Study Overview
Help us Shape Tucson’s First Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System!
The City of Tucson is studying a 15-mile high-capacity transit
corridor that will ultimately stretch from the Tohono Tadai
Transit Center/Tucson Mall to the Tucson International Airport.
The north segment of this corridor will be BRT, a new
high-capacity transit service that will connect people and
places between the Tohono Tadai Transit Center/Tucson Mall and
the downtown Ronstadt Transit Center.
The south segment is being further evaluated but will ultimately
connect downtown Tucson/the Ronstadt Transit Center to the
Tucson International Airport.
Tucsonans expressed strong support for more high-capacity transit
in Move Tucson, the City of Tucson’s transportation vision and
master plan adopted in 2021. The City of Tucson’s population and
economy are growing, and high-capacity transit means faster and
more frequent service that serves more people. The Tucson Rapid
Transit project is the first step in delivering Tucson’s
transportation vision. Here’s how we got to this point.
2017
An extensive high-capacity transit alignment study was
conducted between 2017 and 2018, resulting in the
determination of high-capacity transit corridors throughout
Tucson. Based on transit route performance, surrounding land
use, and population served, two potential corridors at the
northern end of the city were identified: Oracle Road and
Stone Avenue. Each of these corridors would connect the Tohono
Tadai Transit Center/Tucson Mall to the Ronstadt Transit
Center in downtown Tucson.
2019
In winter of 2019, the City of Tucson began visioning for the
Move Tucson Transportation Vision and Master Plan. Through
extensive analysis and community input, several high-capacity
transit corridors were identified as priority network
improvements, including Oracle Road and Stone Avenue.
2023
The City of Tucson initiated Tucson Rapid Transit to design a
high-capacity transit corridor from the Tohono Tadai Transit
Center to the airport. This project was split into two
portions, the north segment (Tohono Tadai Transit Center to
downtown Tucson), and the south segment (downtown Tucson to
the Tucson International Airport).
2023
Tucson Norte-Sur is the federally-funded equitable Transit
Oriented Development (eTOD) study looking at land use policies
and reinvestment potential to support a high-capacity transit
system. In 2023, the study team concluded that additional
outreach was needed within the southern study area before
potential corridors for the south segment could be identified.
2023
In the fall of 2023, the City of Tucson officially kicked off
the development of the north segment of the project, focusing
on identifying the Locally Preferred Alternative, Oracle Road
or Stone Avenue. This included the first phase of
community outreach, which coordinated with the Tucson Norte-Sur land use and
policy outreach from October to December of 2023.
2024
In early 2024, the project team and the City of Tucson
presented early analysis data, as well as the community
outreach results, to Mayor and Council for a final Locally
Preferred Alternative (LPA) decision. On January 23, 2024,
Mayor and Council unanimously approved Stone Avenue as the
LPA.
2024
The project team conducted several studies, including a
traffic analysis and environmental study, and launched a
survey on proposed station stops.
The project team will move into preliminary design, including
developing station concepts, identifying signal updates, and
evaluating tradeoffs of corridor design elements (landscaping,
bike lanes, sidewalk width, and more) with public input. The
project team will continue developing the required
documentation to apply for federal funding.
Interactive Comment Map
To provide a station-specific comment, simply click on one of the
potential station location dots and leave your comment. To provide
general corridor comments on the interactive comment map, place your
mouse over the “add comment” box and click . Next, drag the marker
to the location within the study area where you'd like to leave a
comment. Zoom in and out by clicking the “+” to zoom in and “-“ to
zoom out.
Share your thoughts anytime between October 9 – December 8, 2024.
Tuscon's First Bus
Rapid Transit System
