On Friday, Nov. 24, as traffic began to build heading into Uptown, we posted a notice on our Facebook page warning drivers to expect serious delays due to a combination of Black Friday traffic, holiday traffic, regular weekend traffic and decades of poor infrastructure planning that has turned our roadways into crawl-ways as vehicles navigate the same stretch of road that has grown more and more gridlocked over the last few decades.

As of press time, this post has been viewed by just over 42,000 unique Facebook users, nearly 300 of whom have left comments complaining about the traffic or offering suggestions about what can be done.

One user suggested we write a story or piece about traffic congestion to get the dialogue moving about what can be done to get traffic moving.

Disappointingly, I informed him we have written no fewer than 110 stories and editorials over the last decade about the traffic, possible solutions, congestion, complaints and the inactivity of the Sedona City Council, Coconino County and Yavapai County boards of supervisors and the Arizona Department of Transportation to make much of a difference. The number of our Facebook posts highlighting traffic delays probably number 200 to 300 in that same time frame.

Don Quixote never defeated the giants but was immortal­ized for tilting at windmills, so, seeking similar immortality, I beg Sancho Panza for my lance and dive once more into the breach: The problem is systemic and needs an overhaul.

While the city of Sedona basically copied large parts of what to do about Uptown traffic from our 2015 story “A Comprehensive List of Potential Improvements to Fix Sedona Traffic” — hold your applause, we are not so vain, but we are thankful city leaders and staff followed our lead — the bigger fixes remain undone. They included connecting Uptown to Soldier Pass in West Sedona over Forest Service USFS land, as it was decades ago, or widening State Route 179 from the Village of Oak Creek to the “Y” roundabout, as ADOT had planned to do in the early 2000s, or building a bridge near Red Rock Crossing to replace the vehicle crossing that washed out after floods — that’s why it’s called a “crossing.” Funny how these fixes rely on old plans that could have and should have been completed decades ago.

The current Sedona City Council seems as unlikely as any previous council to make any improvements or changes to deal with the congestion, which is odd considering none of our council members are indigenous to the Verde Valley but come from cities and states with vast road networks. It seems like locals born and raised here want more roads because that has been the historical trend, to the benefit of residents, while newcomers from out-of-state are the most opposed, arguing our delays are nothing like the horrors they bravely endured with a stiff upper lip back in California or along the Eastern Seaboard. But we live here, not there, for a reason.

Looking at webcams of the area, it’s clear the backup starts and stops with that crosswalk on State Route 179 between Tlaquepaque and Tlaquepaque North. It is foolish to cast stones that Tlaquepaque bears the blame. The parcel on which Tlaquepaque North stands has always been commer­cially zoned; the difference between now and 15 years ago is that Tlaquepaque North is simply more successful than the previous businesses that occupied that property.

Tlaquepaque is also not responsible for pedestrians once they leave the properties and set foot on ADOT’s right of way. They are ADOT and the city’s problem unless you want to deny humans free will.

That said, tourists are not bright creatures. They meander towards bright shiny things. They rarely do reconnaissance before arriving in an area. They follow signage — sometimes — as they mosey or drift from point A to point B in more or less a straight line — but before you laugh, remember you and I act just as loboto­mized when we are tourists elsewhere. ADOT placed the crosswalk between the two properties and the city manages it so tourists are wont to use it because it’s there.

The city of Sedona is currently building a pedestrian underpass under State Route 179 near the bridge, but it’s unclear how effective this will be in alleviating pedestrian traffic and vehicle congestion considering that ADOT has told the city it has no plans to close the crosswalk.

While it’s rare for a highway to have a crosswalk — there are exactly zero crossing Interstate 17 — there are roughly a dozen along State Route 179, but only the Tlaquepaque crosswalk has crossing guards indicating to pedestrians that this is a safe place to cross.

Before the Highway 179 Improvement Project was completed in 2009, the area consisted of one lane of traffic in either direction, with a “suicide” or turn lane between them. Pedestrians didn’t jaywalk because they didn’t want to get struck by a vehicle. Reverting back to that would speed up the passage of cars, except for drivers turning into and out of the Tlaquepaque properties. Erecting an anti-pedestrian barrier like we have in Uptown would be ideal, but the city could do that because it owns the road through Uptown; the state owns State Route 179.

Complaining to neighbors is cathartic but fixes nothing. Change requires sustained, specific action. It takes residents and visitors, business owners and workers haranguing City Council, county supervisors and ADOT to make targeted, specific improvements. So get moving to get moving.