By Tommy Acosta
As part of my work I drive up and down 89A numerous times during the day. Sometimes the traffic is light, other times medium and not-too-often heavy.
When the traffic is slow I get to look at the beauty surrounding us. When it’s not heavy I catch a glimpse here and there and get to where I need to go.
When I hear some people in this town consider the traffic situation in Sedona a near “crisis” I got to scratch my head and ask why.
As a business owner whose business is tied to the success of other businesses in Sedona, it gladdens me when the traffic is heavy because that means there are visitors in Sedona using our hotels and resorts, buying things, spending money, eating out, etc.
Traffic congestion in a resort town or world-destination point tells you they are thriving. Traffic congestion tells you people want to be there. For a town like ours that survives on taxes generated from people spending money here, traffic congestion is our way of knowing our budget for police and the operation of this city remains intact.
So no, I don’t get upset or frustrated when I’m behind a slow-driving tourist gawking at the red rocks of Sedona. Rather, I get a kick out of the kick the tourist must be getting seeing the formations for the first time.
I understand there are those living here for whom congestion is an annoyance but for those making a living congestion means visitors and visitors mean money, and of course, money means survival.
When I know there are major events happening in Sedona that will draw heavy traffic, I arrange to limit my need to drive all over town and work from home. Why?
Not because I fear traffic but because it’s one less car out there making a difference. I leave the streets to the tourists and the locals that must be out.
There are those who say long lines of tourist-filled cars winding their way into Sedona on S.R179 discourage them from coming back. I differ.
Have you ever driven into Las Vegas on a busy day; Jones Beach in New York in the middle of the summer or any real tourist hot-spot? There is always a traffic back up because everybody wants to be there. People want to be where everybody else is because that tells them it’s a great place to be.
They will come back again and again, provided they are not caught speeding or violating any traffic laws or get a ticket uptown for parking too long in one spot.
Empty streets are bad news for destination points whose survival depends on visitors. Think about it.
We can do our best to mitigate the inconvenience of traffic to our residents but don’t worry about our tourists. The reward of being in Sedona is worth every minute they spend on the road getting here.
9 Comments
People reside in Sedona for different reasons. Many, indeed, a significant number, are retired and came here to relax and enjoy their remaining years instead of trying to “survive”. Having lived here for awhile, I’ve witnessed the shift from Sedona being a quiet small unincorporated town to being hawked internationally, all in the name of making a buck. Your article implies that accommodating more tourists may be more important than what many local residents ay prefer . . . less traffic. People who come here to “survive” financially might want to reconsider their motive for being here.
Hi Russell:
Tommy never implies. He makes clear there would be no place for those of us who came here to get away from it all to eat without tourists. That’s bad. But if there were less city bureaucrats, police, code enforcers, city services and a trimmed down city council, I guess it would not be so bad after all. Let’s borrow some armored vehicles from our neighbors in Verde Valley and block off all entry into Sedona. I’m sure that would end our traffic crisis pretty darned quick.
Tommy,
It is a matter of perspective. I agree with you 100%. The only issue I have with tourists is some don’t use common sense when driving. I don’t know if they are so taken by the landscape or just don’t care. I have seen every sort of driving infraction come from a tourist. My biggest peeve is when they stop in the middle of streets such as Soldier’s Pass and take a picture!
I retired here from Southern California and there is no amount of traffic that I deal with in Sedona that would ever meet the volume of what a driver deals with in CA.
On a normal business day, it could take me 45 minutes to drive 7 miles to work in CA. In Sedona, my biggest concern is will it take me 3 minutes to get to the restaurant or 5 minutes? Even a drive into VOC or Cottonwood is pleasant compared to just getting 1 mile to the freeway from my previous California home.
I remember my wife speaking to a native Arizona resident about widening a road and the Arizona native said “Spoken like a true Californian!”
So, for those who come from rural areas and never dealt with city traffic, your perspective is probably a tad different from mine! I love it here and couldn’t be happier that tourists come and spend time and money in our fantastic community.
Tommy…I have disagreed with you in the past, but this time, I’m all in. I don’t see the crisis and can’t see what it would take to resolve what anyone might think is the crisis. We have bottlenecks that cause back ups on busy traffic days. We can’t build roads that won’t ever reach overcapacity. Any resolution of bottlenecks will mean major expenses. Mass transit doesn’t seem practical as a traffic solution. Keeping cars away from the area will mean many people will go home poor.
Traffic?? I agree with Tommy. It’s almost an inside joke. If you’re running for office, you have to say it’s terrible and you’ll do “something” about it, but as many of us know, there’s nothing that can be done!!!!!!!!!
SR 179: After spending approx. $70 mil. on SR 179, and finally realizing during the Needs-Based Implementation Plan, that nothing is going to fix the bottleneck caused by tourists going uptown or up the Canyon, (“we’ve gone as fur as we cun go”) during high volume weekends and holidays, there’s no “fix” coming here…ADOT still owns and controls 179 (4-lanes into 2-lanes remains the definition of a “bottleneck).
89A North from the “Y”: The City owns about a mile of 89A in uptown (after a turnback) because an ADOT policy against diagonal parking on a State Route threatened to remove virtually all parking from uptown. Anyone want to revisit that decision? The screams would be heard in Cottonwood. Adding lanes going up Oak Creek Canyon? You’ve got to be kidding me! See any political will in Phoenix or Washington to spend half a billion to “fix” Sedona’s week-end traffic problem?
89A Southwest from the “Y”: The community already decided by a huge majority that they don’t want local control of traffic or options for the West Sedona stretch of 89A. Having just repaved, made ADA compliant, and fixed some areas on Cooks Hill, ADOT is not about to come back and tear it up for some other “great idea” already rejected by the citizenry. We’re stuck with what we decided we wanted for the next 15 years (the next repaving project).
Non-existent Alternate Route through Red Rock Crossing: This idea is resurrected about every 10 years, because of either short memories or enough new folks have moved to town. Back in the 2004 era, the Sedona City Council thoroughly investigated the options (including 3 different routes). Roads on both sides of Oak Creek are Yavapai County roads, and Yavapai County would be responsible for the construction. Since last there was a “crossing”, federal highway safety standards (local jurisdictions violate at your own liability risks) have set new requirements for the radius of curves, slopes of hills, width of lanes, shoulders and drainage ditches. The cost to construct in 2004 dollars was estimated between $35-40 million; $8-10 million at the time, just for the bridge. There is no way that Yavapai County, with most of its population on the other side of Mingus Mountain is going to spend that kind of money on a minor, and perceived traffic problem in Sedona. Want a real laugh, ask Chip Davis! Want a bigger laugh, ask the other County Supervisors!
Non-Existent Schnebly Hill, Canyon Bypass: Besides making the construction of the Alternate Route above appear like a “walk in the park” in a comparison of the construction challenges, this project is also way beyond the control of a 100% united Sedona City Council. Now we’re dealing with the U.S. Forest Service, whose funding continues to be cut and subject to the Budget Sequester. The annual maintenance costs of this highway would be unbelievable. And, think how happy the uptown merchants and all the businesses in Oak Creek Canyon would be to have all future GPS systems in autos, reflect that the fastest way to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, is to take Schnebly Hill Road, and never enter uptown at all. Want to see a revolution in our tiny town?
So, I am at a loss to figure out what these brave souls running for Mayor and Council really intend to do to address this “huge” issue of traffic in Sedona.
Ernie Strauch
Not to mention that ADOT has probably put Sedona on its “Do Not Call” list after all the whole debacle on the 89A take back and the lights we didn’t really need…
Seriously, Ernie is spot on, and he knows more about traffic and roads than anyone else I’ve heard speak on this issue. Ernie for Traffic Czar of Sedona!
I’m originally from Chicago. Talk about rush hour traffic! My wife and I had a home here for 18 years that we used for vacations and were planning to retire here and move in full time. All those years of talk about fixing 179 traffic problems and just when we move here full time, they start construction! Great timing! But compared to a Chicago construction project it wasn’t bad. There are two seasons in Chicago… winter and construction! So now that the project is done, things are great. Those three day holiday weekends still cause a problem on 179 to the Y, but that’s far and few between. What I think is funny are those people who think that a drive from The Village to Cornville is such a long, overwhelming drive that it is to be undertaken only once in a great while. Its takes 15 minutes! There’s only one stop sign on the way and the roads to get there are mostly 50 to 55 mph roads! And its a beautiful drive. My wife and I would drive for an hour back in Chicago one way to go out to dinner! Peoples driving mind sets are all different. I use to get frustrated when I got behind a slow driver, tourist or local. I’m sitting up in my Dodge Ram 1500 truck with a 5.7 litre Hemi engine and I want to get where I’m going as fast as legally(?) possible, not 5 or 10 miles an hour under the speed limit. So I did a lot of passing. Now that I have a Chevy Volt, I’m more concerned about my driving style efficiency rating! So now I’m the guy that gets passed up! And that’s OK! Traffic is not a problem around here.
Traffic not a problem around here? I guess if your standard is driving time from point A to point B, and compared to a major urban center, there is no traffic problem. For many of us who do perceive a problem, we may be responding more to an unpleasant feeling of congestion and overcrowding, especially on the 89A corridor. Leave the car in the garage and take a walk or ride the bike to run a few errands? Sounds great in a city council campaign flyer. But you’ll almost certainly find yourself on 89A or 179, with traffic noise, exhaust fumes, curb cuts every 50 feet, and be dodging vehicles darting into and out of side streets through the tiniest gaps in traffic flow.
Perhaps many of the complaints about traffic arise from a feeling that there is seemingly no end to further development, at least in West Sedona. Three new hotel proposals, expansion of two existing hotels, a big-box drug store? That just in the past six months.
So, in that light, perhaps Sedona does have a “traffic” problem.
“…we may be responding more to an unpleasant feeling of congestion and overcrowding, especially on the 89A corridor.”
“Perhaps many of the complaints about traffic arise from a feeling that there is seemingly no end to further development, at least in West Sedona. ”
David, you make some valid points that must be considered part of the discussion. It may not be the critical issue of whether it takes 7 minutes from Dry Creek Rd. to Airport Rd., or 12 minutes, That 5 minute difference is hard to make into a “federal case”.
The quality, or lack thereof, of the 12 minute experience, is perhaps the way more significant issue. That “experience”, or put another way, “Quality of Life” my friend, was meant to be addressed in the new Community Plan.
One aspect that has really never been addressed (and offers a great challenge to our new mayor and council) in the future implementation of the Plan, is … what is the true “carrying capacity” of the City of Sedona? It’s a physical space/flow/turnover-rate calculation. How many parking places exist; how many hotel rooms, how many restaurant seats, how many vehicles can move through uptown or West Sedona per hour, etc. Calculating the maximum does not produce a “livable community” however, far from it!
So the question will always remain, what percentage of “maximum carrying capacity” is acceptable for Sedona to remain a “livable city”? Good luck to us all with that decision.