By Car in Phoenix-Scottsdale

By Car

To get around Phoenix, you will need a car. Only the major downtown areas (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Glendale) are pedestrian-friendly. There's no mass transit beyond a commuter-bus system. At the airport most rental companies offer shuttle services to their lots. Don't expect to nab a rental car without a reservation, however, especially in the high season, from January to April.

If you're driving to Phoenix and coming from the west, you'll probably come in on I-10. The trip from the Los Angeles basin, via Palm Springs, takes six to seven hours, depending on where you start. From San Diego, I-8 slices across the low desert to Yuma and on toward the Valley on what the Spanish called El Camino del Diablo (the Devil's Highway); at Gila Bend, take AZ 85 up to I-10. The trip takes six to seven hours. From the east, I-10 takes you from El Paso, across southern New Mexico, and through Chiricahua Apache country into Tucson, then north to Phoenix (a total of about six to seven hours).

From the northwest, I-40 crosses over from California and runs along old Route 66 to Flagstaff. East of Kingman, however, U.S. 93 branches off diagonally to the southeast, becoming U.S. 60 at Wickenburg and continuing into Phoenix.

The northeastern route, I-40 from Albuquerque, crosses Hopi and Navajo historic lands to Flagstaff, where I-17 takes you south to Phoenix -- an eight-hour journey. For a scenic shortcut, take AZ 377 south at Holbrook to Heber and the pines of the Mogollon Rim; then take AZ 260 down the 2,000-foot drop to Payson and AZ 87 through the forests of saguaro cactus into Phoenix.

Around downtown Phoenix, AZ 202 (Papago Freeway), AZ 143 (Hohokam Freeway), and I-10 (Maricopa Freeway) make an elongated east-west loop, encompassing the state capitol area to the west and Tempe to the east. At mid-loop, AZ 51 (Piestewa -- formerly Squaw -- Peak Parkway) runs north into Phoenix. From AZ 202 east, the AZ 101 runs north to Scottsdale and makes a loop west through Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, and Avondale and connects to I-10. And from the loop's east end, I-10 runs south to Tucson, 100 mi away (although it's still referred to as I-10 East, as it's eventually headed that way); U.S. 60 (Superstition Freeway) branches east to Tempe and Mesa.

Roads in Phoenix and its suburbs are laid out on a single, 800-square-mi grid. Even the freeways run predominantly north-south and east-west. (Grand Avenue, running about 20 mi from northwest downtown to Sun City, is the only diagonal.)

Central Avenue is the main north-south grid axis: all roads parallel to and west of Central are numbered avenues; all roads parallel to and east of Central are numbered streets. The numbering begins at Central and increases in each direction.