TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Leslie Paige has been living in the Foothills for about 3 years. Every time she gets in her car and turns it on, she’s already worried about exiting from Williams Drive and onto Rudasill Road.
“This is our only exit out of our neighborhoods and it can be very frightening,” she said.
She said it frightens her because there are steep hills on the road and a lot of blindspots. When it comes to the speed limit, she said people tend to ignore it and zip down the road.
Another problem she finds concerning is the S curve in the road, which she said is sharp, and doesn’t allow her to see other cars coming towards her.
When it comes to driving past the S curve, she said people miss it and that’s what has caused crashes, even as recently as a few weeks ago.
When you drive through the S curve, you’ll notice a few memorials not too far away from Paige’s home.
That’s why she’s worried about a new development in her neighborhood that could bring 100 homes and 210 apartments to where the old Quail Canyon Golf Course used to be.
“More cars equals more opportunities for more accidents and sadly the potential of more tragedies,” she said.
However, the developers, UIP Quail Canyon One, provided KGUN9’s reporter Andrew Christiansen with a document from the Pima County Board of Supervisors. The document says crashes on Rudasill Road have been going down since 2001.
That same document says when the developers originally planned for more houses, a study done in January of this year says over 2,600 trips related to their development would travel on Rudasill Road.
However, they say even with more cars, both Oracle and Rudasill Roads would have room for more traffic.
However, a lot of neighbors like Ed Bartkowski are still concerned about the development near the Pima Wash.
“If I’m going to make this left-hand turn to go west bound, you cannot see traffic coming up towards you,” he said about leaving Williams Drive.
What really concerns Bartkowski is that there’s no shoulder when he exits, saying no shoulders are also an issue on other parts of Rudasill.
He said that could also be a really big problem when the road floods.
“This water here has come with such velocity, it has swept cars off the roadbed here,” he said.
As for any future shoulder improvements, the County said they aren’t required to make any to Rudasill Road.
However, the developers say they are required to extend turn lanes on Oracle and Rudasill Roads. They say they’re also putting $300 thousand towards improving the area around the entrance of Rudasill Road.
While both Paige, Bartkowski, and their neighbors say they’re not against the development, they are hoping it comes with some improvements.
“Extended turn lanes, more signs, more enforcement, it all sounds really good, but the reality is, more vehicles equals more opportunities for more accidents,” Paige said.
