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PHOENIX - There’s a new campaign calling for the City of Phoenix to put an end to reverse lanes on 7th Avenue and 7th Street.
Community leaders have started a petition, which has already gathered more than 2,000 signatures in less than a month. The petition asks city leaders to put neighbors’ safety above traffic flow.
"We're trying to bring awareness, trying to get Mayor [Kate] Gallego and Councilwoman [Laura] Pastor on board, trying to get them to come out here and look and see what's happening in the neighborhoods that are impacted by this," said Bill Sandweg, who owns Copper Star Coffee.
The reverse lanes on those two streets involve the center lane, which can be used as an extra traffic lane while driving south from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and while driving north from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the work week. Some locals refer to the lanes as "suicide lanes."
Business owners along the corridors say they are demanding the city get rid of the lanes. They say speeding drivers and confused drivers are dangerous to those who live, work, eat, and shop in the area.
"Anybody that drives in them, it kind of feels like they're taking their own life in their own hands," said Sandweg. "I've seen my customers leave here, and get hit by a car that didn't understand the reverse lanes."
The reverse lanes were implemented in 1979, and many people have spoken out against them in the years since.
"It seems kind of treacherous," said Harmon Swartz, who owns Melrose Kitchen. "I've seen almost head on collisions. I've seen a lot of aggression with it."
The City of Phoenix completed a study in 2021, which concluded that eliminating the reverse lanes would be bad for traffic, causing delays and increasing travel times, in addition to an increased potential for crashes in association with the increased congestion.
"There's nothing in the city's statistics talking about the communities that are impacted by the reverse lanes," said Sandweg.
"We've got a lot of new restaurants and great bars over here and shops," said Swartz. "Feels like we're a blur as they drive by."
The study also recommends improvements, such as better signage, installing cameras for better lane control, and widening the center lanes.
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Some demanding end to Phoenix reverse traffic lanes
It's been a feature along a portion of 7th Street and 7th Avenue in Phoenix since the 1970s, and it has also attracted criticism over the years. Now, there's a new push by people in the area for the City of Phoenix to abolish the reverse traffic lanes. FOX 10's Nicole Garcia reports.