Area PAG staffers seek answers to transportation problems

By the end of the year 2040, this part of Arizona will be tremendously different from what it is today — more residents, more commerce, more visitors, and, of course, more cars, trucks, buses, bikes and pedestrians.

The Pima Association of Government, PAG, is in the middle of developing a regional transportation plan to be able to predict trouble spots and how to cope with them.

On Monday, 15 area residents sat down at computers to answer some questions such as rating the difficulty of getting around the area now and what might help to prevent traffic strangulation.

Besides a couple of computer experts, the PAG staff at the workshop included Jennifer O’Connor, a senior transportation planner.

PAG is a regional cooperative of government units including the city of Tucson, Pima County, South Tucson and the towns of Marana, Oro Valley and Sahuarita, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation and a board member serving from the Arizona State Transportation Board.

As Monday’s participants typed their solutions to some questions, their replies were posted on all the computers for users to see and on a large screen at the end of the room.

The responses were studied by the people collecting them, and then compared with what other participants at other venues had answered.

Those answers will take lots of analysis, to see what were common questions and what were some solutions to them.

“A big job,” said O’Connor.

“There will be thousands of pieces of data,” she added.

Although Monday’s session dealt mostly with transportation, PAG’s overall program will be looking at air quality, water quality and population growth.

One of the questions was, “What challenges do you experience in getting home to common destinations (e.g., work, school shopping?)”

The local people at the computers typed in the answers, and the information was committed for compilation.

PAG experts will sift through the responses, see how they compare to answers from other such sessions.

One question discussed what was identified as a “broad vision for the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan,” which had a goal of “an inclusive, people-focused plan to create an efficiently linked variety of transportation choices in a regional system that serves al people.”

One of the local Green Valley - Sahuarita participants Monday was Jim DiGiacomo, executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce.

“Quite impressive,” he dubbed the process.

Tucson and other area communities are already feeling the pinch of increasing traffic. The stretch of Interstate 10 running through Tucson is currently being widened to handle more traffic.

State transportation authorities are looking at developing an Interstate 10 bypass around Tucson to help handle the expanding amount of truck traffic.

Among questions the local participants were asked to consider were such things as dual-level freeways and a cross-town Tucson expressway.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749