ADOT's Flickr page reaches milestone: 10 million views!

Most of us can only dream of getting 10 million of anything.

10 million! In numeric terms, that's 10,000 thousands, 100 million dimes or 40 million quarters. 

It’s positively mind boggling!  

But ADOT’s Flickr page recently attained the milestone of 10 million page views. That means that there were 10 million times that people clicked on our page, which has dozens of photos albums and nearly 15,000. 

There’s something magical about Arizona’s highways and that magic translates magnificently into our Flickr account. Many beautiful miles, stunning vistas and every manner of fauna and flora is represented. As well as before-and-after photos of highway construction projects large and small with intricate details many of us might miss.  

The account went live in 2011, but it wasn’t until 2013 that ADOT’s Emmy Award-winning Video Services Team began populating it in earnest. 

Now, 10 million views later, the site’s popularity is a delightful mystery to John Dougherty, Video Services supervisor and a main contributor to the account.

Perhaps it’s because of the key words inserted into photo descriptions of images, Dougherty said, terms like ADOT, AZDOT, Arizona Department of Transportation, freeways and safety, in addition to specific descriptors, like I-17 and flex lanes. 

“Or maybe there’s 10 million transportation geeks out there,” he joked. “I cannot explain ADOT’s Flickr popularity, but I like it.” 

In a state where each new bend in the road reveals a new feast for the senses, Dougherty’s team shoots multiple photos of every project, resulting in many different views that are equally eye catching, followed by an intricate, several step editing process.

“Photos on Flickr are the best-of-the-best photos,” Dougherty said.

The photographs aren’t just aesthetically pleasing works of art, they are also historically significant. The photos are grouped into albums representing highway and bridge project from across Arizona, litter pick-up efforts and other important events. 

Are you a history buff? You can check out one of the ADOT Archives albums with photos spanning decades, including a Highways 1970 to 2000 album.

Do you miss the old Pinto Creek Bridge? There are three albums, including the most recent showing construction of the new bridge.  We have plenty of photos of both the old and the new structures. 

We have albums filled with relocating the chuckwalla, saving saguaros, highway art, landslide and sinkhole repairs, wrong way signs, public officials, boulder removal, Adopt a Highway volunteers, snowmobiles during blizzards, and so on.  

Interstingly, the most popular photo, with nearly 8,000 views, isn't so much beautiful as it is newsorthy: It's a photo showing a blocked off road from the US 89 landslide repair from March 2015.

You'll have to give our page a visit soon. Once you do, you’ll probably keep coming back and ADOT’s Flickr page will be faster on its way to 20 million page views!