At 4:09 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 30, thousands of Sedona residents received a text message from the city of the Sedona’s public alert system that defied explanation: “Heavy holiday traffic at the intersections of 89A and 179 this afternoon — use alternate routes if possible.”
Wow. Just wow.
No, city, it’s not possible. Why? Because city leaders since incorporation in 1988 have refused to build any alternate routes in that area.
There is not a single alternate route, let alone many alternate “routes” that could necessitate a plural “s”. Perhaps “Star Trek” transporters? Perhaps the city’s gondola system? Perhaps personal rocketpacks? Perhaps the secret underground tunnel network? Yes, there is a tunnel network, but not big enough for cars.
Either the city staff who posted the alert just used boilerplate text from the alert system’s manufacturer, or they don’t live in Sedona and have no idea what our roads look like.
We posted the alert on social media and asked for readers’ feedback. We got 56 comments and 1,100 engagements.
Drivers can detour to Ranger Road and Brewer Road, but it’s not an alternate route because it doesn’t actually avoid the area other than the Y intersection.
Drivers have to wait in traffic with everyone else just as long before reaching Brewer, which then inserts drivers back into State Route 179 traffic just before the problem area of Tlaquepaque, and they have to make a right turn into traffic to do so.
It’s basically another lane west of the Y subject to the same delays and congestion as the proper road at almost the same time. Using it is really no different than cutting down Hart Road and the parking lots at the corner or using the Y roundabout to go north through Hyatt Piñon Pointe.
Heavy traffic, holiday related or otherwise, at the intersection of State Routes 89A and 179, aka the Y, is now part of our daily commute. As traffic heads toward State Route 179 from both directions of State Route 89A, it gets held up by pedestrians at Tlaquepaque.
That traffic slowly builds up and builds up over hours until eastbound traffic stalls. Depending on how slowly traffic moves and how many tourists are crossing between Tlaquepaque and Tlaquepaque North, the backup can stretch past the radar speed limit sign, then Rolling Hills Road, then Les Springs Drive and finally Airport Road and CVS.
We would love to use “an” alternate route, if the city of Sedona would build one. If city leaders need a list of potential options, we posted just such a list in a two-page double spread on Nov. 6, 2015. The whole page is available on our website under “A comprehensive list of potential improvements to fix Sedona traffic”.
It shows a total of 10 potential alternate routes around the area, although two connecting Brewer Road to Airport Road are long shots that we added to the page because residents had flippantly suggested them despite the engineering and logistical difficulties.
One of the routes suggested, connecting southbound State Route 89A to Schnebly Road and the city’s parking lot, is being built but we suggested it as part of comprehensive overhaul of the area with other routes. As a standalone connection, it will pull cars off of State Route 89A, but dumping them in Uptown with no additional way out doesn’t really solve the congestion issue, it just shifts it around. Without an additional route out of Uptown, this one road doesn’t help traffic, it just helps parking.
Many of the routes we suggested run through residential areas and are not and never would be viable for new commercial or tourist thoroughfares. Rather, they are merely connections between neighborhoods to allow residents to avoid congestion, and in the case of serious congestion or an accident, provide an alternate route for locals to avoid backups.
If readers want information about traffic backups, we suggest they visit our website or social media pages rather than rely on a city alert system that clearly has no clue which city it’s supposed to be serving.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
