Freedom-loving, car-driving residents of Arizona have long been fighting the constricting “road diets” local government officials, city planners, and corrupt bureaucrats have pushed for years. Proponents of these diets claim that by tearing out perfectly good vehicle lanes, everyone will somehow be safer, healthier, and probably save the planet too.
For those of us who live under the blazing Arizona sun, we recognize this as foolishness. Road diets have not been successful accomplishing any of the goals their proponents claim they will. Instead, the result is that the streets become more congested, you’re spending more time on the road, emergency vehicles have a harder time getting around, and everyone is mad.
Luckily the U.S. Department of Transportation under the leadership of President Trump has promised to stop funding this nonsense. After all, if local city councils are dumb enough to waste money ripping up perfectly good roads, they shouldn’t be able to use everyone else’s tax money to do it.
Of course, unsurprisingly, the residents of those very cities often don’t want their own tax money to go to ripping up the roads they rely upon. One such city is the tiny town of Page, Arizona, where in 2022, the city council approved the “Page Downtown Streetscape Master Plan” which calls for removing vehicle lanes along a 1.4 mile stretch of Lake Powell Boulevard in the heart of the downtown area. In the small northern town, residents stood up against these restrictive, dumb transportation ideas. Page is a community known for its tourism, with visitors bringing boats and heavy gear to explore Lake Powell. For locals, these roads are lifelines for tourism, commerce, and daily living, and Page residents aren’t willing to surrender any more of their precious infrastructure.
The council claims removing two of the four lanes will magically create MORE foot traffic, which in turn will generate more revenue for businesses in that area. Councilmember David Auge has even written in his list of priorities a goal to reduce lane widths stating that Lake Powell Boulevard can only be improved if it is narrowed.
But residents haven’t accepted that. A strong voice against the Page road diet, founder of the Page Action Committee and current Page Councilmember, Debra Roundtree, said:
“The proposal to reduce Lake Powell Boulevard from five lanes to three narrow lanes with back-out parking threatened numerous established businesses. Some owners considered relocating off the mesa to the Navajo reservation. Despite being vital to the community for decades, many businesses felt overlooked by city council members and the Chamber of Commerce, who suggested they move their businesses because they did not belong on Main Street. Concerns voiced by business owners about the negative effects of these changes were ignored, risking further economic decline as tourists would have avoided Page’s downtown sector, choosing to patronize businesses located off the mesa.”
This battle has been brewing for years, with residents scoring a meaningful win when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the initiative to vote on the proposed road diet was legislative in nature, affirming that voters, not just the council, have the final say. This ensures that the people of Page will decide whether their main road is stripped of lanes, a change that would make commuting and traffic flow more frustrating. The measure is set for the November 2026 ballot, giving residents the chance to save the road the city wants to demolish.
And now with their backs against the wall, the entrenched municipal political class has started saying the quiet part out loud: they don’t like it when voters have a say. Nancy Davidson of the AZ League of Cities and Towns went on record expressing how concerning it is that voters actually have a say in city projects. She warned that letting residents “second guess” city planning decisions will “wreak havoc” on all their perfect plans. How dare you citizens have opinions about your own streets? You are supposed to sit quietly, obey your council overlords, and let them destroy your infrastructure in peace!
Of course, Page is not alone in the road diet fight. Some cities aren’t as forthcoming as Page has been about removing vehicle lanes. Many have attempted to sneak these road diets into hefty general and transportation plans that often go unnoticed by most citizens. Also known as “Complete Streets” (ironic), municipalities such as Tucson, Scottsdale, Mesa, Gilbert, and most likely the city you live in, have already introduced or implemented measures to accommodate bicycles and public transit over cars.
Road diets are often repackaged with buzzwords like “traffic calming,” “lane narrowing,” or “Vision Zero,” but no matter how city planners and bureaucrats dress them up, they’re still the same failed experiment. In 2022, even in the extremely blue city of Philadelphia, residents expressed concerns of losing 2 of 5 traffic lanes on Washington Avenue. Their concerns regarded how that would affect emergency vehicles and add to congestion. This ultimately led to the plan being abandoned altogether. San Antonio, TX, Culver City, CA, and others have similarly had road diet plans introduced and then rejected or reversed due to the problematic nature of these plans. Arizona’s very own Scottsdale residents have fought city council in attempts to eliminate lanes along Thomas Road.
Arizona residents can learn from our northern tourist city of Page. Citizens do indeed have a say in their local road projects despite councils and bureaucrats trying to gaslight them otherwise. So, when these anti-car, virtue-signaling, road-diet-loving activists and city councils inevitably propose plans to remove vehicle lanes, and it is inevitable, take a page out of Page’s book. And let them know you like your car, you need your car, and you don’t want to bike or take a bus to get around.
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