'We're real concerned': Lack of turn signals makes this Phoenix intersection dangerous, residents say
Megan Taros
Speeding and red-light running are traffic dangers everywhere, but neighbors in south Phoenix say they fester at one intersection because the city won't install turn signals in all directions.
And the problem will get worse if it continues to be ignored, neighbors say.
Angie Frausto and her community group, South Phoenix Fight Back, pushed Phoenix two years ago for a left-turn signal for northbound and southbound traffic at Seventh and Southern avenues. It’s been a confusing process, and she’s been bounced all over city departments trying to get an answer for why this one intersection on Southern was left out, Frausto said.
"It doesn't make sense," she said. "There's turn lights at Seventh Street, on Central (Avenue), 19th Avenue. Why can't we get one on Seventh Avenue? We're real concerned about that, and they haven't done anything about it."
141 collisions in 4 years
Only one direction — eastbound to northbound — has a left-turn arrow. The rest of the three stops only have a flashing yellow arrow, which Frausto calls “useless” for controlling traffic.
She said friends and neighbors tell her they avoid the intersection altogether, and there is too much traffic to allow cars waiting at the yellow arrow to turn. Even drivers who are close to the front of the line sometimes must wait several rounds of lights before they can make the turn, Frausto said.
“Some people say to me that they ignore that light completely,” she said. “Because the only time you can turn is when the light turns red.”
There have been 141 collisions at the intersection from 2016 to 2020, the most recent years for which the city has data, according to the Street Transportation Department. That's about one collision every 13 days. Two of those accidents involved pedestrians, and three of the 139 vehicle crashes were fatal.
By contrast, nearby intersections that have left-turn lights had fewer fatalities and crashes with possible injuries. At Seventh Street and Southern, no fatal collisions occurred in the same time period, and at 19th and Southern, there was one.
At 19th and Southern avenues, all other classifications of injuries far outpace both Seventh Street's and Seventh Avenue's. There were 133 non-injury collisions, 23 minor-injury collisions and six serious-injury collisions. It is also the only one of the three where a pedestrian was hit and killed in the past five years.
The intersection is one of three the Phoenix City Council approved funding for safety enhancements last year.
The total cost of improving the intersection has not yet been determined, and the city says it will continue to look for intersections to improve with the $6 million it approved last year for safety upgrades.
Residents say city officials told them it would take two years to get to the left-turn light at Seventh and Southern avenues because it’s not as high priority based on city data. Changing that intersection is not as simple as adding new lights, the city said. It would need a “redesign and rebuild,” too.
Phoenix allocates funding to areas identified as hot spots for collisions. The city uses its High Injury Network to map out intersections and corridors with higher rates of collisions where there are serious injuries and fatalities. It uses a method of standard deviation, meaning the further away from the city average the area is, the more of a hot spot it becomes.
Last year, the city announced a $17.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve a 3-mile corridor of 35th Avenue between Interstate 10 and Camelback Road, a west Phoenix area with high bus ridership that is surrounded by two parks, three public schools, Grand Canyon University and a mix of business, industry and neighborhoods.
The area along 35th Avenue is considered a hot spot for pedestrian collisions and fatalities, more so than south Phoenix in recent years and tops the city’s priority list for pedestrian safety.
All four major intersections in the corridor are hot spots for fatalities and serious injuries. That means there are more stretches of road that have more than 2.6 fatal or serious crashes per mile.
While south Phoenix doesn’t have the highest fatality rate in the city, residents say they face racial and economic disparities in walkability, pointing to infrastructure inequities such as a lack of shade structures and bike lanes. A recent nationwide University of Iowa study found Black and Latino populations tend to have a higher chance of being hit, are hospitalized more often and suffer more severe injuries.
The Street Transportation Department told The Arizona Republic last year that priority goes to hot spot areas identified by data as opposed to reacting to single incidents. However, residents say the lack of turn signals is an example of the city neglecting needed infrastructure in south Phoenix.
“Why is it when we have something we need in south Phoenix, we can’t get it?” Frausto said. “We need it. And we need it soon, not in two years.”
Rallying support for traffic safety
This isn’t the first time neighbors in south Phoenix have banded together over traffic safety. In late 2020, neighbors held two vigils marking the deaths of Tanya Karim, a 51-year-old woman killed in 2019 in an unsolved hit-and-run, and Keyshawn Hubanks, a 15-year-old boy who was killed in 2018 while crossing the street in front of his home on the way to school.
Organizers of the vigils also echoed the sentiment that south Phoenix is overlooked for infrastructure and condemned other Valley communities for investing in amenities like equestrian crossings in areas such as Paradise Valley.
“To us that means our lives, African American lives, are of lesser value than animals,” said Dana Burns, an organizer of the 2020 vigils.
Matthew Quick, assistant professor at the school of geographical sciences and urban planning at Arizona State University, told The Republic last year that cities need a comprehensive, goal-oriented plan to improve streets and minimize fatalities, such as Vision Zero.
Vision Zero aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities while creating “equitable mobility for all.” Building leadership and collaboration with stakeholders, creating a timeline for expected goals, prioritizing community engagement, accounting for human error and using data to understand trends and disparities in traffic deaths can do so, the plan says.
“Phoenix doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Quick said. “It institutionalizes the process through which these goals are achieved.”
The Phoenix City Council voted down the adoption of Vision Zero in 2019 but approved incorporating its goals in the city’s Road Action Safety Plan, which is expected to be completed later this year. The Street Transportation Department said one of the items the plan will cover is dangerous intersections.
According to the Road Action Safety Plan project page, Phoenix averages more than 30,000 crashes every year and a fatal crash every other day.
Could more traffic be to blame?
South Phoenix residents say Seventh Avenue has more traffic because of the south-central light rail extension construction at Central Avenue just one traffic light over, and they want Valley Metro to address it.
But Valley Metro says it is limited by the environmental study conducted well before construction began. The study was completed in 2015, so developments approved afterward and other factors were not considered, Valley Metro spokesperson Madeline Phipps said.
Residents also said the intersection is causing construction crews to drive big trucks through residential streets to avoid waiting for the light. Phipps said Valley Metro does not direct construction crews to take residential streets and asks that anyone who believes a truck driving on a residential street is from Valley Metro to call the project hotline at 602-254-7245.
For now, Frausto and South Phoenix Fight back, along with SoPho Convening, a community group focused on bringing equitable and sustainable development to south Phoenix, are preparing to ask neighbors to sign a petition calling for turn lights at the intersection.
The groups also aim to speak at upcoming public meetings on the city’s road safety plan and encourage residents with concerns to make their voices heard.
“Hopefully they (the city will) do it,” Frausto said. “Because there’s going to keep being more accidents.”
Megan Taros covers south Phoenix for The Arizona Republic. Have a tip? Reach her at mtaros@gannett.com or on Twitter @megataros. Her coverage is supported by Report for America and a grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation.
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