Glen Creno
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 19, 2007 12:00 AM

Phoenix and Tucson aren’t the only Arizona cities betting new transit systems will slow the rising tide of traffic.

Many of the state’s rural communities are studying how to set up bus, van or trolley systems to handle the growing number of vehicles on their roads.

Cities from Prescott to Kingman to Maricopa have seen their populations explode in recent years, and roadway expansions alone haven’t been enough to ease traffic.

“They’re taking transit more seriously as an option to move people,” said Matt Carpenter, planning program manager for the Arizona Department of Transportation. “It’s all relative to growth.”

Maricopa planners say they must set up a shuttle system to deal with the city’s No. 1 transportation problem: backups on Arizona 347.

The shuttles will deliver commuters to jobs and services in downtown Phoenix and south Chandler and ease congestion on the stretch of highway that runs between Maricopa and Phoenix.

The population in Maricopa, south of Phoenix and in the center of the Pinal County housing boom, shot up 1,884 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As a result, traffic on Arizona 347 has been an ongoing problem.

“We have a highway that is approaching capacity, and the last three months, it’s more difficult because of the construction, which was absolutely imperative because the road was falling apart,” said Brent Billingsley, Maricopa’s transportation director.

Other areas of the state are also looking at launching or expanding transit service:

• Pinal County and the Gila River Indian Community are planning studies to assess transit needs.

• The Western Arizona Council of Governments is planning a feasibility study for transit connections among Kingman, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City.

• The Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization is looking at a bus system for Prescott, Chino Valley, Prescott Valley, Dewey-Humboldt and Yavapai County. Transit could range from a full fixed-route bus system serving the cities to voucher programs that let people ride existing systems.

That region has always been thought of for its small-town charm, but Jodi Rooney, the agency’s administrator, calls it the “Prescott urbanized area.” The region is expected to grow from about 125,000 residents now to approximately 440,000 by 2030.

“All these people are moving to Arizona,” Rooney said. “The infrastructure has to keep up.”

Population growth
Metro Phoenix gets a lot of attention when it comes to transit in Arizona. A new report ranks the area No. 15 nationally for traffic congestion. But Phoenix isn’t the state’s only population magnet.

According to the Census Bureau, Prescott’s population increased 22 percent from 2000 to the middle of last year. Kingman increased 36 percent, and Lake Havasu City grew 34 percent. The population of Phoenix, excluding suburbs, rose 15 percent in the same period.

The Prescott-area study found that 53 percent of people in the region said they would be “very likely” to use a transit system, with an additional 27 percent saying they would be “somewhat likely” to use it. People wanted transit to be cheap, to reduce traffic and to create a cleaner environment and better quality of life.

Maricopa residents don’t need a reminder about how bad traffic can be in and out of their city, but they got one recently when a local magazine ran an aerial photo of gridlock on Arizona 347.

Resident Cherie Halvorson saw the problem from ground level when she commuted from Maricopa to her job at a midtown Phoenix mortgage company. She said it was a fight just to get to Interstate 10, where more backups waited. Her commute from driveway to office was 1½ hours.

Transit demand
There’s a big demand for rural transit that hasn’t been filled, according to ADOT. Statewide, there are 1.4 million people who would use rural transit now if they had access to it. ADOT said that 18 percent of current demand for rural transit is being served and that that figure will drop to 13 percent by 2016 if more service isn’t introduced.

ADOT’s Carpenter said that rural sections of the state may face an even greater challenge as its elderly population grows from 23.2 percent of the total in 2005 to 27.7 percent in 2015. Transit is a lifeline for many elderly and low-income people and that sometimes is overlooked when transit discussions focus on the best ways to get commuters to their jobs.

“I think these systems take enormous pressure off of the roads,” said Dave Barber, transportation planner for the Western Arizona Council of Governments. “I would guess 30 to 40 percent of the trips are for employment purposes. . . . But it’s also the elderly person who needs to go to anything from a food-stamp appointment to a Social Security appointment.”

Small-city transit faces some of the same challenges as systems in larger areas. Money is at the top of the list of key issues. Cities can tap federal funds to help finance the startup and operation of transit systems. But the cities have to chip in, too, and that’s not a popular sell to residents, especially with a growing system with increasing costs.

Maricopa received a federal grant of more than $430,000 to be used for capital spending and operations for its shuttle system. That leaves about $160,000 for the city to pay.

The shuttle system is expected to be up and running next spring and eventually will expand within Maricopa once more jobs come, planners said.