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Much Ado About Sedona Medians

Sedona Arizona

Sedona AZ (September 17, 2012) – The following is a SedonaEye.com Letter to the Editor from Sedona resident, Henry Twombly:

I disagree with Jim Eaton’s advocacy for medians along 89A in West Sedona (Guest Perspective, SRRN, September 14). He lists many reasons/situations that would occur whether or not there is a center land, e.g., swerving rapidly across oncoming traffic, cars and trucks nose-to-nose trying to turn left from opposite directions. etc..

Some reasons seem so implausible I wonder if they are true. Has anybody seen “semi-trailer trucks using the center lane to park in while unloading deliveries?” Who in his/her right mind would want to dodge traffic while making deliveries?

All those in favor of medians are creating a perfect storm for traffic congestion. Medians would prevent cars from making left turns down side streets. Instead they would be forced to go down to the next light and make a U-turn or a series of lefts to head in the right direction. Furthermore, cars making a left turn would also block up the rest of traffic, even if there was a short section for a left-turn lane.

Traffic in Sedona is increasing to the the point where we have a rush hour, replete with traffic jams and weekend bottlenecks. Moreover, the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce with their pro-growth policies are encouraging more people to visit or move here. So traffic is bound to get worse.

Just as street lights will provide a nominal bump in safety, so will medians. Next thing you will know, they will want to put roundabouts at every traffic light. Though the official reason is public safety, who really benefits from building medians and roundabouts? Not to mention, how badly this construction will congest traffic, as we have already seen with that of the street lights.

The center lane is the only thing that is keeping traffic moving, as it is. Medians would just be a boon for road construction and design companies and a bane for tourists and residents. Maybe it’s time to rethink the situation. 

Henry Twombly 
350 Arroyo Pinon Drive
Sedona, AZ 86336

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14 Comments

  1. WEST 89A

    In response to Mr Trombley’s letter regarding 89A medians, he asks if anyone has seen a semi truck use the center lane in the delivery process. It can be seen on a regular basis at the local Domino Pizza where the truck pulls up in the center lane and, stops and then waits for an opening in the traffic and backs across two lanes and up to the front door of Domino’s and unloads its supplies.

    Regarding the center lane as it now sits after the ADOT remodel, I suggest that ADOT has increased the danger factor of the roadway, by adding bike lanes and reducing the width of the center lane. I predict there will be an increased number of head on collisions, injuries and deaths, as a result of this design.

    Decreasing separation is certain to cause more accidents, in my opinion.

    A slight miscalculation when turning from a side street into the center lane and a collision may occur. Tourists unfamiliar with the area are distracted and are many times positioned incorrectly. Anyone who lives here sees it regularly. Glancing down for the radio or cell phone and a slight turn of the wheel and boom!… there will be a collision. Head on collisions at 35-40mph can be lethal.

    Now when waiting to turn from the center lane your car is buffeted by the wind made by the passing cars. Prior to adding the bike lanes, the center lane width made it easier to avoid collision… with more room to manuver. That is now gone and the slightest error in positioning your car can result in an accident. BE CAREFUL Everyone. Pay Attention !!

    And don’t ride down the street with your arm straight out the window… You could lose a hand.

    There are so few pedestrians on west 89A I’m sure shared access of the sidewalk with the bicyclists would have been a much better and safer solution. And would have cost less too.

    Bicyclists would only have to yield to pedestrians and it would be workable and safer for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Leave it to big government to screw it up.

  2. Bob says:

    In response to Mr Trombley’s letter regarding 89A medians, he asks if anyone has seen a semi truck use the center lane in the delivery process. It can be seen on a regular basis at the local Domino Pizza where the truck pulls up in the center lane and, stops and then waits for an opening in the traffic and backs across two lanes and up to the front door of Domino’s and unloads its supplies.

    Mr. Mathieu,

    I respect your opinion and disagree with part but not all.

    Would you define REGULAR BASIS? I have yet to see a truck do as you say and I travel that section of roadway a half dozen times a day. To understand your comment better, I understand that you agree it does not PARK and deliver from the center lane? That is correct, isn’t it? He stops and waits for traffic to clear per your comment. Mr. Mathieu, why would a driver BACK up? I imagine that he does this maneuver to exit the steep angled property in a safer manner? Better yet the Dominoes truck should not be allowed to on site deliver except during restricted times, a common occurrence in commercial zones, or deliver from a commercial site nearby that allows proper access.

    What does it have to do with the center lane? That is the point.

    Let me say that that delivery truck or any truck will perform the same access maneuver even if no center lane was there (or median) as the fault lies in the angle and size of the Dominoes parking lot, and its lack of front and rear access, as required in most commercial zones.

    Unless that truck is the size of a jetliner, and the truck driver a pilot and not a commercially trained trucker, the Dominoes delivery truck can easily turn right into a parking lot or driveway. I bet the driver knows it. Ask him the next time you see him.

    The fault is not the road but the driver taking advantage of the road to perform safer. I would guess that the driver has learned that the Dominoes lot is inappropriate for almost any delivery truck of any size and shape and chooses this option.

    Is not a lease sign on the Domino property now? Isn’t Dominoes relocating? If this is the example that the 89A road requires medians, you will need a proper example.

    I’ve seen cars fail to navigate 89A turn-offs into stores and commercial lots because of speed and the uphill angles of 89A commercial parking lots and driveways. That center lane has saved more fender benders and head ons than its created and that is exactly why traffic engineers designed it that way.

    An engineering analytical argument can be made that the center lane is the SAFEST lane on 89A.

    I would advise that the 89A center lane stripings be upgraded to reflect 2012 compliance because it’s present striping is definitely mid-1970s, and that in-road reflectors be used as mandated by many state departments of transportation to maximize center lane turning productivity.

    To your comment about bike lanes, here here. Bike lanes on west Sedona 89A are outrageously stupid. An easy fix is to direct bikes along parallel side streets, a decision used in many crowded areas. Even the Mayor’s bike ride takes the side streets! And YES it’s time that Sedona allowed use of west Sedona uncrowded sidewalks like most towns do.

    Cars don’t share roads with bikes. Sidewalks can and should with yields for walkers. Common sense. Common good.

    Medians are nice but costly. What money is the Mayor not returning this time to the taxpayers to fund this?

    Thank you for your time reading this. I know that it is longer than I planned.

    Bob. Sedona uptown

  3. N. Baer says:

    It seems surreal to still have someone addressing the subject of medians for SR 89A. IMO that all of the arguments given against these “traffic calming” islands do not hold water. Old Town Scottsdale has medians and pedestrian crossings, the speed limit is slower and that area is bustling with tourists. The point is, when you have to drive slow through an area, you notice the stores.

    ADOT had recommended medians to the City about 20 years ago because Arizona does not have its own highway regulations, it has to defer to the federal governments’, hence the amount of our traffic warranted medians in a two-mile stretch where ADOT is in the process of installing those lights.

    The shame is that those lights will not prevent any of our daytime accidents which comprise the majority of accidents on SR 89A.

  4. Dick says:

    to median or not to median in Sedona is a round about decision

  5. Dr Chet says:

    Ever since we, citizens of Sedona, voted massively NOT to have the city take over SR 89A between Airport & Dry Creek Roads, I have been watching for the other side to fire its next salvo – to try and impose traffic medians. As a resident of one of the “small side streets” that would no doubt be blocked from left turns to our bank, grocery store & city hall, despite our street having been here 35+ years, causing us great inconvenience and indeed dangers due to all the U turns this will generate, I am not surprised it came from a former City planner who no doubt favored local take-over. One of the reasons so many of us voted against local control was that it automatically would have led to these dangerous medians. Find other solutions, please! And stop the expansion of businesses on Airport Mesa, requiring a major change in the Community Plan, while you are at it. Sedona is doing just fine as it is; we do NOT need endless growth and another convention center either, just to line the pockets of the already-wealthy and give the airport crowd another reason to go commercial. We moved here for small-town charm, not Scottsdale-like “conveniences”!!

  6. N. Baer says:

    Amazing. Apparently, people prefer ignoring the fact that it is ADOT that is required by federal law to impose federal highway rules, since Arizona does not have its own, regarding the amount of our traffic and the need to calm it sufficiently to eliminate our 95% plus day time accident rate..

  7. Mike says:

    This older woman turned left a business on right hand side of 89A and instead of using the middle lane she zoomed across the 3 lanes and pulled in mine. WHAT THE …. you get the idea. remember drivers ed courses? ought to be mandatory refresher courses. I slammed on the brakes but she never saw me. Her head never turned to look for traffic. I read this story when the email came and knew a comment needed to be made. People are more polite when entering the middle lane I think. I have seen people not use it and nearly cause accidents like this older woman.
    I could see the occasional median with no interference with access to its right or left to provide a slowing down mentality but I go to the Wells Fargo and National Bank often on the same trip and the center lane always functions perfect for the Wells Fargo and Java Love cafe areas and Harkins movies. Must be that grant money some body commented about. Let me remind every body and the government that all highway improvement money came out of my pocket first after all the government didn’t find it laying on a center lane or median. With a median I’d be less likely to stop at businesses on the right side when I come in town from the south. Maybe the businesses on the right side will benefit more. When I’m in Phoenix I almost never turn back at the medians to go to a business because I’ll keep looking on my side until I find it. Gas costs and slow traffic make me irritable and bad drivers.

  8. Tom Longo says:

    Just came back from a trip to CA and had a chance to visit several cities. When I came back I was able to see my local surroundings through the eyes of a visitor to our area. Our roads are in tip-top shape. The entry way into the VOC from I 17 and the entire length of the 179 corridor is magnificent. As you proceed onto 89A, you find a road that’s totally resurfaced and re-striped. We are fortunate to live in an area like ours. Instead of appreciating what we have and living peacefully in such a magnificent environment, we find fault with what the local and state government is working so hard to accomplish.

    Instead of enjoying what we have, we are constantly being very critical of each other. Is that REALLY why we moved to Sedona? Can’t we leave that excess baggage behind? So what, if we get medians on 89A…they seem to have worked out quite well on 179 in the VOC. No businesses are complaining about lack of business on account of it.

    Let’s just remember why we moved here in the first place before we become critical of everything that’s being done locally. Perhaps, what some of us need is an occasional change of venue to appreciate what we have. Let’s enjoy life in these beautiful surroundings in Peace and Harmony! Isn’t it about time we did?

    Tom Longo
    Sedona, AZ

  9. Jim Eaton says:

    Letter to the Editor;
    Response to letter about medians

    This is a response to Henry Twombly’s response to my Guest Perspective in the Red Rock News. In fact, it’s a response to two of Henry Twombly’s letters to your publication.

    First, yes – all of the eleven justifications I gave for 89A medians are true, and I’ve seen them all myself – including semi-trailer trucks unloading in the center lane, using hand trucks, on several occasions in three different locations on West 89A. Others have too. I didn’t make them up, and I could have listed more. If you haven’t seen them yourself, Henry, you don’t drive West 89A much.

    Second, a response to an earlier Twombly letter in which he claimed that the process for drafting Sedona’s new Community Plan is being done in “secret meetings.” The Citizens Committee for the new Community Plan has held more than a dozen very public input meetings, and is soon to hold at least nine more – with more public meetings next year, followed by formal public hearings and an election. Twice a month the Committee meets, with legal public notifications. The Committee has published three mailers and a tabloid newspaper that went to everyone in town.

    Well more than 1000 comments, ideas and wants have been received, cataloged and analyzed. There’s a column in the Red Rock News every month this year and next. There’s a special Community Room showing ideas and other information. The City has exceeded all requirements, and this process is probably the most thorough and open ever in the history of the State of Arizona, and possibly in the US. (Much more than any state or federal process.)

    Please tell us what more can be done to satisfy you.
    Jim Eaton

  10. Ray Visser says:

    As a resident on Sunset Drive and having visited much of the US (being from MN origionally) It seems everyday driving on 89A is taking your life in your hands.

    All these arguments against medians is so bogus. They live with these in every city and the reduction in accidents that medians would bring would be enormous.

    Drivers will learn to cope with the slight inconvenience of having to plan their route or perhaps make a u turn or do some business on the other side of the street and then returning on the other side.

    Business would benefit because I sometimes avoid pulling into a shop when the traffic is bad or I don’t feel safe crossing to the opposite side. It is the perfect scenario to get T Boned.

    Also done properly it could ad to some limited median landscaping which would make the street more attractive and not just a drive through hwy.

    My vote goes for medians.

    Ray Visser

  11. Linda says:

    self-serving median arguments jim…this isn’t for the city it’s for your personal power…enlightenment rules not so much in a city many times without people with stances based on integrity…

  12. Marty says:

    Jim Eaton seems to forget the opposition from businesses when this came up years ago. It was even suggested to connect business properties and create “frontage roads”. Remember how well that went over with commercial property owners? Ha

    Has Mr. Eaton considered that Milton Road in Flagstaff functions exactly the same as W89A in Sedona? And seemingly with much more traffic. How is it that people don’t constantly crab about wanting medians there?

    Keep it up, folks, and it might be the straw that breaks ADOTs back and they really do say to Sedona “Here, the road belongs to you so do as you wish and PAY FOR IT!”

    Go take a look at the short span of 89A presently owned by Sedona and note the complete dysfunctional design they came up with and the ongoing traffic jams.

    Yes indeed things can always be worse.

  13. teak Monkey says:

    If it’d medians you want, move back to Sun City !!!

  14. Bob says:

    Saw the Dominoes truck yesterday for the first time. Not one of us in five cars were impatient. And the traffic speed is 35 mph. The trucker took a couple of minutes. He has other options but why is it that a couple of minutes for a pizza delivery truck is worth millions of tax money? That truck driver can pull in to Dominoes with no backing up.

    Ask Dominoes to tell him to not back up if it bothers you that much. Not a big deal at all with solutions in place if you don’t want to complain.

    And Mr. Mathew no one should extend any part of the human body outside a car or truck when it’s in motion. I learned that from my driving teachers decades ago. To bad that you missed the lesson let alone the common sense of it.

    And that comment about wind blowing a car dangerously around in the center lane? Cars weigh thousands of pounds and the wind speed to cause a car to be that unsteady exceeds winds created by passing cars or trucks even at 50 miles per hour. The speed limit is 35.

    Mr. Longo you made some very fine points sir.

    Thank you for letting us have a forum to speak.

    Bob, uptown

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