Scottsdale is thirty-one miles long and, in places, about four miles wide. That one fact explains almost everything about getting around it. The parts visitors want are strung out along a single north-south corridor, the transit system was built for a different city, and the honest answer to “do we need a car?” is yes, with one walkable exception.
The airport
You fly into Phoenix Sky Harbor. There is a Scottsdale Airport, and people who own their own jet use it; for everyone else it doesn’t have scheduled flights. Sky Harbor sits just south of the city line, and from the terminals to Old Town is roughly twenty to thirty minutes depending on traffic and how far north you’re headed. North Scottsdale resorts add another fifteen to twenty-five minutes on top. Rental cars are handled from a consolidated center off-site, reached by the PHX Sky Train since December 2022, so build that into your landing-to-lobby math. Our airport-to-Scottsdale note compares every way in.
The car question
If you’re staying in Old Town and your plan is Old Town — bars, galleries, restaurants, the canal — you can skip the car. Rideshare is cheap and plentiful in the core, and everything worth walking to is within a mile.
The moment your plan includes a hike, a resort in North Scottsdale, a golf course, or Taliesin West, get the car. Rideshare prices climb with every mile north of Shea Boulevard, drivers get scarce out by the preserve trailheads, and a 5:30 AM pickup from a resort at the end of a two-mile driveway is a coin flip. The car is the difference between seeing Scottsdale and seeing one neighborhood of it.
Waymo: the driverless option
The white electric SUVs with spinning roof sensors and nobody at the wheel are Waymo, and they are a real way to get around the middle of the city. Old Town joined the service area in May 2023; Talking Stick, TPC Scottsdale and Salt River Fields followed in June 2024; and the August 2026 expansion pushed the Valley map past 350 square miles, with the Scottsdale Airpark inside it and curbside pickup at Sky Harbor.
- Book it in the Waymo app. In metro Phoenix there is no waitlist. Waymo was also bookable in the Uber app here for a few years, but that partnership ended in May 2026, so a “self-driving Uber” is now just a Waymo you book in Waymo’s app.
- The price is quoted up front, fixed for the route, and it climbs at busy times like any rideshare. Compare it with Uber or Lyft before you tap.
- Up to four riders, nobody in the driver’s seat, and nobody to lift your bags into the trunk. Riders under 18 need an adult account, apart from Phoenix-area teen accounts for ages 14 to 17.
- Check the map against your plan. The service area covers the core of the city but not every corner, and the boundary, not the price, usually decides it. A resort at the end of a long north Scottsdale driveway or a dawn trailhead pickup may sit outside it.
For an Old Town night, a Waymo between the bars, the Waterfront and a south Scottsdale hotel is the easiest ride in town. For the far north and the Preserve, the car rule above still stands.
The 101 is the spine
The Loop 101 — the Pima Freeway on this side of town — is the road that runs the city. It comes up the eastern edge of Scottsdale from Tempe, arcs north past the Salt River reservation land, and swings west across the top of the city toward the Phoenix suburbs. Nearly every resort, trailhead, and golf course north of Old Town is reached by a 101 exit.
Rush hour patterns are conventional and predictable: heavy southbound and westbound in the morning as the north side commutes toward Phoenix and Tempe, heavy the other way from about 4:00 to 6:30 PM. Outside those windows it moves.
Scottsdale Road vs. Hayden vs. Pima
Three north-south surface roads carry most of the city’s traffic, and they have personalities.
- Scottsdale Road is the main street, the whole length. It goes through Old Town, past the resorts along the Camelback corridor, through the shopping districts up north, and on toward Carefree. It’s also the slowest, because every light and every shopping center is on it.
- Hayden Road runs a mile east, parallel, and follows the Greenbelt for much of its length. Fewer lights, faster, and the smarter choice between Old Town and the central resorts.
- Pima Road is the eastern edge, hugging the reservation boundary and the 101. In North Scottsdale it becomes the road to the trailheads and the Troon-area courses.
The free trolley
Scottsdale runs a free trolley, but it is no longer the Old Town loop older guides describe. That route was suspended in 2020 and never returned. As of May 2026 the city runs three free routes, 68th/Camelback, Miller/Hayden and Mustang, on weekdays only, every 20 minutes from 5:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m., and they mostly serve residents commuting across south and central Scottsdale. In Old Town itself, walk; the districts sit within about a mile of each other. The trolley guide has the routes and what happened to the Old Town loop.
The light rail doesn’t come here
Valley Metro’s light rail is a real system, and it does not enter Scottsdale. The line runs through central Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa; the nearest stops to Scottsdale are along the Tempe–Phoenix stretch, several miles from Old Town. The last leg to Scottsdale is a rideshare or a bus.
Bikes and the Greenbelt
The best non-car way to move through central Scottsdale is the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt: eleven miles of paved, car-free path with underpasses at almost every major crossing, from Shea down to Tempe Town Lake. It brushes Old Town around Camelback, and it’s honestly faster than driving for anything between Chaparral Park and the south end of town. The cut-through notes cover how to ride it without ever touching a crosswalk button.
Parking in Old Town
The city runs public garages and a number of free public lots around the core, and most of it is free most of the time — but signage varies, some lots are private and towed with enthusiasm, and the rules around big events and weekend nights are stricter. Read the sign at the lot entrance, not the one across the street. Park once, in a garage if it’s summer, and walk everything.
Summer car rules
From June through September the car is an oven and everything in it is being cooked.
- A windshield sunshade is not optional. It’s the difference between a steering wheel you can touch and one you can’t.
- Nothing electronic stays in the car. Phones, laptops, cameras, vape pens, and anything with a lithium battery. Same for sunscreen, medication, and chocolate, if you’re attached to them.
- Check the gear page for the sunscreen and the half-gallon bottle that live in our car from May to October.