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Methodology
Economic Centers
The Rio Reimagined corridor provides access to numerous economic centers that support employment, commerce, education, entertainment, and community activity throughout the Valley. These centers are located in both the West Valley and East Valley and represent some of the region’s most significant destinations for jobs, services, and economic development. By strengthening active transportation connections within and to the corridor, access to these economic centers will be improved while supporting regional mobility, workforce connectivity, and economic growth.
In the West Valley, the corridor serves several major employment and industrial centers, including the areas around 99th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road, 75th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road, and 51st Avenue and Baseline Road in Phoenix. These areas contain substantial concentrations of industrial, manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics activity that collectively provide thousands of jobs. The corridor also provides access to Downtown Buckeye, which serves as a civic, commercial, and community center for one of the fastest-growing communities in the region. As growth continues in Buckeye and surrounding communities, the Rio Reimagined corridor presents opportunities to improve multimodal access to emerging employment centers and support future economic development.
Connecting Regional Activity Centers
In the East Valley, the corridor connects to a broader mix of economic centers that include employment hubs, educational institutions, retail destinations, and urban activity centers. The employment center near 24th Street and Baseline Road serves as a major concentration of business and industrial activity in south Phoenix. Downtown Phoenix, located directly along the corridor, is one of the region’s largest employment centers and contains a concentration of government offices, businesses, cultural institutions, entertainment venues, and higher education facilities. The corridor also provides direct access to Downtown Tempe and Arizona State University, a major educational, research, and innovation hub that attracts students, workers, visitors, and businesses from across the region.
The eastern portion of the corridor also serves several regional retail and entertainment destinations. Tempe Marketplace and Mesa Riverview are two of the region’s premier shopping, dining, and entertainment centers and are located adjacent to the corridor near Tempe Town Lake and the Salt River. Together with nearby recreational amenities, these destinations attract significant visitor activity and contribute to the area’s economic vitality. Farther east, Downtown Mesa serves as a growing mixed-use center with government services, employment opportunities, restaurants, arts and cultural destinations, residential development, and light rail access.
Points of Interest
The Rio Reimagined corridor provides access to a diverse range of destinations that support educational, recreational, cultural, entertainment, and transportation activities throughout the region. These destinations serve as important trip generators and activity centers that attract both local and regional travel, creating opportunities for active transportation connections along the corridor.
Corridor Points of Interest
Destination Types
Included in education destinations are a variety of schools and learning facilities serving students of all ages, including preschool, elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as childcare centers, career and technical education facilities, and specialized educational institutions. These destinations generate recurring daily trips and represent important community assets.
Transit destinations throughout the study area include Valley Metro light rail stations, streetcar stops, transit centers, and park-and-ride facilities. These locations function as regional mobility hubs that support multimodal travel by connecting active transportation users to destinations throughout the Valley. Strong connections between the corridor and transit facilities can expand access to employment centers, educational institutions, and recreational destinations while supporting first- and last-mile travel options.
Parks and open space destinations are located throughout the corridor and include neighborhood, community, district, and regional parks, as well as linear parks, riparian preserves, desert preserves, and other recreational facilities. These destinations provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, environmental education, and access to natural resources while serving as key nodes within the regional active transportation network. Given the corridor’s relationship to the Salt and Gila river systems, parks and open spaces represent some of the most significant destinations connected by existing and planned active transportation facilities.
Dining, hospitality, and entertainment destinations further contribute to the corridor’s role as a regional destination. This category includes restaurants and drinking establishments, hotels and accommodations, museums and historical sites, entertainment venues, and recreational facilities. These destinations attract visitors from across the region and help support active transportation by creating opportunities for both recreational and utilitarian trips. Many of these destinations are concentrated within major economic centers and downtown areas located along or near the corridor.
Solutions – Regional Active Transportation Connections
Regional Active Transportation Network
The Rio Reimagined corridor will continue to grow as a prominent regional destination providing access to recreation, open spaces, and other amenities. Walking and biking connections between the corridor and adjacent neighborhoods and commercial centers enhances regional connectivity and quality of life as well as provides options for how residents access corridor amenities.
Priority Bicycle Corridors are routes with the potential to serve as regional active transportation connections. These corridors, discussed below, can guide and prioritize critical active transportation investment and help create low-stress bicycle and pedestrian connections to the Rio Corridor.
Active transportation demand potential was used to identify Priority Bicycle Corridors, described in more detail below. Priority Bicycle Corridors were evaluated based on connectivity benefits, such as tie-ins with potential trailheads and future bicycle routes. The recommended corridors below represent the final recommendations of that analysis and create a vision for a connected active transportation system that facilitates seamless connections between neighborhoods and commercial centers and the corridor. Please review the methodology StoryMap to understand how these corridors were generated in more detail.
Regional Active Transportation Network
While recommended corridors are important priorities, they are only one part of a larger vision for active transportation. Walking, bicycling, and trail improvements are needed throughout the study area. Recommended corridors simply represent locations where investments may provide the greatest benefit by connecting areas of high demand to the corridor.
It is also important to recognize that the highest-demand corridors are not always the best places to build bicycle facilities directly. In many cases, nearby neighborhood streets, shared-use paths, or other lower-stress routes may provide a more comfortable experience for people walking and bicycling. The Priority Bicycle Corridors identify where demand exists or is expected to grow, while the specific routes used to serve that demand may vary based on local conditions.