During a typical drive on any Tucson road, you may zoom by cracked pavement, a congestion of cars and a museum of construction equipment. If you’re lucky, you could experience the surprise of falling into a pothole. Or maybe an unnatural bump. How would you feel if we were to experience more of this in the future?
The proposed $2.67 billion Regional Transportation Authority Next Plan aims to address these frustrations by funding 31 new roadway projects, ranging from massive bridge constructions over the Pantano Wash to widening major stretches of Valencia Road and Harrison Road. While the plan promises a diverse investment in safety, environment and transit, the reality remains that over $1.2 billion — the largest single slice of the budget — is designated for roadway expansions that will keep our city under construction for another two decades.
It’s no secret that Tucson has poorly maintained roads. Roads that most of the population frequents have construction that has been going on for years. Take Grant Road, for example.The intensive phase of the construction has been going on since May 2024 and is expected to end sometime at the end of this year. That’s not the case, however, since it appears to be far from done. The same can be said for roads like Sixth Street, which started construction in August 2020, and Valencia Road between Kolb Road and Houghton Road continuing through the middle of this year. Both projects were started by the RTA voter-approved plan in 2006. For nearly two decades, Tucsonans have paid a half-cent sales tax to the RTA with a promise of a modernized, efficient city.
RTA Executive Director Mike Ortega defends the slow pace, noting that the RTA’s primary mission is the monumental task of upgrading Tucson’s ancient infrastructure. While it is true that our pipes and pavement are aging, the RTA’s solution seems to be a permanent state of triage. As we look toward the proposed RTA Next extension plan, it is becoming increasingly clear that this 20-year cycle serves the agency’s timeline better than it serves the residents’ daily commute.
Ortega points out that a 20-year plan is designed to improve roadways gradually over time. However, it can come at the cost of daily commuters trying to get their tasks done. Asking voters to approve a new 20-year commitment when projects from the 2006 bond remain unfinished is a breach of public trust. The current RTA Next proposal continues to prioritize road expansion in outlying areas. If the goal is truly to fix ancient infrastructure, why is the vast majority of the $2.67 billion budget going toward new roadway corridors rather than a fix-it-first mentality for our existing residential streets?
Ortega argues that viewing a road solely as a path for cars is shortsighted. He envisions the transportation system as a whole, where every project serves as a multimodal corridor, including bus pullouts, pedestrian safety and bike lanes. But we have heard this rhetoric before. While Ortega claims that labeling a project a “road corridor upgrade” doesn’t mean ignoring bikes and pedestrians, the budget math tells a different story. In the RTA Next plan, the lion’s share of funding remains tied to massive roadway expansions. If we are truly building a great transportation system for everyone, why is the investment in actual transit, the buses and streetcars that could truly alleviate congestion, capped at roughly 27%? By calling every highway expansion a “multimodal corridor,” the RTA effectively hides more asphalt behind the promise of a few bus pullouts.
One of the more glaring issues is the “taxation without representation” aspect of the RTA board. Despite the City of Tucson providing the vast majority of the tax revenue (roughly 60-70%), the city holds only one of nine votes on the RTA board, according to Tucson Deserves Better. In the publicity pamphlet created by RTA Next sent to voter residences, if both the RTA Next Plan and its tax funding are approved, the same tax rate will continue for the next 20 years claiming that there will be no increase. This contradicts the fact that this is a forever tax that locks Tucson into a 20-year cycle and rate without the ability to pivot to more urgent local needs like residential road repair.
The RTA was a 20th-century solution that has failed to adapt to 21st-century needs. We do not need more billion-dollar highway construction that induces more traffic; we need safe streets, reliable buses and finished projects. Instead of sustainable traffic, RTA Next traps Tucson into another two decades of asphalt-heavy infrastructure that prioritizes suburban sprawl over city livability. For our budget and our streets, RTA Next is incompatible with Tucson’s future.
