View Repaving of Campbell in a larger map
The majority of Campbell Avenue from River Road to Skyline/Sunrise Drive is getting new pavement and bike lanes starting this week.
However, there is a 530-foot gap of road that may not receive bike lanes because it is too narrow.
Matt Zoll, Pima County’s bike and pedestrian program manager, said the area just north of the River Road and Campbell Avenue intersection is very narrow and a portion of it is City of Tucson jurisdiction.
Zoll said he has been meeting with traffic engineers and City of Tucson officials to attempt to add bike lanes to the gap.
The road is fairly narrow in that section and may not accommodate bike lanes in both directions. Zoll said if they can’t add bike lanes in both directions he’ll push for bike lanes in the northbound lane, which climbs up — meaning cyclists will be going slower. He also said he’ll push hard for “share the road” signs and sharrows on the street if bike lanes can’t be accommodated.
The current four-lane section of Campbell near Skyline/Sunrise Drive will be reduced to one travel lane in each direction.
Zoll is also working with the city to offer to re-stripe the section of Campbell Avenue south of River Road to the bridge to add shoulders.
The City of Tucson is currently conducting a study of the Campbell Avenue bridge to see if there is a way to better accommodate bicycle traffic.
One option is to eliminate the left turn lane over the bridge and re-stripe it to add shoulders for bicyclists.
The construction starts this week and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month.
Awesome! That’s a really cool stretch of road, currently insanely dangerous for bikes. Lanes will be mucho cool.
Great news!
Really good news Mike. What do you know about the work on the Kolb/ Craycroft loop? I saw a brief bit on the news but did not see the dates on it.
Back when I rode this stretch more than I do now, I couldn’t help thinking that I was on too downscale a form of transportation for the Foothills. I mean, after all, I was heading uphill with a Cannondale, not a Cadillac.
And now it seems as if the two-wheeled hoi polloi are being accommodated. Gasp. Will the Foothills elite survive the onslaught?
Good to hear however what are they going to do about the crazy drivers treating the road as a highway? Seriously! I rarely drive that stretch because of the idiots that fly down it and those hairpin turns at 45+ I can only imagine how much faster they will drive once they add a bike lane. Not like they don’t already use it as their personal passing/turning lane around town. Geez! Another thing I have to think about when riding.
I guess this is nice, re-striping the Campbell bridge would be great. I always ride Via Entrada up if I want to get to Skyline. Campbell is more convoluted and filled with cars. Good to pick the low hanging fruit in a repaving project but I think this is what LAB was talking about when they didn’t upgrade Tucson to platinum.
I almost always prefer to take side streets rather than an arterial, even if the the arterial has a “bike lane.” I’d prefer money going to improve side streets for bike travel.