Did you know a $20 million overhaul of the road you drive every day went to a Council vote on March 26? New chicane obstacles, narrowed lanes, and landscaped medians raised safety concerns for hundreds of residents. Dozens of residents attended the Council meeting, but their concerns were ignored.
The town's own documents reveal a project with serious safety concerns, a ballooning budget, and a rushed timeline that has left most residents in the dark.
The redesign installs chicane obstacles that force drivers to weave, while shrinking travel lanes from today's 10.5–11 ft down to just 9.5 feet.
Consider: the mirrors on large trucks regularly extend to 10.5 feet wide. After this redesign, those mirrors would extend into the bike lane — where kids and cyclists are riding.
Traffic safety researcher Dewan Masud Karim found the safe sweet spot for urban lanes is 10 to 10.5 feet. Below that, crash risk measurably increases.
Karim, D.M., Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers, 2015 · FHWA Traffic Calming ePrimer
Mockingbird is a heavily used east-west corridor for cars and cyclists alike. If you drive it regularly, you know that oncoming cars already drift away from each other, and toward the bike lane, when passing at speed.
Mockingbird sees a lot of cyclist traffic, including many kids. The road already feels narrow as it is — adding raised planters and chicane curb extensions into this space means less margin for error, not more.
The current hybrid design — combining medians and chicanes — was only finalized in May 2024. A single public open house was held that September.
The construction vote is set for March 26, with shovels in the ground as early as May 2026 — a 6–8 month disruption to one of PV's busiest corridors.
Most of the neighborhood is unaware of this project.
These are official Town of Paradise Valley documents — not our interpretation. Read them and judge for yourself.
The project has been evolving since 2018 — with the design, scope, and price changing dramatically along the way, mostly without public input.