Four players, one map
Nobody in Scottsdale City Hall decided to build the Loop 101. The freeway came out of a regional system with four main players:
- The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), the region’s planning council. Formed in 1967, it is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization, which means federal transportation dollars for the Valley flow through its plan. Its Regional Council is made up of elected officials from its member governments: 27 cities and towns, three tribal communities including the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Maricopa County and parts of Pinal County, with ADOT also a member.
- The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), the state agency that designs, builds, owns and maintains freeways like the Loop 101.
- Valley Metro, the regional transit agency that runs buses and light rail.
- The voters of Maricopa County, who since 1985 have approved a dedicated half-cent sales tax that pays for much of it.
Scottsdale controls its own streets, signals, bike lanes and the free trolley. Everything bigger is negotiated at the regional table.
The tax that built the freeway
In 1985 county voters passed Prop 300, a 20-year half-cent sales tax for freeways and transit. It funded a regional freeway plan that included the Loop 101, built in 17 sections from 1987 to 2002. Voters extended the tax in 2004 with Prop 400 and, on November 5, 2024, with Prop 479, which keeps it going through 2045. That county half-cent is part of the combined sales tax you pay at a Scottsdale register.
What Scottsdale chose
The city’s own imprint shows in transit. Valley Metro light rail, open since December 2008, runs through Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa and stops short of Scottsdale. The city’s General Plan 2035 defines “multimodal” transportation to exclude rail and modern streetcar. What Scottsdale runs itself is the Scottsdale Trolley, free to ride, alongside regional Valley Metro bus routes. The getting-around note covers how that works day to day.
Why the Loop 101 runs where it does
The Pima Freeway leg of the Loop 101 traces Scottsdale’s eastern edge because that is where the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community’s land begins. Talks among the state, Scottsdale and the Community started in 1982 and stalled for years; a 1990 agreement placed the freeway on Community land along its western boundary, with the state paying for the right-of-way. The Community kept the land around the interchanges, which is why the Talking Stick district grew up facing the freeway.
The last piece, the two miles from Scottsdale Road to Pima Road, opened in April 2002 and closed the 61-mile loop. The effect on Scottsdale was immediate: the Airpark, the north and the resort corridor were suddenly minutes from the rest of the Valley, and jobs and rooftops followed the ramps, a story told in the 2000s chapter.
How the money is decided
MAG’s Regional Transportation Plan sets which projects the half-cent tax and federal funds will build, and in what order. A Transportation Policy Committee of local officials and business representatives recommends; the Regional Council decides. Later additions on the Pima Freeway, including HOV lanes and extra general-purpose lanes through Scottsdale, came through that same regional process. Because the county tax requires a public vote, the legislature had to authorize the Prop 479 election before voters could extend it, a reminder that the state sits above the whole arrangement.
A Scottsdale mayor at the start
MAG was formed on April 12, 1967, when Valley officials concluded that transportation and air quality would not stop at city limits. Scottsdale’s mayor, B.L. “Bud” Tims, was its first chair. The early council was a forum; federal law later made it the gatekeeper for federal highway and transit money, and from 1973 it also took on regional planning for air quality, water quality and population estimates.
Prop 300 and the transit authority
The 1985 measure did two things. It paid for freeways, and it created the Regional Public Transportation Authority, which in 1993 took the Valley Metro name to pull separate city bus systems into one brand. Each renewal has split the money among freeways, arterial streets and transit, and the transit share helps run the buses and the light rail line that opened on December 27, 2008.
Scottsdale and rail
Scottsdale argued about rail for years. Scottsdale Road was once designated as a possible high-capacity transit corridor, and a council committed to holding a public vote before pursuing light rail or streetcar. The question was settled for now in the General Plan 2035, adopted by the council on June 8, 2021: the plan’s definition of multimodal covers pedestrians, cyclists, transit vehicles “except rail and modern streetcar,” equestrians and drivers. Voters ratified the plan that November. Supporters saw it as protecting Scottsdale’s scale and character; critics saw a city opting out of regional transit. A future council could change the language, and the General Plan guide explains how.
The trolley
The city-run Scottsdale Trolley fills the gap on the ground. It is fare-free, with routes that have shifted over the years among Old Town, the Miller and Hayden corridors, Scottsdale Community College and neighborhood stops. Since 2020 it has run three weekday routes (68th/Camelback, Miller/Hayden and Mustang), with the Old Town loop suspended, and it connects with nine regional-fare Valley Metro bus routes. It is local government at its most visible: paid for and run by the city, and changed at the council’s direction when budgets and ridership move.