Red Mountain Freeway - Loop 202 - Phoenix, Arizona - March 2022

Drivelapse video following the Red Mountain Freeway (Loop 202) starting from the freeway spur of AZ-24, and then following Loop 202 westerly to the mini-stack interchange east of Downtown Phoenix, then following Interstate 10 westerly to the Loop 303 interchange in the west valley.

[@thevultrantransituniverse1487]

Phoenix has some of Americas neatest looking highways!!

[@Richard-ZA01]

I've driven this freeway thousands of times. The mini stack is where I used to live. Just north of the I-10 and west of where the 51 southbound meets it.

[@GreatAussieDrives]

Awesome video. Greater Phoenix has a bad rep in terms of planning and urban sprawl but it is home to some very beautiful expressways, very well maintained too

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Phoenix's expressways are awesome. I only get to drive them once every few years, but they are always fun when I get the chance. Thanks for the comment.

[@photoniccannon2117]

Most of the funding came from local sources too. 0.5% sales tax added in Maricopa County paid for the majority of the highway work in the area.

[@Sam101.2]

beautiful drive through phoenix. Ive always wanted to go to arizona but Ive never had the chance. Also do you plan on doing any Twin Cities videos in the near future?

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Eventually. I have more videos recorded from the Twin Cities, but I have finished my next few uploads already, and none of them are from MSP. Thanks for the comment.

[@EdwardW98]

Really fitting color schemes for the Red Mountain and San Tan Freeway. Weird observation but I've never liked the single wider lane line for HOV lane separation. It always seems like a cheap way of doing HOV lanes to me compared to buffer-separated HOV lanes as shown near the Az-303 interchange. Cool to see what different states use nonetheless. Great video.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I have always disliked the fact that Phoenix's HOV lanes are "open-access" yet they are marked with a double width white stripe. That's always seemed incorrect to me. Thanks for the comment.

[@photoniccannon2117]

Yea, it's not really quite as safe that way either due to the speed differential during peak hours. Part of the reason a lot of our HOV lanes are this way is because not all of our interchanges have direct HOV ramps. The HOV lanes do have their own exits sprinkled throughout the highways (I10 has many of their own dedicated HOV exits, usually near the main ones but not sharing the exact same roads to avoid having too many traffic lights in short proximity on them.) However, when it comes to major interchanges, sometimes you have to get off of the HOV lanes to exit onto certain highways, just depending on where you're trying to go. ADOT is working on this. They generally have been adding more dedicated HOV ramps pretty aggressively to help address this, but there are still some that haven't been built yet. Having the HOV lanes non-separated does, however, have the advantage of making it easier to use as a passing lane during non-peak hours (when the HOV lanes are opened up to everyone). It feels kind of weird to use them that way, but they do sort of end up just becoming another traveling lane during off-peak hours.

[@dontgetlost4078]

11:08 That text pops in again.

[@alexishoude4449]

Nice video throught the Phoenix video, as I didn't see much of those videos lately. I especially love the 2nd song. No wonder why Yasin Guven has always be one of my favorite artist ever. Honestly, this week has been pretty complicated for me, as I got a very bad cold earlier this week & it was right on my exam week. This means I could difficultly sleep & I was pretty tired at my exams, luckily, I managed to them sucessfully & I mostly slept during the afternoon, as I had no exams at that period. As always, this ends perfectly well a hard week. Also, are you aware of the shooting that happened during the Chiefs parade? It happened a few days after the 58th Super Bowl. Fortunately, some Chiefs were here to help maintain calm, which surely helped to save lives. But still, one people died & 33 others were injured during the shooting, 2/3 of them were by gunshots, while the last 1/3 were by some other circumstances.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

I heard about the shooting during the Chiefs parade. What a shame that on a day when everyone was out to enjoy themselves, somebody had to ruin it. I hope you feel better. Thanks for the comment.

[@camexplores]

Excellent video! Those freeways there in Phoenix look so modern & smooth!! and the quality of your video is so crystal clear too. What kind of camera do you use & how do you mount it? I make road videos myself using my phone w/ a suction cup mount to the windshield but I’m starting to have some issues w/ it remaining secure. Do you have any tips you would recommend? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

If you at the suction cup, it will stick better

[@photoniccannon2117]

I-10 is probably the most congested part of the entire Phoenix freeway network, especially from downtown to the west. The tunnel is pretty much always jammed during most hours of the day, you're actually quite lucky that you made it through without bumper to bumper traffic. Unfortunately, it doesn't really make much sense to widen it much further. They COULD (they technically have the space for it), but they'd have to add so many lanes to it to resolve the congestion that it would end up creating new problems with people bunching up in the right lanes to get near their exits. Once you have 6 or 7 lanes in each direction, it's kinda hard to widen a highway much further without confusing drivers and creating new problems. ADOT and MAG are planning SR-30 as a new limited access freeway just a few miles south of I-10 to help relieve congestion, and Valley Metro is also planning multiple new light rail lines to go west near the corridor, including a light rail line that will track I-10 directly to the west. Both of these are in active planning and/or engineering phases, and should help with the massive volume of east-west traffic in the area.

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Interstate 10 is indeed pretty chronically congested. I don’t think there is too much they can really do to mitigate it unfortunately. Thanks for the comment.

[@photoniccannon2117]

@@AsphaltPlanet1 part of the issue is that a lot of people live on the west side, but work in the east. There are a lot of people traveling to the Tempe area and so forth. The 202 south mountain freeway helped, but was a little too far out of the way to alleviate a lot of the traffic heading closer to the north downtown side of the east valley. I-10 is really the only viable east-west corridor in the area, so it gets horrendously congested. SR-30 will help once they get the funding sorted out, but it’ll probably be closer to 2030 before it finally gets built.

[@RoadsOfAsiaBen]

Great drive! Have you ever stopped by Tim Hortons while you're traveling in the US?

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

Yes I have, but I tend to stop places that don't exist at home when I am abroad.

[@hd365expytb2]

Highways signs in Phoenix look a little different. Maybe the font is different from some other states?

[@AsphaltPlanet1]

AzDOT used clearview for a while, but has returned to Highway Gothic. These are the same fonts that other states use. AzDOT has a little bit of a different design style than some other states, but their fonts are consistent with others. Thanks for the comment.

[@Noahvis4]

@@AsphaltPlanet1TX uses Clearview font signs, but some toll roads in Houston managed by HCTRA have installed brand new Highway Gothic font signs back in 2020-2022 especially on Sam Houston tollway.