POLL: Congestion biggest safety issue on SR 347

An InMaricopa reader poll this week shows State Route 347 commuters think congestion is the biggest safety issue on that embattled road, according to nearly 4,000 responses. 

More than 1,000 people chose this option among five common safety concerns on the two-lane highway. 

Homestead resident Chris Odlin blamed the snowbirds. 

“Congestion from October through May,” Odlin said was his chief concern, adding there are “not enough lanes to deal with the traffic.” 

Palo Brea resident Paul Kirincic blamed the governor, who infamously said the 347/Riggs Road overpass was “wasteful taxpayer spending” when she put the project on the chopping block in January. 

“Congestion. F Katie Hobbs,” Kirincic commented. 

With 838 votes, commuters blamed speeders for road safety issues. 

“The biggest issue we have is entitled drivers who want to pick and choose which laws people are allowed to break,” said Palo Brea resident Chanel Hurely. “I drive the speed limit and stay in the right line except to pass. I’ve narrowly dodged getting hit on numerous occasions by speeders. 

Homestead resident Sherry Dove blamed the drivers, too. 

“Tailgaters too close to bumper, lane changes, red light runners,” she said. “Road is fine, it is the awful drivers.” 

Alterra resident Pam Petell agreed, blaming “the stupid selfish drivers.” 

“The road itself is not a safety concern,” she said. 

In third place, 761 people said left lane campers make the road more dangerous, a public safety nuisance summarily spurned in Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb’s Emmy Award-winning 2023 PSA, “Left Lane Campers BUSTED.” 

“It seems that a larger percentage of vehicles on the SR 347 are large, overweight, slow-moving trucks, spewing rocks and garbage from the right lane,” said Cobblestone Farms resident Douglas Campbell. “It seems people are always in the left lane because they are constantly passing these vehicles.” 

The fourth-most voted option was that drivers passing on the shoulder, collecting 683 votes. 

Coming in last place but still grabbing 552 votes was “semis hogging the left lane.” Too often, trucks occupy the passing lane many miles before a left turn onto Cement Plant Road, for example, slugging along below the speed limit in many instances. 

Lakes at Rancho El Dorado resident Andrew Harvey said “the gravel pit trucks, their ability to turn right on their red and their merging,” are the biggest issues.