By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Last year, residents of Page, a small town in northern Arizona, fought back against plans to reduce vehicle lanes on Lake Powell Boulevard, one of the town’s most important roads. This November, they have the opportunity to protect it by voting YES on Proposition 406. A Yes vote on this measure would prevent the City from reducing the road’s vehicle lanes without further voter approval, pumping the brakes on a proposed road diet.
At the center of the controversy is the Page Downtown Streetscape Master Plan, approved by the City Council in 2022. Among the plan’s proposals is a “road diet,” the quippy name for stripping perfectly good roads of their vehicle lanes, and narrowing streets to accommodate bikes, buses and other barely used transportation methods. In Page’s case, that means cutting two of the four travel lanes on Lake Powell Boulevard through the downtown business district, a stretch of about 1.4 miles.
Despite years of resident opposition, the idea remained on the table. So, residents took action, gathering around 1,000 signatures to put the issue before the voters. The City challenged the initiative, and the fight went all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court. In July 2025, the justices unanimously ruled that the initiative was legislative in nature and could proceed. In other words, the people of Page are allowed to vote on their own main street…
