While the Sedona City Council’s Aug. 9 Sedona in Motion update meeting focused primarily on the ongoing Uptown parking study, the council also heard a progress report on the plans for the proposed shareduse path along Andante Drive.

The proposed path would run along the west side of Andante Drive from State Route 89A to a point between Allegro and Lyric drives, where it would cross Andante via a raised crosswalk and proceed north to Thunder Mountain Road along the east side of Andante. The path would be approximately 2,800 feet in length and 10 feet in width.

The cross-road alignment was chosen to maximize use of the city’s existing right-of-way and minimize its need to obtain additional easements from property owners. Assistant Director of Public Works Sandra Phillips said that the current design will necessitate acquiring two new easements at most.

City staff sent out open house and survey invitations to 354 residents of the affected neighborhood, and received 80 survey replies. The open house on Dec. 8, 2022, had 33 participants.

“On those surveys, 64% of them wanted a shared use path in the neighborhood,” Phillips told the council. “Approximately 83%, their preferred mode of travel was walking, and 64% preferred the Andante roadway alignment. The other 28% preferred the wash alignment, so I would say 95% of the respondents to our survey wanted it along Andante.”

Phillips also mentioned that the project will add “two, possibly three” speed tables to Andante.

“Are speed tables in reality a good way to control speed, or do we just get the high acceleration once you get over the speed table?” Councilman Pete Furman asked.

“If we do two speed tables, that should slow them down enough,” Phillips said.

“We could constrict Andante and make it more narrower for traffic, and that’s a calming technique that’s used nationally,” Director of Public Works Kurt Harris suggested.

“I’ve always been a skeptic about speed tables,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said.

“We’re looking at what to do about the on-street parking,” Phillips added. “These are narrow streets. It’s unfortunate that some people have grown accustomed to parking within the city’s right-of-way.”

Resident Tracy Delaney asked if a regular sidewalk rather than a shared-use path was being considered. “It seemed like everybody just wanted a basic narrow sidewalk so it’s not as encroaching on their space,” Delaney said, recalling reactions to the shared-use path recently added next to the library.

Dickey responded that providing the same capacity using sidewalks would require a sidewalk on each side of the street, which would consume more space.

“What we’re producing is a facility that addresses a wide range of users and modes of travel,” Dickey said.

He then added that the shared-use path is not intended for cyclists who are comfortable riding on the roads.

“It comes up a lot that a person will say, ‘I wouldn’t use that facility. Why would you build that?’ They’re the ones wearing the spandex, their hair on fire, riding through traffic and this facility, honestly, is not for them.”

“Most sidewalks prohibit bicycle use or other alternative use,” Harris said.

“I can dispute that, Kurt. I grew up on a sidewalk in front of my house and I rode my bike all the time,” Mayor Scott Jablow said.

A Question of Timing

Andrew Baird of the engineering firm Kimley-Horn provided the council with additional statistics on Uptown traffic congestion.

“Right now, this is the primary driver of congestion through this whole system,” Baird explained, pointing to the stretch of SR 89A between the “Y” roundabout and the Jordan Road roundabout on a model of traffic flow. “It’s a combination of not enough vehicular storage, or queuing length, in between the roundabouts essentially, and pedestrians crossing in Uptown during peak time. Those are the two drivers that we have found that are the first projects that should be completed and done to start to relieve some of this congestion.”

Baird emphasized that pedestrians crossing the road have a disproportionate effect on traffic delays, noting that “the No. 1 driver in congestion [prior to] the Uptown improvements was jaywalking in Uptown.”

“Pedestrians get like 20% of the cycle,” Baird said with reference to the midblock crossing in Uptown. “So, for 100 seconds of green time, they get 20 seconds of it. If we just add another 10%, or 10 seconds out of 100, you can see it impacts northbound improvements by almost 30%.”

Kimley-Horn measured the number of pedestrians walking along the east side of SR 89 as “anywhere from like 800 to 1,000” in 2021 and 2023.

“We can’t make pedestrians do the right thing,” Councilwoman Melissa Dunn said.

“That’s why we ended up putting in a physical barrier with the median,” Baird said. “It’s challenging to make people cross at crosswalks unless there is a physical steel barrier.”

According to Kimley-Horn’s modeling, Baird said the cumulative effect of three projects — the Amara turn lane, the planned northbound improvements to SR 89 between the “Y” and Forest Road and the construction of a controlled crossing on SR 179 in combination with the sidewalk underpass — should lead to “about 50% less congestion, 50% less delay through the system.”

“In 2018, the existing condition was around 170 [seconds] average vehicle delay,” Baird said. “The Amara right turn lane was finished in 2023. We got out there in March and counted cars, we checked volumes and we had travel times that we were mapping out. We saw an 18% improvement in overall average vehicle delay.”

“As we look at the Forest Road connection, Ranger-Brewer improvements and Oak Creek, we see some improvement, but not obviously the jump,” Baird said. “Effectively, by improving the downstream condition, these other improvements are not as impactful.”

Business Perspective

During the call to the public, Uptown business owner Tom Gilomen told council to keep things in perspective when considering parking and traffic problems.

“I understood when I arrived here in 1985 and bought property that this was a retirement community that was largely funded by tourism,” Gilomen said. “We’re sitting here in a town that depends upon tourists to pay the bills. It’s as simple as that.”

“We always hear the residents don’t want things,” Gilomen said. “If someone wants to do something next door to your house, should we put it up for a vote and have everyone in the neighborhood decide, or take what you think more seriously? I hope that you think about all the 50- and 60-year-old business owners that have pledged their lives and their livelihoods to Uptown Sedona — and then we talk, we can just discard it because someone who moved here two, or three, or five, or 10 years ago doesn’t like the fact that we have tourists. It’s embarrassing, to tell you the truth.”