Matt Mullen has lived in Tucson for over 20 years and his family drives on Houghton Road every day.
“This is one of the areas that I have a lot of concern with in regards to safety of my kids using these roadways,” says Mullen.
The area he refers to is the stretch of Houghton between 22nd Street and Irvington Road that comes down to one lane.
And since south and north of that stretch is three lanes, this leads to a lot of traffic congestion.
When Mullen’s 16-year-old daughter was recently in a car crash, he blamed it partially on the roadway.
“She was rear ended here on this street…it was one of the peak traffic times of the day, and unfortunately, the driver behind her didn’t see what was going on, and he wasn’t able to stop in time,” says Mullen, “Again, with no additional lanes like you see north and south of this area, he didn’t have a safety margin to be able to take care of or swerve around the exit himself either, and ended up driving right in the back of her car.”
Sam Credio is the director of Tucson’s Department of Transportation and Mobility.