| What if you lived in downtown Prescott and worked at the gas station at
Robert Rd. and 89A or anywhere around that area. (10-15 miles) Lets also say that you do
not have a driver's license because you got into a little trouble with the law and it was
taken away for a year. It is too far to walk and too expensive to take a cab. If you are
not lucky enough to have a friend to carpool with you still have two options. One option
is you do what a lot of people do in this situation do and you drive anyway. You like to
think of your self as "straightening up" and a law-abiding citizen now days and
therefore do the right thing and you head to the local pawn or bike shop and get a bike.
You find that it only takes you 45 min to go to work and 1 hour 15 minutes to get home
because of the hill. You do not really want to ride that much but your probation requires
that you hold a job. It is hard at first but after a few weeks you can go to and from work
without any problems. You also use your bike to commute to work sites to work off your
community service hours. Six months later you are almost done with your community service
hours and with the money that you have saved from not buying insurance or gas you are
paying down your fines. You are finally getting out of trouble. Now, after keeping your
nose clean and riding instead of driving you find that they have built a new road and your
old route is closed. You logically ride to the new road and on the entrance ramp you read
a sign "BICYCLES AND PEDESTRIANS ARE PROHIBITED" You learn that the only way
around is 69 through Prescott Valley. This will add an extra 12 miles and 1 hour and 15
minutes to your trip. This is a very long way (32 miles - 2 hours each way) and 69
is possibly the most dangerous place to ride in Prescott. The long way is just not
reasonable and you take to the freeway twice a day risking your life and breaking the law
- just to get to work. It is true that there is going to be a new road built called the
Airport Connector that has a current policy of NO BIKES. This road is going to be
considered a freeway. I realize that I-17 is a freeway and we had club rides on it. This
freeway is looked at more like the ones in Phoenix and is too busy with merging traffic at
the interchanges to be considered safe for bicycles. In Phoenix there are always frontage
roads or at least a road parallel to the freeway. There is currently no plan for a
frontage road that connects the whole thing on the new Airport connector.
The old 89A is supposed to close and reverted back to its original private ranch
owners. City Staff in Prescott are trying to get some kind of urban trail made out of the
old road so we can get through that way. I am not involved in these talks but it looks
possible but difficult and not a done deal. I do wish them luck but fear that we may be
putting all of our eggs in one basket. Old 89A would provide an adequate connection but
what if it this falls through. Bikes would not be able to legally or safely get through.
I think this Freeway should have been designed with a frontage road from the start. It
was probably designed 3-4 years ago and that was the time for cyclist to get involved. The
urban trail would be very nice to have in addition to the frontage road. I think that
realistically we will have to settle for any kind of access we can get because the
possibility is that we would have none.
Tim Travis |