Driving around in the Phoenix/Mesa Metroplex

In case you didn't know the area around the Salt River Valley is now called the Phoenix/Mesa Metroplex. Not to denigrate any of the other communities, but Mesa's population is now over 445,000 people. The Phoenix population is over 1.5 million and growing at almost 15% a year. Phoenix passed Philadelphia as the fifth largest city in the U.S. Now that you are suitably impressed with the size of this huge city, you can start imagining driving around in 115 degree heat.

First the positive, Phoenix has a really good freeway system compared to someplace like Philadelphia, but it is about the same as that in San Diego. Drivers tend to drive much faster that the allowable speed limit, like up to 80 mph in a 65 mph zone. But the drivers are much more predictable than they are in a city like Salt Lake City, Utah. Plus, there is no snow and almost no rain making the streets clear almost all of the time. Another advantage is that most, not all, of the major streets are straight and a few go all the way across the city, I mean like about 50 miles. So if you are familiar with McDowell Road in Phoenix, you will find the same east/west street in Apache Junction and the same street in the far west valley except where blocked by freeways and mountains, canals or whatever.

We do have some really interesting things to contend with, for example, four wheel drive trucks that look like they are going to compete in a monster truck competition. I drive a Prius and I can look under (and might be able to drive under) some of the trucks.

I have found that driving in Phoenix is the same in all directions, the streets all look the same, the signs all look the same, the shopping centers all look the same, it is Alzheimer's patient's nightmare. If you were driving in Glendale and were suddenly beamed to Chandler, you might not notice.

The city is filling up with photo radar speed traps. That is a recent innovation. I was behind one crash that occurred when someone spotted the photo radar on the freeway and jammed on the brakes. People love to run red lights in Phoenix but not so much as other cities. The so-called downtown section of Phoenix has been a maize for years, they are always reconstruction some or all of the streets and you can never predict how you will have to go to get into the downtown area. Fortunately, though, unless you work in downtown Phoenix or attend sports games, you have absolutely no reason to go down there. I find many people in Mesa who haven't ever seen downtown Phoenix in their entire lives. I also find that people in Phoenix in a lot of cases have never been outside of Phoenix, they don't know that the Salt River has water in some places or that there are huge lakes, mountains and green trees.

We do see a lot of major accidents. Like the one this week where a small car smashed into a palm tree in the median of Main Street in Mesa. We could not figure out how the car got onto the median to hit the tree, the curb is almost a foot high.