Phoenix Freeways

No one could live in the fifth largest city in the U.S. without driving the freeways. The picture above is the 202 Loop Freeway, heading east, just east of Scottsdale Road. When I arrived in the Valley, about 1953, there were no "freeways," in fact, there were not many paved streets. (compared to 2010). Here is a copy of the Street Arterial Plan for Phoenix in 1949.

The northern most visible arterial east/west street is Indian School Road. The furthest west street is 23rd Avenue, the furthest east street is about 32nd Street, but it isn't marked on the map. The furthest east marked street is 20th Street. In looking at the map, it is interesting that Madison is marked as the major one-way east street south of Jefferson. What happened is that Washington became the major street and now does not end at 17th Avenue but continues on around the capitol building to 19th Avenue. Roosevelt did not become a major arterial, today it is definitely a local city street. McDowell, Thomas and Indian School are definitely major arterial streets. Also interesting is that the State Route 51 Freeway/Interstate 10 (south from the 202 to the Papago Freeway) is approximately along the corridor shown as 20th Street.

Phoenix's Freeways are extremely efficient, there are times when travel is restricted during rush hours, but most of the time you can travel at the posted speed limit all the way across and around the city. One thing I have noticed is that if you have to travel to get to a freeway, it is almost always just as fast to travel the main streets, I never go out of my way to use a freeway. Phoenix is laid out on a north/south/east/west grid and there is no advantage to taking the freeway if there is not one close to your starting point and destination.