Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Imagine a road trip in 2030 on a super interstate highway that stretches from Arizona’s border with Mexico to the U.S.-Canada border in Montana. And it won’t be just a road on which to drive a car, but an economic investment to the communities through which is passes.

Phoenix commuters spent an average of 51 hours stuck in traffic per year, ranking 13th nationally, just ahead of Philadelphia, according to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard from researchers at Texas A&M University.

Arizona’s transportation system needs more than $65 billion. And help is not on the way.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has selected a consortium of firms and companies from among three finalists to design and build a major new 22-mile-long freeway in the Phoenix metro area.

After years of steady declines, driving deaths in Arizona have risen sharply this year, mirroring a “troubling” national trend in which lower gas prices and more drivers are translating into more fatalities.

Arizona transportation officials are responding to a flurry of deadly wrong-way crashes with a plan for a test project on a Phoenix freeway that includes using sensors to detect wrong-way drivers and alert authorities and other motorists.

State officials plan a brainstorming session on transportation funding.

Planners and officials should focus increasingly on public transportation options such as pedestrian routes, buses, light rail and passenger trains as use of these forms of travel has increased across the state since 2006, according to a new report.

A lot would have to happen before a commuter rail line passes through Queen Creek, but Mayor Gail Barney sees great potential in the idea.

State transportation planners who studied multiple options for proposed passenger train service between Phoenix and Tucson are recommending one that would follow largely existing freight railroad tracks and serve both Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix and downtown Tucson.