Carefree wants help from neighbor with roads

by Elizabeth Medora
Focus Contributor

CAREFREE – The Town of Carefree has a trio of transportation recommendations to make to the City of Scottsdale
Carefree, which has been undergoing a transportation study, held a joint meeting of the Town Council and Planning & Zoning Commission May 1 to discuss possible options.

Traffic manager Paul Basha presented findings from a study conducted by Morrison-Maierle Inc. to the Carefree Town Council, following up after two public meetings and several planning sessions with the Transportation Committee.

Recommendations to the Scottsdale jurisdiction include:
-Traffic signal at Pima Road and Stagecoach Pass
-More left turn lanes on Carefree Highway
-Widening of Carefree Highway to four lanes between Cave Creek and Tom Darlington Roads

Carefree Mayor Wayned Fulcher noted that Carefree officials may arrange a sit-down with Scottsdale’s traffic engineers and planners and work towards these objectives.

Basha commented that one possible change in Carefree roads that would likely be recommended by traffic managers everywhere would be raising the speed limit in some areas.

Councilman Bob Coady relayed comments he’d heard from residents about road noise and questioned whether lowering the speed limit would make traffic quieter.

Basha said that a lowered speed limit would likely not improve noise, as it is dependent on whether people actually follow it, and it generally increases acceleration noises as drivers speed up and slow down.

Rubberized road coatings are already in the works for Carefree, and the coatings should reduce road noise significantly.
Speed humps are not a likely addition to the town, as multiple citizens have rejected the idea. The Carefree fire chief also added in answer to a question from Coady that speed humps had, in the past, been a problem when driving fire trucks over them, due to loss of equipment.

Bike lanes and pedestrian facilities are still high priorities for the town, and the consensus in the meeting was to keep investigating ways to integrate them.

While discussing crosswalk options, Fulcher said the town could “put in a couple (of the recommended structures) and see how they work.”

Councilman David Schwan, who is also on the Transportation Committee, agreed that action is necessary.
“I think the citizens would like us to do something about the downtown area,” Schwan said, referring to pedestrian accessibility.
Some form of public transit is also an issue. One possibility is contracting with the Foothills Caring Corp., to provide drivers for homebound seniors in Carefree.

Basha did caution that the Caring Corp is likely a more temporary solution to the homebound citizen issue, as the number of seniors unable to drive will keep increasing in coming years.

“There’s a lot on our plate with all of these transitions,” Fulcher said, adding that the Council will continue pursuing ways to move forward. “This process has been very worthwhile.”

Upcoming meetings regarding the Transportation Plan will be posted on carefree.org.