Transportation Master Plan

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linkedin Email this link

Mesa is changing – more people and businesses are moving here every day and the mobility needs of our residents are increasing. To provide our residents, visitors, and businesses with a transportation system that works, we need to face our transportation future head-on.

Mesa's Transportation Master Plan is a 25-year plan that considers how we will grow, where we will live, and how we will move.




Mesa is changing – more people and businesses are moving here every day and the mobility needs of our residents are increasing. To provide our residents, visitors, and businesses with a transportation system that works, we need to face our transportation future head-on.

Mesa's Transportation Master Plan is a 25-year plan that considers how we will grow, where we will live, and how we will move.




Submit a Comment

We want to hear from you, share your thoughts about the Mesa Transportation Master Plan. Submit a comment below.



You need to be signed in to comment in this Guest Book. Click here to Sign In or Register to get involved

Traffic Roundabouts create more problems than they solve.

Nate Caine about 2 months ago

Last year I used the buses in West Mesa for several weeks.
During the Day: Too many of the bus stops have no shelter from the sun, so unless you have the exact time of the bus, you will die waiting in the heat. During the day I saw many students or working folks getting to their destinations. Unfortunately, there are also too many crack-heads on the buses as well, typically arguing with the drivers or harassing other passengers, or doing some sort of ticket/pass scam.
At Night: Too many of the bus stops are poorly lit and in dangerous locations. I often would stand 20-ft *away* from the bus shelter to avoid the shady activity going on there (and then dash to the bus when it arrived). But if you need drugs or sex, several stops can fulfill your needs!
Also many of the routes are abbreviated at night. So I'd have to walk the last mile at 10pm on the route I'd take earlier in the day.
Many of the signs at the bus shelters are damaged, defaced, or out of date. (I confirmed this with Valley Metro. The phone number to text for bus schedule was the OLD number, and they admitted that.)
The bus fare was a bargain, and the drivers courteous and helpful.

Nate Caine about 2 months ago

1) Painting a line in the side of the street does NOT constitute a Bike Lane! It's an insult. Stop pretending Mesa is "bike friendly" or has "bike routes".
2) Who do I have to sleep with to get Mesa to fix someone of the dangerous pot-holes? Same complaints month after months; never fixed.
3) Same complaint for dead streetlights. I've given up on reporting them. The never get fixed.
4) The mid-block crossing light on Main Street between Macdonald and Robson is a DANGEROUS HAZARD (140 W Main). Poorly marked and confusing stop stop lights. Cars ROUTINELY zip thru the red light, or screech to a halt PAST the light (rather than before the crosswalk). Eventually there will be a fatality here.
5) Speeding cars on Main St (downtown area). Speed limit is 25mpg. It's a congested area with many pedestrians, but cars often exceed 45mph. (Especially Fri & Sat nights.)
6) Late evenings is a nightmare to get thru downtown Mesa. The PARKED TRAINS block traffic on most the streets (e.g. Extension, Alma School), and people are forced to back-track to Country Club Drive to the only underpass under the train tracks.
7) Excessive Jay-Walking throughout the city. Especially on (Alma School south of Main St.) (Extension & Broadway) (Country Club & Main St). Something about the design of these areas encourages Jay-Walking either against the light or outside the cross-walks. Often people trying to dash for bus stop to bus stop. Some pedestrian barriers or police enforcement is needed.
8) Light Rail platforms in downtown Mesa ROUTINELY have people jumping off the platform, crossing tracks, and jay-walking thru traffic lanes. Other cities don't have this problem. Something about the design is lacking.
9) Too many downtown events block off the streets with poorly placed traffic barricades, or confusing detours. The limited parking is even less available.
10) We understand the difference between a construction zone and an auto accident. But Mesa constantly used Red & Blue flashing lights on Police cars parked at construction zones which just adds to the confusion. (Is there an accident ahead and area to be avoided?) Flashing Yellow lights should be sufficient for construction zones.
11) Some construction projects go on forever. The same lanes are blocked and barriers left standing for months. Yet there appears to be no construction activity for weeks at a time. It's nice to see overdue repairs being made, but a tighter construction schedule would be appreciated.
12) It would be nice if the city was open FIVE days a week like normal people work. Waiting a long 3-day weekend to get some problems addressed is too long.

Nate Caine about 2 months ago

There are a lot of existing conditions that Mesa should be very serious about establishing good data for that provides a floor for measurable improvements for its goals. Key issues involve conditions for comfort, safety, and usefulness for a variety of users. Decades of prioritizing motorist capacity has left the City of Mesa with a heavy burden of maintenance, burdens of enforcement, burdens of crashes with fatalities and serious injuries, impacts of tailpipe emissions, and burdens of expensive-to-retrofit for accessibility to people experiencing a disability (or other vulnerabilities). Decades of prioritizing motorist capacity has left the people of Mesa with hostile roadway conditions to navigate on foot, bike, or rolling on small devices of all kinds, inefficient land use patterns that are burdened with excessive parking, excessive drive-thrus, excessive heat-inducing asphalt, inadequate tree shade, inadequate activity levels to maintain healthy bodies, insufficient levels of access by active transport, and excessive monetary and/or time investments of transporting themselves around to everyday destinations.

Both city operations and people of Mesa would benefit from a transformational ambition to remake the roads and streets of Mesa to improve access, safety, interest, utility, comfort, and ultimately the experience of the public realm in our most under-appreciated public asset: The Street. With properly designed street networks, we can improve upon all the above burdens and impacts listed. And improved experiences for people lead to curb appeal that improves the conditions for economic development, public safety, and operation/maintenance burdens. Transportation system build-out is a responsibility that is squarely on the City (unlike housing, jobs, commerce, and various land development goals via private investment).

The current hellish landscape that we accept for our roadways are miserable places for an experience, with a few notable exceptions (thank you downtown!). The wrong priorities have shaped our streetscape experiences for too long. We have a huge backlog of streets to bring back to life for people, safety, redevelopment, and equitable access for all. We need clear baseline standards to improve from, and we need clear criteria to meaningfully prioritize the experience. We need to do this with as much focus as we dedicated to bringing back Downtown Mesa. The Streetcar vision must acknowledge these transformative ambitions or risk being a boondoggle of a project. And that's only the start of my list.

Ryan Wozniak 3 months ago

1. More priority lights for Bikes, Light Rail, Bus and People. Emergency vehicles can also be included in this so they do not have to turn on sirens at every stop.
2. Sidewalk widening by 6 inches. Cars only have peak 4 hours a day. Mass Transit is all day and night. Prioritize what most people will use in a city of 500k and above all day everyday, Not cars.
3. Research Dedicated Bus Lanes w photo enforcement. Emergency Vehicles can have exemption to use as well to shortcut around traffic.
4. Mass transit goals should be to connect Density of residential areas like Condos, Multifamily, connecting to density of huge popular spots like Asian District, Fiesta Mall etc with higher frequency. Than to lower frequency on low density areas like Suburbs, causing low ridership. Current system is not efficient resulting in low use because lack of frequency.
5. No park and rides because like mentioned above you are prioritizing what not many people use longer than 4 hours a day and goes unused the rest of the day, it needs to be TOD W Mixed Use Areas and absolutely NO PARKING to have Transit become important fixture of Mesa and spur ridership growth.

Will end by saying Light Rail has helped Asian District attract tons of high end business from Japan to South Korea same can be done anywhere else thanks to the stop here. Mass Transit if implemented really well can attract even more business opportunities, prevent bad inequities. Look no further than any E. Asian Country. South Korea, Japan or China. Light Rail is a success, only selfish person think it's not.

Phan Nguyen 5 months ago

More Road Diets, Bike Paths, and a focus on TOD for Mass Transit in regards to the Light Rail which i support the Light Rail. Also painted Bus Routes would be a great idea and camera enforcement as well would be beneficial to support more Mass Transit in the future. Also I do think Busses should focus on Frequency in key dense areas like Apartments and Condos to popular hub spots rather than random areas to bring efficiency and speed up.

Bryan K 5 months ago

It's time to 86 the light rail. As a resident nearby I can tell you it's more trouble than it's worth and it's killing the city. Main has one lane for traffic and basically THREE lanes for the train that you can't cross and you can't pass a slower vehicle in front of you. We can all clearly see the number of people riding the train is peanuts compared to the amount of traffic that to get through. For every train rider there's at least 100 motorists traveling in that area. Local businesses are suffering for this billion dollar boondoggle. Time to tear it out and open up the city before it's too late. Young people want lanes for bicycles, scooters and E-bikes not the costly monstrosity that goes right down the middle of the road. Be a leader with a mind for what's right and toss it!! You'll save the city millions and generate so much more in commerce, it's not the way of the future and we want our city back.

Joe Public 6 months ago

Connectivity of transportation alternatives is a worthy goal. It isn't enough to have bike paths, they need to be safe and connected. The Phoenix-Tempe multiuse path is a great way to commute toward downtown phoenix via bike, but it just dumps you off unsafely on Alma School Road in Mesa. Look at the MAG map, and you will see all these beautiful orange multi-use paths that are all connected...except the gauntlet between Alma School and Country Club. Paint doesn't protect cyclists, as those paths are often uneven shoulders filled with road debris and motorists driving 55mph over your shoulder. I would love to be one of those people who never got in a car again, but I don't want to die. Safe, connected, multi-use paths along the Salt River and canals in Mesa would provide a direct alternative to car-commuting and help to get people off the roadways.

Merrilyme 7 months ago

As someone that lives in Mesa Full Time near Dobson Ranch and Fiesta Mall, I do have ideas to move Mesa to be a transportation pioneer in the 21st century because very few cities have a place where you do not need a car to get anywhere which i am passionate about. Here is a few major plans I have envisioned for Mesa and criticisms to help make it greater within the next 25 years.

1. Like others would I like to take to go bicycling by taking my scooter E-Bike but the infrastructure is very subpar and there is zero protected Bike Lanes and even Bike Paths. Paint is not protection for cyclists and as other cities are learning Bike Lanes reduce pedestrian and cycling deaths by 50% and cycling traffic increases as does walking due to both feeling safe.

2. Red Painted Dedicated Bus Lanes. As Buses do not need to be protected like cyclists and pedestrians do. But it would help those in Cars know where Buses will be parking and not look sudden and also help Bus Drivers know where to park.

3. BRT aka Bus Rapid Transit should be considered for all hubs until more Streetcars and Light Rail is built and co-exist alongside it to help out of Trains are late.

4. Transit Orientated Development for huge hubs where Light Rail stops and also for the eventual areas where Streetcar Tempe-Mesa ends up in this city.

5. Please end parking minimums and let the market decide as not doing so will in turn cause Mesa to be more reliant on Drive-Thru's as I agree with the city council that Mesa deserves better than this. Parking Lots take up so much space that is hardly used and is bad land use, that better things could be built like Mixed Use Developments, Parks or even just Cycling paths.

I will end off by pleading with the city of Mesa Council members and Mayor John Giles to implement these plans. This is not unreasonable, it is the future and many statistics will bear out that future generations desire freedom of transit options not restrictions of transit options. It's beneficial for the ADA, the elderly, children and serves everyone in the community equally.

John H 7 months ago

As someone who would rather bike than take a car, I would like to see more *protected* bike lanes. Often bike lanes consist of just the street gutter alongside cars going 45+ mph. These are not practical nor safe for people to ride in. More people biking = less cars on the road.

Patrick 9 months ago

I am a cyclist, and I appreciate the canal path traffic lights. However, please change all canal path lights so that we can go through after the path is clear (stop on red, proceed if clear). It is often clear long before the light changes green. See the ones that are installed in Tempe. These are much better. Much less gas and time is wasted.

I understand that an expensive project is planned for bike lanes etc. on Val Vista. I wasn't able to attend the meeting because of a conflict. I don't think this is a good use of money. Val Vista is a very busy road (near Southern for example) with (a typical) high speed limit and many business entrances along it. I very rarely see anyone cycling on Val Vista, and as a cyclist, I wouldn't do so even with the proposed improvements. Linday is only 1 mile away and is a much better road for cycling (no freeway entrance makes a huge difference). The ROI for better cycling lanes on Val Vista is very low. The money could be used instead to improve some existing roads that are in rather poor shape. The 32nd street bridge over the I-60 is a good example. Driving this bridge is like an off-road experience. The payment quality is poor/a patch job and receives a lot of traffic.

jaytee 10 months ago

I walk daily along the canal path that runs from Main to McDowell (and beyond). A few years ago, the section from Brown to Lindsay was paved, lighting installed and a pedestrian signal was installed at McKellips and another at Lindsay. The signage at the time stated that this project was in response to a recent bond passage. It is a great path and I very much appreciate the improvements. I have been hoping to see a similar improvement along the canal from Main to Brown. I walk this path from Adobe to McKellips everyday. It has been a couple of years since the afore mentioned improvements have been made, and I have lost hope that this section will be addressed. My son, who is knowledgeable in this type of construction in the municipal arena, has given me a myriad of reasons that may have stymied the project. It is important to note that the paving and lighting would be a nice addition, but they can wait. What cannot wait is a pedestrian signal at the canal/Brown Road. It is very difficult to cross Brown Road at this point and I find myself crossing half of the traffic and then waiting in the yellow-lined left turn lane to cross the other half of the traffic. I see a couple of students each morning that ride their bikes to Mt. View HS--they turn on to the sidewalk from the canal and ride against traffic presumably crossing at the Lindsay intersection. The installation of a pedestrian signal would make it safer for them to ride with traffic in the provided bike lane. Please give this your consideration. LR

ldramirez 10 months ago

1. Change traffic light timing so we can get all green lights while driving the speed limit. Curruntly we have to go roughly 20mph under the speed limit to catch greens.

2. Don't let canal path lights, and smaller side street lights interupt the traffic pattern. These should all be timed so that they only cycle to green after the bulk of timed traffic has already passed by.

3. Change all canal path lights so that we can go through after path is clear (stop on red, proceed if clear)

Darren 11 months ago

It would be nice to have a few more 4 way stop intersections with crosswalks on Farnsworth between Baseline and Guadalupe. That road goes through Sunland Village East for a mile and there is only one intersection with crosswalks. That intersection isn't even close to the two highest traffic areas by our north and south complexes where all our amenities are located. Two new four way stop intersection with crosswalks are needed at Lakeview and Natal. This would also slow down the traffic speed on Farnsworth. It is a 30mph zone but 45-55mph through our village is very commonplace.

Bob 11 months ago

It would be nice to see Horne Ave repaired since the construction of the industrial buildings south of the 60. It wasn't built to handle semi traffic and the potholes are horrible. Also a left turn arrow at Horne & Southern would avoid accidents that happen there on a weekly basis.

EleanorM 11 months ago

I would love, love, love to see more bike lanes/paths to promote it as a mode of transportation. Especially down Ellsworth to connect East Mesa to Queen Creek.

estheraseibold 12 months ago

Can you please trim the bushes and trees on Lindsey between Southern and Pueblo. It is really hard to see oncoming traffic when turning out from Robin Lane.
Thanks!

Janae’ Squires 12 months ago

Removed by moderator.

FedUpWithMesaTransportation 12 months ago

Please, please put a left turn light at the corner of McKellips and Horne turning south. It's a dangerous corner to be turning south from McKellips onto Horne.

Terri 12 months ago
Page last updated: 01 Feb 2024, 10:37 AM