Scarcity, cost of $200,000 a mile create challenge

06:13 PM MST on Tuesday, January 13, 2004

By Susanna Cañizo
© 2004 ARIZONA DAILY STAR

The scarcity of sidewalks in Tucson is a constant challenge for Jeffrey Handt, an East Side resident who uses a scooter to travel around.

When there's no sidewalk in sight, Handt sometimes travels along the side of the road - with traffic whizzing by.

"It gets to be very dangerous," he said. "You're sitting at the hood level, and you hope that everyone sees you."

Disabled people face similar situations around most of Tucson, where only 10 percent of major roads have continuous, handicap-accessible sidewalks.

A recently completed inventory by the Pima Association of Governments found that while the Tucson area has about 1,475 miles of major roads, only 145 miles have complete sidewalks that can be used by people in wheelchairs or scooters.

Another 15 miles of roads have continuous sidewalks, but they can't be used by some disabled people because of a lack of ramps or the presence of barriers such as utility poles.

Gaps in sidewalks are a common problem. According to the inventory, incomplete sidewalks can be found along another 145 miles of road.

More than 1,100 miles of major roads don't have sidewalks at all.

Installing new sidewalks isn't cheap - it costs about $200,000 per mile.

The inventory project will help local governments decide how to spend their limited budgets for sidewalks.

This year, a committee of citizens and government officials will use the inventory to create a list of where sidewalks are needed the most. The list will become part of the 2030 regional transportation plan, which is being created by PAG to outline what transportation improvements are needed during the next 25 years.

The public will review the plan this year and comment on it, and the regional council that governs PAG will likely approve the plan in 2005.

Sidewalk locations will be recommended by the committee, and adding sidewalks along bus routes will be a top priority, said Thomas Fisher, a senior transportation planner for PAG. He said sidewalks are also important near schools, hospitals, shopping centers, parks and large employment centers.

Matt Zoll, bicycle and pedestrian program manager for Pima County, said retrofitting local roads with sidewalks is "going to be a challenge."

He said the county is working on a plan to bring roads into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the inventory data will help set priorities. "The timeliness on this is excellent," he said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. It gives civil rights protections to people with disabilities. It requires most new roadways to feature handicap-accessible sidewalks.

Handt worked as a volunteer on the inventory project to help PAG officials understand potential barriers for disabled people. For instance, ramps that lead to sidewalks are useful - but if they're too steep, a disabled person may not be able to use them.

Those types of barriers are discouraging, Handt said. "There are so many things that you don't try to do because it's too hard to get around," he said.

A map created by PAG shows where to find sidewalks in Tucson. Fairly good networks of sidewalks exist on the East Side and around the University of Arizona and Downtown.

According to the map, Midtown and the South Side have a substantial amount of incomplete sidewalks.

The situation is most dismal on the Northwest Side, West Side and in the Catalina Foot-hills, where it's hard to find sidewalks on older roads.

Rhina Gerhauser lives in the Foothills, and she appreciates the sidewalks installed on East Sunrise Drive and North First Avenue during recent road-widening projects. She occasionally runs along those roads.

"It just makes it more safe," she said. "A sidewalk makes it more user-friendly."

Most new sidewalks will be installed during road-widening projects. For example, the county has started work to widen North La Cholla Boulevard between West River Road and West Omar Drive. When the work is done, the road will have sidewalks for the first time.

Improvement districts can be used to build sidewalks. They are formed when a majority of property owners along a road agree to pay for the sidewalks through a property tax increase. Local governments usually pitch in and bear part of the cost.

Last year, an improvement district helped pay for a $688,000 project to install sidewalks and streetlights on North Euclid Avenue between East Broadway and East Speedway. Property owners are paying 22 percent of the cost, with the city handling the rest.

That stretch of Euclid had some deteriorated sidewalks that needed to be replaced, plus gaps in the sidewalk.

The city hands out Back to Basics grants to neighborhoods that can use the money for sidewalks. Federal grants also can pay for sidewalks.

"We're trying to get to all these areas by using as many funding mechanisms as possible," said Shellie Ginn, a program coordinator for the Tucson Department of Transportation who worked on the sidewalk inventory.

The inventory focused on sidewalks along major roads. Smaller, neighborhood streets were not evaluated because PAG focuses on roads that serve as regional travel corridors.

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