Phoenix studies traffic impacts of reverse lanes

Phoenix expects to present its reverse lane study findings in December 2026, amid safety concerns from locals.

PHOENIX — City of Phoenix street experts are set to study traffic impacts from its controversial reverse lanes. It’s an issue the community has been split on for years. 

Bill Sandweg’s shop, Copper State Coffee, is located at the heart of the reverse lanes, near 7th Avenue and Glenrosa. 

“I’ve seen at least a dozen, two dozen of my customers get into accidents out here over the last 20 years,” Sandweg said. 

Sandweg believes the reverse lanes are to blame for many of those accidents. 

“Reverse lanes, they’re designed to increase capacity, but they decrease mobility,” he said. 

The reverse lanes run on 7th Street and 7th Avenue between McDowell Road and about Dunlap Avenue in Phoenix. Monday through Friday during peak morning traffic hours, the reversible lane is used in the southbound direction. It then switches to northbound during the afternoon rush hour.  

The lanes were created in the late 1970s to ease traffic. But Sandweg and the more than 5,000 who signed a petition, believe they’re outdated, dangerous and a blow to the local economy.

“They don’t know how to use the suicide lane, so they just avoid it, and so that decreases business, it decreases economic development, because you can’t put a coffee house on the east side of the road because nobody’s going to go there,” Sandweg said. 

In May, the Phoenix City Council approved a comprehensive study on the reverse lanes. It’s looking at all traffic impacts from 19th Avenue to 16th Street and McDowell Road to Dunlap. A City spokesperson declined an on-camera interview for now, citing that the traffic study is searching for an engineering firm to conduct the study.

The study is a move that local attorney Cristina Hesano Perez supports. 

“I respect the process,” Hesano Perez said. “I hope that they go through with the study sooner than later.”

Study results are expected to be released in December 2026, according to the City of Phoenix. 

“So they have 18 months to do a whole new study to figure out whether these roads are dangerous or not, which I can tell you, if you ask anyone who frequents that area, they are dangerous,” Hesano Perez said.

She added that if the city’s study reveals otherwise, then signage needs to be more visible. 

“Let’s see what other preventative measures we can put so people really know that they’re supposed to be driving either southbound or northbound, depending on the time,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sandweg said he’s not hopeful for a green light to change the reverse lanes. 

“I think that the City ends up getting the same results that they want, and it’s not going to really change much,” he said. 

Until study findings are released, Hesano Perez recommended not driving distracted, putting down the phone, and being familiar with the rules of the road for the reverse lanes. 

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