This morning, I need your help.

ADOT, the Arizona Department of Transportation, is planning a new highway project here in the Tucson area, south of the city. For those who are local, it is an interchange connecting I-19, the main route to Nogales and the border, with I-10, the major route to all points both east and north. The plan is to make it so that cross-border traffic headed for either Phoenix, et al, or to New Mexico, does not have to go through Tucson proper.

But that’s not what’s important. I mean, sure, it sounds like a fine project and all, I guess, though it will probably take 20 years to build at ADOT construction rates; but I don’t have any particular dog in this race.

What I care about is the name.

They’re calling it the Sonoran Corridor.

It should — it must — it WILL — be called:

The Sonorridor.

This is my contribution to this community. I haven’t lived here that long, haven’t done much with my community (other than teaching, and I don’t mean to belittle the importance or impact of that  — but that’s not the subject right now), I don’t know whether it’s mattered at all that I’ve been here, whether I’ll be remembered.

I want to be remembered for this. The Sonorridor. The perfect portmanteau. The kind of name that, once it gets out there, it will become viral, and the highway will never be called anything else (I hope). The kind of thing that will make generations of travelers say, “Who the hell thought that was a good name?”

I want Tusconans to smile and nod (Or shake their heads and spit) and say, “Dusty Humphrey. That’s who.”

That’s why I need your help.

ADOT is taking public comment on the project right now. There are only two questions and a quick name/email/Not-a-robot identifier; the only required parts are the email and the robot test. The link is here. There are also tabs at the top of the page for overviews and documents and public meetings and the like, if you’re curious.

I would like everyone reading this, regardless of where you are, to go to that website, and under the second question, Additional Comments, please recommend, insist, demand, that the project be named the Sonorridor. You don’t need to be a resident. I’m not asking you to weigh in on the actual project — just the name. Here’s what I’m commenting this morning:

I believe, with all of my heart and mind, that the most important contribution I can make to this project is this: it should be called the Sonorridor. Sonorridor! It rolls off the tongue! It’s clear and simple, humorous without being absurd. It sounds like the wind, like a zephyr whisking cars along the road in speed and comfort. Sonorridor! Welcome to the Sonorridor, the pathway to the North! It even sounds Spanish — Bienvenidos al Sonorridor!
Thank you for your consideration.

(Here’s also my opinion on the first question, which is about which of the three proposed routes would be best: “I think the Corridor makes sense, but I think the people in the neighborhoods directly impacted should have the most influence on route, alongside the practical considerations re: budget, time, etc., which also clearly have a strong influence. Anyone whose major impact from this construction will be traffic-related will be better off with the Corridor than without it, and so their influence on specific route should be minor. I am in this second category.”)

Please help me. Please spread the word, and let’s make this a cause. Let us bring the Sonorridor to Tucson, and the world.

Thank you.

**Go here to help with a public comment about naming this project the Sonorridor:

https://www.azdot.gov/planning/transportation-studies/sonoran-corridor-tier-1-environmental-impact-statement/provide-your-input