council an alignment for widening Broadway between Country Club Road and Euclid Avenue that takes these other values into account by advocating a narrower alternative than was first proposed. The task force alignment honors the rich cultural heritage of the Sunshine Mile and its history in post-World War II optimism and Tucsonβs growing years, as well as the RTA vote to improve Broadway. The City Council voted 7-0 to approve the technical design parameters and base alignment, and move forward to the next design phase.
Under the CTF alignment, Broadway will be widened from five lanes to six, with 6-foot bicycle lanes and 6βfoot sidewalks throughout, with landscape buffers and narrow medians where appropriate. All major intersections would be improved: Euclid, Campbell/Kino and Country Club. Where there is additional right-of-way available, there will be more landscaping, wider sidewalks and wider bicycle lanes.
The alignment can be cost-effective if it uses the existing city-owned right-of-way wherever possible, thus eliminating the necessity for extensive acquisitions and demolitions and preserving revenues from the property and sales taxes our community needs. The Sunshine Mile generates almost $4 million annually, and this will continue to rise as the economy picks up.
The narrower option meets the traffic functionality promised by the RTA as well as preserving economic vitality of local businesses and historic buildings. Critical parking and access issues need to be resolved. Staff has promised to start work immediately on creative solutions, including perhaps a blanket parking variance until an overlay district that deals with the land-use issues is developed and enacted.
Staff has stated that they will provide regular updates at CTF meetings with opportunities for public input over the next six to nine months on the technical design. We know from numerous studies and observation that Broadway is a major transit corridor. For many years, the No. 8 bus line has had the most riders of any route in Tucson.
While transit was part of the RTA ballot language, neither the RTA nor the city performed the studies needed to determine the optimal alternative for this transit corridor, unfortunately. Bus rapid transit? An extension of the streetcar to El Con Shopping Mall? Light rail from downtown to eastside park-and-ride lots?
Without having studied ridership and the economics of building any of these transit systems, the question of what type of transit best meets community needs is being left for another time. But the study should start now. Utility work β placing electrical lines β should only be done once. And in order to do it correctly, the type and placement of transit needs some definition. This is a critical cost issue.
The adopted alignment may balance all transportation modes with surrounding land use, including historic buildings, local businesses and strong neighborhoods. It can build for a future that takes into account changing transportation choices, the assets of our midcentury, modern commercial area and their contribution to our sense of history and place.
It can be an overall win-win design outcome if it is carried out in the spirit of the CTF recommendations.
