Downtown Phoenix streets ranked among most dangerous roads in U.S.

Do you ever drive downtown on the streets just north of Chase Field and the Mortgage Matchup Center — ugh, that name — and feel like you’re in a video game dodging cars and pedestrians sent your way just to see if you’ll crash? 

When you finally park, do you feel a rush of relief that you did not get into a fender bender, or worse? Do you sit for a minute behind your wheel, wondering if it’s just you or if that stretch of roadway is especially hectic?

Well, good news! (Or bad, depending on how you look at it.) It’s not just you. 

That particular stretch of Phoenix streets has the dishonor of ranking fifth-riskiest roadway in the nation, according to transportation technology company Lytx’s 2026 Road Safety Report. It’s Phoenix’s first time on Lytx’s list of Top 5 Riskiest Public Roadways.

For the 2026 report, Lytx processed more than 126 billion minutes of footage filmed by its DriveCam event recorders and analyzed more than 217 million driving events. This data is part of its global database of more than 341 billion miles of data gathered by over 6.3 million drivers in over 90 countries.

Lytx analyzed its database and found a block of roadways surrounding the sports stadiums — First Avenue and Seventh Street to the east and west, Jackson Avenue and Fillmore Street to the south and north — are amongst the riskiest in the U.S. It blames an increase in pedestrian and vehicular traffic during sport games and events as the most likely reason for why the area is so risky to drive through.

It’s also the only stretch of roads included in the ranking that is not near an airport. Spots one through four went to roadways near major airports in Seattle, New York City and Fort Lauderdale.