By John Roberts, Sedona Resident
(May 1, 2019)
Soldier Pass roadway is currently an accident trap and could be deadly to passengers exiting cars now being illegally parked right on the asphalt paving itself reserved for traffic lanes. Passengers leave their cars far too often stepping right out onto the road for them ( children, dogs and all )to then walk along the divide between the paving and the narrow shoulders on each side to reach their destination of the Soldiers Pass trailhead in the forest.
All it takes is for the city to wake up to real opportunity and take steps to get the job done. And make Soldiers Pass safe again. That’s the observation of a past registered professional engineer with 26 years experience working with federal, state and city engineers on highway and city road designing and construction..
The concept is to build a new parking lot on city property at Posse Grounds located off Soldiers Pass near the dog park. Then hikers can depart for a limber up walk along the current pathway along the south edge of Soldiers Pass to pick up a new path built along Soldiers Pass in a portion of the extra 24 feet of space available in the right of way not being used for the road pavement. That gets the hikers on their way to the trailhead. Everyone is safe and the road is far more accident free.
All the city has to do is close all of Soldiers pass to sideline parking now taking place and have police patrols to prevent illegal parking. A few constructions will be required to make this happen all of which public works can easily accomplish. It will also take city council approval. Besides the improvements will be much less costly to the city than a fat sized law suit they cannot succeed in averting nor obtain a good ruling or jury verdict because the city was negligent in preventing the catastrophe
This will prevent a sure death from occurring, unnecessary vehicle accidents and allow hundreds of residents who regularly use Soldiers Pass for clear access to West Sedona commerce, medical offices and to reach other parts of town.
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5 Comments
By all means, the City Manager must wake up and follow the direction outlined by Mr Roberts before a major law suit dictates a change.
This could be another embarrassment that the City could add to its collection.
Once again …….overblown comments about “the so called danger and impending doom” along solders pass road… The speed limit is 25 MPH. Come on folks!! Really can’t you find real issues to highlight.
If I were a resident on Soldiers Pass I would organize every property owner to lobby Nicole Branton, Supervisor of the Red Rock Ranger District to CLOSE the Soldiers Pass trail head citing too much intrusion into a residential neighborhood and the danger along the road. Not every hiker will take the route from Posse Grounds as they might consider it too much of a hike before the get to their desired trail. Having parking on Soldiers Pass restricted to no parking is a burden to homeowners who might have a small get together for any reason and guests would have to park on the road. Having Sedona police patrol and write tickets would not be feasible as I feel sure it would not be a priority and even so the tickets would be for those parked that day. Future tourists would still park. To me it seems extremely unfair of the Forest Service to allow such a busy trail head in a residential neighborhood, there are plenty of other trails. Years ago I knew owners there who told me hikers would walk right through their back yard.
If the City would also lobby Red Rock Ranger to close that trail they would listen but, instead they prefer to spend money on a different route which might not solve the problem. Times have changed since that trail opened years ago and the Ranger District needs to update their thinking on certain trails. Trails in other States such as Idaho have been closed by the Forest Service and BLM so it could happen in Sedona.
Joan Shannon
faithfuljoan@earthlink.net
Another alternative could be the forest service needs to bite the bullet and take more parking out of the actual Forest Service for the Soldier’s Pass Trail Head site
off Soldier’s Pass Road. Cars are now parked well over a mile from the Forest Service trail head daily now.
I have counted up to 65 cars parked using BOTH sides of Soldier’s Pass Road. People do park on the road, not pulling off enough and sometimes even leaving the rear end of their car sticking out into the road. It gets quite tight at times to drive through when both sides of the road are being used for parking. The vegitation is being impacted also. I see more and more evidence of that all the time. Some homeowners have gone to the extra trouble and expense to place red rocks on their property side off of Soldier’s Pass Road to keep the hikers from parking along their property line. One neighbor said hikers were even crawling over their wall into their private property. We definietly need to find a solution. If the Forest Service wishes to keep these trails open to the public, then use FOREST SERVICE PROPERTY and create way more parking spaces in order to keep the cars off the public roadways and keep our neighborhoods safer. I am way more cautious with my neighborhood walks anymore as I have to constantly watch for all the cars driving on and pulling in and out along Soldier’s Pass Road.
Mr Walters wants reports of an actual accident . He missed reading prior reporting of accidents which almost happened in a sequencing identical to prior warnings. Does that mean we should wait for the actual event before taking preventive steps as suggested by expert opinion ?
The 25mph speed limit is far down the list of dangers with top most happening to be obstructed line of sights on Soldiers Pass road.
If Mr. Walters is expert maybe he can offer an opinion for us to consider. That is what we received from Wachal, Shannon and Webster whose thoughtful remarks are worth consideration.