One look at the bumper to bumper traffic jams will give you another reason not to be in a Taxi watching the meter moving while you don't.
I discovered that even though the name of a car rental company at the airport, all are easy to get to via shuttle, night be the same name as a company not at the airport, they may not be one company.
When the shuttle I booked to take me from Phoenix to Tucson, stranded me there, I rented a car at the airport from a National Company, drove it home and returned it locally. Turns out they are two different divisions of a holding company.
The company I use whenever I have to rent a car is close to where I live and will actually pick me up and drop me back home. That saves me from having to get a cab to do that. Where I live, just on the outskirts of Tucson it's hard to reliably get a cab to show up.
If you've never been to the area, remember, like many cities, towns and states, they try an empty your wallet by adding whatever taxes and additional fees they can get away with. Extra airport taxes and fees might make it cheaper to rent the same car off airport. Take a hotel shuttle to a hotel near a rental place.
Come to think of it, if you're not familiar with the South West you'll see that some places decide it's cheaper to build a road across a piece of land that with out warning floods, that it is to build a bridge across it. A result is you'll drive down a road and discover its blocked off. You're only clue that it is blocked was more than usual traffic going the other way--no sign where you would have needed to turn for a detour. And, YES the "Fast Flood" may have ended an hour or so ago, no water running across the road. City, county just hasn't gotten around to sending someone out to re-open the road.
A sign indicating there may be flooding on the road a head means "gravel across the road, AND it may be where you cannot see it until you are on top of it!".
Ohhhhh!!!! Watch out for the "Suicide Lanes"!!!! Never drive in them!! No matter what!! Avoid them, avoid driving on a road that has them.
It is a bizzaro, wacko local concept. If there are 5 lanes to a road, two outer lanes are used for opposite traffic flow. the center lane, the suicide lane is used for traffic heading into town in the mornings, used for traffic heading out of town in the evenings; used for turning into either opposite lane during the rest of the day.
If you've never lived anywhere with lanes designed to create accidents, it will get you every time. A lane you're used to make turns from suddenly has people driving right at you flashing their lights!!! Worse, you are coming up to an intersection where you want to turn left, pull into the turn lane and get hit in the side of your car.
If you drive in the suicide lane you run the risk of being hit by an out of state, out of country diver who never heard of suicide lanes. If you drive on a road with a suicide lane you run the risk of forgetting that even though you are used to making turns from that lane whenever you drive that road, today is NOT the same time you always drive that road.
When I first moved to Tucson and saw all of the accidents, especially around the U of A when new students arrived, I was certain towing companies, auto and body repair shops, and insurance companies paid Tucson to create these lanes to make accidents happen!!
If I'm traveling through or into an area I'm not familiar with GPS saves the day. Even with the latest map updates points of interest are outdated. For some reason garmin maps do not like Wallmart locations, independent gas/service stations at the same spot for decades in rural AZ, state Liquor stores in New Hampshire. I have to double check where I want to go on the internet, and then double check the internet information by calling my destination.
I seem to remember a Jalapino beer brewed locally?
Best from tucson
Bob
