1. Do you bike in New Mexico? Describe your experience biking for transportation and/or recreation.
My husband, son and I have owned various traditional bikes over the years (three having been stolen from home and UNM campus) and chose to live in Ventana Ranch because of neighborhood trails. We are currently investigating e-bikes—husband likes the three-wheel Class 3. As more stores locate along Unser, and don’t require us to bike up and down Paseo or Unser, using a bike to run errands becomes more feasible.
2. Describe your vision of a healthy, safe, equitable transportation system for the Greater Albuquerque Region and the roles walking, biking, and public transportation play in that vision.
All transportation planning needs to include a multi-modal vision that is then implemented: safe and wide trails for walkers and bikers and planned accessible stations for public transportation (and there has to be bus routes that actually have buses that stop at the stations) along all major arteries. When we lived off Zuni in SE Albuquerque, I rode the Central bus to and from my job and classes at UNM every day, and my husband biked to Highland HS where he worked. Since moving to Ventana Ranch, we have not done that.
A huge issue pertaining to safety is unconnected bike lanes—a biker rides along a road with a bike lane and then the lane ceases to exist—huge safety problem, especially along Rainbow from Paseo del Norte to Unser where you have Volcano Vista HS and Tony Hillerman MS with bikers training for races and school kids riding bikes.
One mode I am researching is developing a network of neighborhood buses. I lived in the outskirts of Seoul and in rural South Korea for many years. Village buses connected every neighborhood to a city bus route and a subway station. The village buses never required more than a five-minute walk from home and followed a circular path along local shopping routes. There is one bus that serves Ventana Ranch once in the morning and once in the late afternoon—I don’t even think it runs anymore. There is no local public transportation to get to the two major West Side transportation locations: one at 7-Bar across from Cibola HS and one at Unser and Central.
3. What are the biggest barriers to getting people to choose walking, biking, and public transit instead of personal vehicles for daily trips, and what would you do to address these impediments?
1. Disconnected bike lanes that are unsafe
2. Lack of local public transportation to the transportation centers that serve citywide bus routes
3. A huge barrier is the constant battle with city regulations, metropolitan development, finding out when meetings are held, attending the meetings, understanding the roads that do not allow access…we are blessed in the West Side to have Renee Horwith dedicated to following up on these things, but it’s a fulltime job to track everything, communicate with city councilors and county commissioners and everyone else. State reps and senators will be getting a staff person and the person I hire will be tasked to help facilitate all these relationships and issue.
4. New Mexico consistently has the deadliest streets of any state in the US, with approximately 400 people killed by vehicles each year while walking, biking, or driving, and another 12,000 people injured. What should New Mexico, and in particular the New Mexico Department of Transportation, do to improve traffic safety?
1. The NM DOT has instituted a robust, improved safety division which I think is a helpful move. Kudos to them for this.
2. Drivers’ training has to include more modules pertaining to looking for bicyclists and motor cyclists—being aware that they have the right to share the road with vehicle drivers. DOT has put up electric signs reminding motorists to look out for motor cycles—helpful alert.
3. We must enforce DWI penalties (the APD corruption has not helped at all) and take vehicles away from motorists involved in accidents injuring and, of course, killing others when they are at fault—particularly with DWIs. Many if not most of these accidents involve drivers under the influence of drugs and alcohol. I do acknowledge, in all fairness, having lived off San Mateo and Central where many pedestrians have been killed, that some pedestrians are under the influence and do not exercise due diligence.
4. Again, we need to systematically examine bike paths and ensure that they are wide enough and connected.
5. The New Mexico DOT is currently pursuing a pair of projects related to Interstate 25, following the South I-25 Corridor Study that calls for the widening of Interstate 25 in Albuquerque from Sunport to the Big I, to 8 lanes from the current 6. Do you support urban freeway widenings, or how would you prefer NMDOT enhance transportation options in this corridor?
1. Honestly speaking, the S-curve along that stretch is dangerous and sudden on-ramps, especially as you go north from Sunport, are atrociously bad. Due to the north/south traffic that drives economics in particular, I believe this has to be done.
2. The cost to build a loop road around Albuquerque (eventually building Volcan in the far west as part of that network) would be the ultimate answer, but that will cost billions. It should be part of planning in terms of a 20 -year plan.
3. I have been on House Transportation standing committee and the interim Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommittee for six years. These are huge issues. DOT improved the Montgomery bridge over I-25 several years ago only to have a truck above the designated height destroy it shortly after it had been improved. Now we are rebuilding that area. Painful things happen.