By Serena Unrein, public interest advocate for the Arizona PIRG Education Fund Arizona Daily Star
While three out of four Arizonans live in Tucson, Phoenix, or the areas in between – collectively know as the Sun Corridor – right now there are no public-transportation options in this corridor.
Arizona has been one of the fastest growing states in the nation in recent years. With increased population comes increased congestion and increased air pollution caused by cars. Interstate 10 between Tucson and Phoenix is already heavily congested, and it’s only projected to get worse.
It’s clear that Arizona can no longer rely on pavement alone to solve our transportation problems. We need to look to solutions such as passenger rail connecting Arizona’s two largest cities. While this idea has been discussed for decades in Arizona, it’s time for our leaders to realize that we can’t continue to “kick the can” down the proverbial road and hope that our traffic congestion and air quality issues will solve themselves.
