The First and Last Mile Problem in Phoenix

Phoenix has buses. It has light rail. And yet, for many people, using public transit still feels frustrating, exhausting, or downright unsafe. The reason? Getting to the stop and getting from the stop to your destination is often the hardest part.

Urban planners call this the “first and last mile.” It’s the short walk at the beginning and end of a transit trip. In Arizona’s capital city, those walks are often broken, poorly designed, or flat-out dangerous.

This article looks at how the first and last mile problem affects everyday people, how it hurts the transit system as a whole, and why fixing it could change everything, starting with how safe it is just to walk down the street.

The Walk That Stops the Ride

Public transit doesn’t begin when the bus arrives. It begins when you walk out your door. That walk might only be a few blocks. But in many parts of Phoenix, that’s where the problems start.

Bus stops are often placed directly on wide, high-speed roads. Some have no sidewalk access at all, just dirt or gravel. Others lack basic features like benches or shelter, even in areas where people are regularly waiting in 100+ degree heat. Many light rail stations are surrounded by large parking lots or multi-lane intersections with long wait times and no shade.

The city’s street grid wasn’t designed to prioritize pedestrians, and the result is a system where even a five-minute walk can feel unsafe. Traffic speeds are high, lanes are wide, and there are huge gaps between marked crossings. Phoenix has one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in the country, with more than six deaths per 100,000 people.

A person might also see their destination just across the road, but be forced to walk 15 minutes out of the way to cross legally, or try to dash across multiple lanes of traffic.

Who Pays the Price

The burden of bad pedestrian design doesn’t fall evenly. People who rely on public transit the most often have the fewest resources. Many don’t have cars or can’t afford the gas. They include older adults, disabled residents, students, low-income families, and shift workers heading to jobs outside the 9-to-5 schedule.

These riders often live in parts of the city that haven’t seen infrastructure investment in years. That means cracked sidewalks, missing curb ramps, and intersections that haven’t been updated for safety since the 1980s. They’re also more likely to be walking early in the morning or late at night, when visibility is low and traffic can be unpredictable.

When accidents happen, families are left to deal with medical bills, long recoveries, or sudden loss. Many have no choice but to call a pedestrian accident lawyer, not just for compensation, but to get answers about why their street was so dangerous in the first place.

It’s hard to call something a transportation system when just reaching it puts your life at risk.

Where the City Stands Now

Phoenix has made some moves in the right direction.

In 2015, voters passed Proposition 104, a 35-year transportation plan that included billions in funding for transit, bike, and pedestrian projects. The plan helped expand light rail, improve bus frequency, and upgrade some pedestrian infrastructure.

More recently, the city adopted a Vision Zero strategy, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. Officials have talked about prioritizing areas with high crash rates and poor infrastructure.

But most of the pedestrian-focused changes have been incremental. Sidewalk gaps are still common near bus stops. Many intersections don’t have pedestrian signals. Some streets still lack streetlights entirely, making nighttime walking extremely risky.

Projects that do include pedestrian improvements often take years to roll out, and upgrades are typically limited to small stretches of road, leaving large gaps untouched. For riders who use transit every day, small improvements scattered across a city of five million don’t go very far.

What We’re Not Talking About Enough

One piece that rarely enters public discussion is maintenance. Even where sidewalks do exist, they’re often in poor condition. Cracks, flooding, weeds, and debris can make them just as difficult to use as if they weren’t there at all, especially for anyone using a wheelchair or pushing a stroller.

Another issue is signage. In parts of Phoenix, it’s hard to even know where the nearest crosswalk or safe route is. Pedestrian wayfinding, which is common in more walkable cities, is nearly nonexistent here. That leaves people guessing — and often taking shortcuts across dangerous roads just to save time.

There’s also the problem of bus stop placement. Many stops are located mid-block, where there’s no crosswalk nearby. That forces riders to cross wherever they can. Moving these stops to safer locations would make a real difference, but there’s currently no citywide effort to review or relocate unsafe stops.

All of this leads to the same conclusion: walking in Phoenix doesn’t just feel bad,  it functions badly.

What Needs to Change

The fixes aren’t revolutionary. They’re basic things that should already exist in any city that claims to support public transit.

Every transit stop should have a sidewalk, a safe crossing nearby, and shade. Sidewalk networks should be connected, not broken up by gaps or dead ends. Intersections should have signals that prioritize people on foot, not just cars. Lighting should be consistent and bright enough to keep people visible.

And these improvements shouldn’t just happen near new developments or in wealthier areas. They should start where the danger is highest, in the neighborhoods where people walk the most because they have to.

A truly walkable city builds for pedestrians and listens to them. That means talking to transit riders, seniors, kids, and disabled residents to find out where the pain points are. And then actually fixing them.

The Bottom Line

The first and last mile problem in Phoenix is a planning and a safety issue. It’s a justice issue. And it’s one of the biggest reasons public transit isn’t working as well as it could.

Right now, the people who rely on buses and trains the most are walking the longest distances in the worst conditions, often without sidewalks, shade, or protection from traffic. And too many of them are getting hurt or killed while doing it.

That’s not a small oversight. That’s a system failure.

Phoenix has the tools and the funding to fix this. What it needs now is follow-through and a shift in mindset that puts people before cars. The goal should be streets where no one has to walk into danger just to catch the bus.