Building a Quality Arizona
Statewide Transportation Framework Studies
The numbers tell us that a projected 16 million people will live in Arizona by the year 2050. It doesn’t take much analysis to figure out that adding 10 million people to the state’s current population will mean our state roadways are going to get a lot busier, or to conclude that Arizona’s current transportation infrastructure is inadequate to handle the additional traffic that will occur when those residents try to get to where they work, live and play.
In a process known as Building a Quality Arizona, Councils of Governments (COGs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) from around the state are working with the Arizona Department of Transportation, the Arizona State Legislature, the Governor’s Office, and the business community to talk about state infrastructure needs.
Arizona COG/MPO Association Chair James M. Cavanaugh, who is the mayor of the City of Goodyear and chair of the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Regional Council, says the approach is being modeled after the successful process MAG followed in developing the Regional Transportation Plan passed by voters three years ago.
“In that process, we brought all major stakeholders to the table to make sure that we considered all possible alternatives and solutions,” said Mayor Cavanaugh. “We recognized that only by working together could we address our growth needs, and that same principle holds true today as we examine how we provide more transportation infrastructure throughout the state,” he said.
Tucson Mayor Robert Walkup, chair of the Pima Association of Governments, agreed it is time for regional planning agencies to work together on statewide solutions.
“Understandably, all of us are intensely focused on the transportation needs of our individual regions,” said Walkup. “But we are beginning to realize that we won’t solve our regional challenges without a coordinated statewide approach that looks at how we are growing and that examines additional funding options.”
Mayor Cavanaugh says another lesson learned during the development of the Regional Transportation Plan was the importance of sound technical data to identify transportation priorities. The Arizona COG/MPO Association recently agreed to conduct a statewide “reconnaissance study” to determine the state’s short-term transportation needs and to establish an action plan for moving forward. Additional framework studies may be needed to produce specific recommendations for Arizona’s transportation infrastructure.
One task of the study process will be to use a standardized computer program or ‘modeling tool’ to analyze high growth areas. This modeling tool will help regional planners project travel demand across the state, so they can determine where infrastructure needs exist and what it will cost to build that infrastructure.
While urgent needs exist, Cavanaugh said a thorough process is important to ensure that the solutions provided are the right ones. The reconnaissance study is expected to be completed in December 2007. In the meantime, the COG/MPO Association will meet in August at the League of Arizona Cities and Towns Annual Conference. The meeting is expected to identify a list of statewide bottlenecks, provide recommendations for the modeling tool described above, and develop the first round of potential alternatives.
mysteryType