PHOENIX — Schreiner’s Fine Sausage has found success with over seven decades of business in the Valley, never having to advertise and relying on word-of-mouth to spread their business.
As the city has changed around them, for the most part – they haven’t.
“We’re very blessed,” said owner Nancy Shiller, who commutes on the reverse lanes on 7th Street near her business spot regularly.
As a Phoenician, she says the reverse lanes are just part of life in the Valley but like any road, it has its downsides.
”Yeah there are accidents when people aren’t paying attention, definitely. If you live in Phoenix for a long time, you know 7th Street, 7th Avenue are reverse lanes between such-and-such hours. It’s ingrained because you’ve done it forever. Newbies… no,” she said.
Reverse lanes allow southbound traffic from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. to use the lanes, and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., all traffic heading north becomes the priority. All other times, you can make a left.
“Our city has grown up, it’s not 1980,” said Stacey Champion, a community advocate.
Champion says the lanes are being abused by speeders and cause confusion for new drivers to the area. She is now ramping up grassroots efforts to bring a petition to remove the reverse lanes.
”We want them gone, we want our neighborhood to function like neighborhoods without highways in them. These streets are dangerous by design,” she said.
Back in 2021, a city study investigated getting rid of reverse lanes fully or partially and they determined – that could create an increase in travel times by more than 40%.
Part of that same study suggests using digital signage to reduce potential confusion.
However, data showed from 2014 to 2018 on 7th Avenue, the city saw an average of one fatal crash with about nine serious injuries a year.
On 7th Street, those injuries are almost double with an average of two fatalities per year.
When looking again at changing the status quo, it can be a messy road ahead.