Many Sedona residents received the notification from the city of Sedona at 8:47 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1, that southbound traffic on State Route 89A heading into Uptown was backed up to the trout farm in Oak Creek Canyon.
Labor Day traffic heading into Sedona is nothing new. Looking back at our archive, we have written several editorials after Labor Day weekend itemizing the particular delays and outrages from drivers who have entered our city. Before me, previous managing editors have written rebukes of our ignominious traffic situation and the delays caused by inaction by our city leaders to solve the perennial problem. This Labor Day, the delays were compounded by all the normal old factors: Drivers slowing traffic while looking for places to park, cars attempting turns across the median and amnesiac jaywalkers crossing willy-nilly in traffic, seemingly forgetting that the hour they spent rolling through the canyon themselves was due to jaywalkers.
The new addition was the construction along State Route 89A.
While the construction itself — the cones, barricades and asphalt dropoffs — doesn’t actually slow traffic if drivers move confidently, all that white and orange and the flashing lights terrifies drivers who assume the worst will befall their vehicle in a construction zone.
As cars one-by-one slowed more than usual, a cascade of delays pushed the southbound wait past Uptown, past Midgley Bridge, past Grasshopper Point all the way to trout farm by the evening.
When we posted the delay on our Facebook page, drivers who had been stuck in it commented on how long they had waited in the canyon.
Fortunately, the construction of the roundabout at Jordan Road is nearly complete. The city’s contractor is clearing up the last parts of the circle and will be leveling the asphalt shortly.
Next up is the construction of the roundabout at Art Barn Road and the southbound detour by the trading post to Schnebly Road and the city’s parking lot. This may shuttle some of those drivers to public parking quickly before they enter the stretch of Uptown and begin hunting for elusive open spots.
For locals, it means we can pull off State Route 89A quickly, reach Jordan Road and take it or the residential streets south of Forest Road to get out of Uptown without waiting for a family from Omaha to find a tight spot for their rented Cadillac Escalade. But the biggest improvement will be the anti-jaywalking barricade that will run down State Route 89A preventing wayward pedestrians from crossing the road like a herd of buffalo rather than using the crosswalks.
The downside of the roundabout-and-barrier-median model is that any traffic on the east side of State Route 89A that wants to head south has to go north by turning right first.
This will insert them into southbound traffic further north than they started as they then enter the roundabout and have to head south with the rest of the drivers clogging traffic. For any cars north of the Jordan Road roundabout, this means heading all the way to the Art Barn roundabout to head south, or taking a left across traffic at Apple Road and going to Jordan Road.
If the roundabouts move slow — and they will because roundabouts are new to many out-of-state drivers — this means lots of traffic jams as drivers making the 180-degree turn insert themselves into southbound traffic. There will be lots of cranky drivers who just spent an hour waiting in the canyon behind one car wondering why three more from the south are cutting in front of them.
We expect a lot of the aggressive drivers will move to block these southbound cars in the roundabout, causing northbound delays, which really haven’t been that much of a problem in years past.
While this scenario won’t happen often, it will on major traffic days like three-day holidays.
Fortunately, once construction completes, locals will get plenty of opportunities to test out the new traffic flow before the next major tourist holiday.
Christopher Fox Graham Managing Editor
