Driving adventures in Sun City.

Discussion in 'Sun City General Discussions' started by carptrash, Sep 5, 2019.

  1. carptrash

    carptrash Active Member

    This will come as no surprise to those of you who have been here for a few years but for you newcomers, let’s chat for a minute about driving in Sun City. My bros and I were returning from our regular weekly breakfast, going north on Del Webb. I pulled into the left turn lane for Thunderbird wondering if I had been there long enough to trigger the left-turn-arrow. Across from me was a car heading south on Del Webb. So, red, light, red light, red light, then suddenly came the sound of a fire truck, headed for the light, going east on Thunderbird. It was headed for a green light which I knew was going to change pretty soon. So here it comes, lights flashing, blasting away with it’s horn, loud enough to wake the dead. Or so I assumed. My light turned green, no turn arrow, so the fire truck slowed down, which I though was unnecessary since it was as loud as could be and was clearly visible. So I sit back to watch it come through the intersection when the car facing me across Thunderbird just pulls out in front of the truck. Death Wish? Suicide attempt? Fortunately the Fire truck slammed on it’s breaks and then hit it’s horn, which was the loudest thing I have heard since The Grateful Dead, and the car involved just rolled through the intersection and drove on its way. This sort of thing does not happen every day, but often enough, so don’t say that you were not warned.
     
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  2. CMartinez

    CMartinez Well-Known Member

    Carp, it does happen everyday. I live adjacent to a fire house off of 99th Ave. and see things around here which would make your hair stand on end. I cannot see the station from my house, but I pass the the station frequently. How about when the fire truck pulls out of the garage, the driver stops in front of the driveway? Or, when an ambulance pulls out, with the lights on, and the driver doesn't even make an effort to move out of the way or slow down? My favorite? The crossover for the firetruck is used as a point to make a U turn.

    When the call goes out for an emergency, there is a flashing light on the side of the road to alert drivers the fire truck is getting ready to emerge. It is ignored. There is nothing scarier than the drivers in the SC area. I feel there are far too many folks driving cars no longer have their license to drive, I now see golf carts on Thunderbird Road, East of 99th Ave, where the traffic is going at least 40 mph.

    It would be one thing to blame the local drivers, but if you look, SC has now become a drive though community for drivers trying to get to other locations. These folks drive faster than most, or the locals who can barely reach 35 mph on a 40 mph road.

    The oblivious drivers found in this area is scary, recap the note about those who should no longer be driving, but are still behind the wheel.
     
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  3. Julianna

    Julianna Member

    One thing that truly amazed me when we were looking at sun city was the lack of public or private transportation for those that cannot or no longer wish to drive. I think that is something that would be a huge benefit to so many.
     
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  4. carptrash

    carptrash Active Member

    I am not sure of the mechanics involved but I suspect that if one wants to get to a casino it will be arranged. Also at the Sunday concerts several busfulls from somewhere often show up. Some of the churches seem to offer transportation. I have also (I think) seen larger vehicles at Fry's, but all in all this service is lacking. I think the solution here is that folks who can't drive continue to do so anyway.
     
  5. SCR

    SCR Active Member

    It is not just a problem in Sun City. For the 5th largest city in the country, we are woefully behind in public transportation, especially in the always overlooked
    north west valley. Good restaurants are also extremely rare in and around Sun City. If you want to go to a good restaurant, you must go to Scottsdale.
     
  6. fixj

    fixj Active Member

    Most dangerous part of a cycling trip is getting in and out of SC to the New River Trail. I average at least one close call a week in SC.

    Re public transportation: When I am not in SC ...I walk 1/4 mile to a Rapid Ride bus that gets me to the Transit Center in 5 minutes. There I get on another bus ( less than a 5 minute wait ) that takes me to the airport in 42 minutes. Total trip is $1.
    It will get even better when the light rail is finished.
     
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  7. IndependentCynic

    IndependentCynic Active Member

    Public transportation: Years ago (15?) SCAT existed here in SC -- $3 or $4 per ride within SC for anyone. It's been gone for 10 years and was problematic in it's dying days (eg, the last time I used it was to get a ride to pick up my car at a repair station -- SCAT picked me up 3-hours late and the 15-minute drive took nearly 2-hours as they picked up and dropped off others). Valley Metro's replacement (also called SCAT?) seems to be floundering if it's not already dead. As long as Maricopa County/Valley Metro strive to break-even financially I fear no solution is forthcoming and the aging boomer population is heading for the cliff in another few years. This problem is not an RCSC or SCHOA problem, it's a Maricopa County problem which affects all of us in SC. The low taxes in our unincorporated community command diminished services compared to the surrounding towns. We're getting what the corporate and special interests in the county are willing to pay for -- we as individuals have virtually no say in it.
     
  8. carptrash

    carptrash Active Member

    If I were to ask my Left wing/Right wing focus group what they feel their taxes should go towards, Public Transportation would split (I predict) right along ideological lines. So goes, I believe, the rest of the county and the country.
     
  9. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Public transportation always sounds better than mass transit. The simple truth is, mass transit only works if the masses get on board. In the very beginning of Sun City, the shopping centers featured a really cute pink fringed trolley to get people to the shopping centers. It didn't last very long because it wasn't generating enough business to warrant it's continued use. Next, Webb contracted with a bus company to run bus's through the community. He heavily subsidized the cost in an effort to see if eventually it could make it on its own. It didn't because ridership was less than desirable.

    Thanks to IC for the quick refresher on SCAT. They were again heavily subsidized by organizations in the community. Seems to me the 40th anniversary committee donated a couple of really expensive handicap vans, they had raised a fortune. SCAT kept trying to enhance services and in the end, the costs to run them, was astronomical. Insurance got crazy and the drivers because of the passengers they were carrying took special skills. The weight of the monthly cost was well beyond anything they could collect; from either passengers or donations.

    The Sun City Foundation used to pass out tickets for rides, but it was a poorly thought out plan. There was little or no accounting for use or qualifying for them. When the Sun City Community Assistance Network (SCAN, the old taxpayers association) started a new program of providing coupons for cab rides it was the best of all scenarios. The RCSC has an employee fund drive every year and the first year of the program raised nearly $10,000 and donated it to SCAN. I was the president of the Sun City Foundation at the time and the board approved another 10K to help the program get started. At the time, people could get a green cab for like $4 each way if they had the coupon from SCAN. Don't know if it is still in existence?

    More often than not, neighbors were willing to give those without wheels a lift, at least they used to. Not sure these days as we have become less sociable than when we all knew our neighbors. Maybe the focus should be a heightened effort to reach out to those around us.

    Finally, the churches, many of them anyway, have small buses but they are for pickup to go to church. The vehicles SCR mentioned are typically from senior living centers like Royal Oak and El Dorado.
     
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  10. IndependentCynic

    IndependentCynic Active Member

    I don't think that's universally true.

    For sure, if your "focus group" were to judge public transportation viability across the totality of square miles in the county/country no one would vote for it. But if you consider only the areas with sufficient population density for viability you get a much different sense of support. There are lots of people living in the greater NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc areas who don't own cars and rely on public transit irrespective of their partisanship. Certainly they pay higher taxes, but that is offset somewhat by the money they save not owning a car (the average cost of car ownership in Manhattan is close to $900/month, here in AZ it closer to $500 -- small sedan depreciated across 5 years.) I read somewhere that 55% of the US population has access to public transportation. That includes SC since a bus route goes through here.

    To bring focus back to AZ and SC -- our neighboring city, Peoria, finds it viable to run its POGO buses FREE every 30-minutes on a loop throughout the city (Bell Rd to Happy Valley, Lake Pleasant Pkwy to Arrowhead Mall). Surprise has Senior Bus, Paratransit, and Ridechoice -- generally $2-3 per trip, some free to 65+. The population density of Peoria is roughly 960 people/sq mi, Surprise is 1200, SC's population density is close to 2700 people/sq mi.). So the question remains, why can't Maricopa County even partially fund something similar to Peoria or Surprise? I realize that all is not apples to apples in the comparison -- eg, I'd guess Peoria gets support from merchants, Surprise is probably all taxes, SC has zip). The point remains -- Maricopa County should be ashamed and SC activists should fight for better public transportation. So should SCW and other sizable unincorporated areas in the county, particularly retirement communities.

    It would be interesting to pull back the sheets on the varied reasons SCAT/its successors failed -- my guess is a small contingent of financially influential people wanted it to fail while a lot of people were working very hard to make it succeed. No surprise who wins.
     
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  11. carptrash

    carptrash Active Member

    A recent adventure driving in SC. I was going down Thunderbird towards the Dog PArk when I saw some action on the side of the road. I did the park then went home and got my camera and returned to the scene of the crime. Here is what I found.

    upload_2020-9-30_22-47-53.png upload_2020-9-30_22-48-44.png
     

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