Gilbert is a highly engaged community and feedback about mobility has been pouring in over the last several years through surveys, social media, Gilbert 311 and other platforms regarding the community’s ailing roads and transportation systems.
Two of the three areas of improvement indicated by Gilbert residents in the 2019 National Citizen Survey were related to mobility.
What’s mobility? It’s anything related to getting around town, such as traffic flow, travel by bicycle, traffic signal timing, the future of transportation or the overall ease and safety of travel.
We love hearing from our residents and appreciate all of the feedback we receive. It’s clear that this is a widespread, pressing issue for residents from every part of town. Let’s take a closer look to see what the biggest mobility pain points are for you and what could be a cause.
National Citizen Survey
Gilbert residents rated the overall ease of travel 85% positively in 2019 compared to 92% in 2015. Residents felt less positive about traffic flow and ease of travel by public transportation. In addition, two of the lowest-rated government services were traffic signal timing and bus or transit services. However, these are still rated similar to the national benchmark.
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Social Media
The main themes we’re hearing from you on social media related to mobility are traffic, widening the roads, reconstruction, and the Ocotillo Bridge. Here are a few examples from 2019:
Gilbert 311
We have received more than 1,149 requests in Gilbert 311, our citizen report and request service tool, related to mobility issues from 2017-2019. Safety and Congestion (such as traffic enforcement) and Reconstruction (such as traffic signs or speed humps) requests account for 81% of mobility issues in Gilbert 311.
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Why is mobility becoming an issue?
Gilbert is turning 100 years old in 2020 and our community is aging while also continuing to grow. The community has grown considerably, from an estimated population of 200,000 in 2010 to nearly 260,000 today and the growth is not over yet as we’re expecting to reach 330,000 residents by the time the community is fully built out.
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It’s time to make the necessary repairs, improvements, and upgrades that will allow Gilbert to continue to prosper and our citizens to safely travel across the community and maintain a high quality of life.
So, what’s next? Mobility is top of mind as we prepare for our future and the next 100 years. Stay tuned as we continue to look for ways to improve the way you get around in Gilbert. And, if you experience any issues, be sure to let us know on Gilbert 311.
Growth and Development
Transportation and Facilities
We’ve lived in Gilbert for 20+ years and absolutely love it! As we were looking to move, it was important to us to stay in this area.
We built a new home and now live in the New Cooley Station community on the SE Corner of Recker & Williams Field Rd. I’d love to see a turning lane added to Eastbound Williams Field as it approaches Somerton.
Currently, there are parking spaces and when cars are parked there it makes it impossible to safely see traffic to pull from Somerton onto Williams Field heading west.
I’d also like to see a traffic light at Recker and Somerton.
Hi, D’Ann! We’re so glad you love living here! If you want to make traffic recommendations directly to our engineering team, go to https://gilbertaz.gov/311 and submit a new request at the top of the page. Choose the category “Traffic Engineering Requests” under the General Issues header. This will send a request directly to our traffic team and it’ll let you tag the exact location and add pictures so they can see what you’re referring to. Thanks for reading!