Road Runner wanted to share stories of how Tucsonans are getting home for the holidays. Send your means of travel and final destination to roadrunner@tucson.com, and we could post it to the Road Runner blog this week.
More than 1,400 miles stretch between Daniel Sage, 23, and Christmas Eve, and he’s looking for company.
The recent Tucson transplant and musician is one of dozens who have posted on Craigslist for the last two weeks seeking someone to share their their holiday odyssey.
He’ll set out today for his Dad’s house in Memphis, Tennessee, and pass through El Paso, Dallas and Little Rock on the way.
Sage has car rules. No terrible pop music, don’t share germs, be willing to help drive and passengers pay half the gas and part of the maintenance.
People are also reading…
Of the dozen times he’s solicited a passenger on Craigslist, it’s only worked out poorly once. The guy he picked up didn’t have any money and when he decided to let him hitch a ride anyway, he ended up with a cold.
“All the other times, I met really interesting people,” Sage said. “Another good benefit is that I make connections that way.”
Craigslist seems low-tech compared to the wave of ridesharing innovation that brought Uber and Lyft, but Sage said the culture is pretty open minded.
Sage plans to spend Christmas with his Dad and then hit the road again to see his grandmother in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
“She is 92,” Sage said. “I figured that it’s the last time I’ll ever get to see her.”
He plans to bring his guitar, and play her a few songs before heading back to Tucson. It was actually his grandmother who gave him his first car, a 1994 Buick Regal with just 30,000 miles on it.
Sage wasn’t sentimental though; he sold the car for a Mercedes-Benz Diesel 300, which ran on vegetable oil.
But that won’t be the car he takes to Memphis, his current ride, a 2000 Hyundai Accent, is more conventional.
So far, he has one passenger for the east-bound trip— a guy hoping to get to an Indiana town not far from Memphis.
Sage has already posted on the Memphis Craigslist looking for someone to share the ride back to the Southwest.
Valencia widening
to start in earnest soon
Road Runner reader H. Edward Wroten, wrote in asking about the expansion of West Valencia Road.
The Road Runner spoke with Pima County Community Relations Program Coordinator Carol Brichta about the project.
Expanding Valencia Road from Mark Road to Ajo Highway was part of the voter-approved Regional Transportation Authority’s 2006 Roadway Improvement Plan.
The two-lane road will be widened to four lanes and also have bike lanes, a sidewalk and multi-use path.
The $21 million first phase of the project, which stretches from Mark Road to Wade Road is already underway.
Crews will spend the rest of 2014 clearing vegetation and setting up construction fencing in preparation for the construction work that will begin in January 2015.
“They will maintain one lane of traffic throughout,” Brichta said. “There will be delays on speed because of the work going on.”
Phase one is expected to be done in fall 2016.
Ramping up sidewalks
Shirley Ostasiewski noticed the wheelchair ramps went missing and were then rebuilt on Broadway and Golf Links Road on either side of Kolb Road.
“Can you tell me why this is being done?” Ostasiewski asked.
Michael Graham, with the city of Tucson Department of Transportation, provided some clarity.
“The sidewalk work throughout the city of Tucson is a $3.5 million project to provide connectivity and to provide accessibility along major corridors where there is a high volume of pedestrian activity,” Graham explained.
What it means is by the end of January, parts of Alvernon Way, Golf Links Road, Broadway, Craycroft Road and Stone Avenue will have better sidewalks and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramps.
The first set of improvements will cost $870,000. The city hasn’t yet determined where the next phase of improvements will be.
