The Maricopa Association of Governments, or MAG, this week, released its recommendations for improving transportation in Carefree and Cave Creek. The plan does not include public transit – instead, it focuses on things like bike lanes, sidewalks and parking. Eileen Yazzie is the Project Manager for MAG on this study.

“It was really two towns in this area kind of uniting and saying, ‘Can you help us plan for the future?’ And the future could be the short-term, between five and ten years, as well as the long-term, 20 years or 25-30 years,” Yazzie said. “We started this, and are ending this, as a transportation framework, almost as a playbook of how things can look and change in the future.

Yazzie said planners took input from town residents, and people who visited for special events, and took care not to urbanize the small towns. She said the plans look to enhance the communities – not take away their special elements.

“Let’s make sure that the street is more safe for all the users – looking to have that separated sidewalk, doing the bike lanes as well as kind of almost a colored buffer, and make sure that it handles traffic, as well as special events,” Yazzie said. “And, over in Carefree, it’s the same exact thing.”

To get more of a sense of some of the ideas the towns are considering, Ian Cordwell drove me around the area. He’s Cave Creek’s Planning Director  – and says the project is a chance for the two towns to work together. He said bicyclists, pedestrians, hikers, drivers, motorcyclists and equestrians all use the towns’ roads – and the recommendations should make them safer.