One Lane, One Way on Each Lead and Coal

LEAD AND COAL GO ONE-LANE, ONE-WAY TODAY: According to the city and the Lead/Coal construction team, as of 8 p.m. Sunday “one lane of eastbound traffic will be open on Coal, and one lane of westbound traffic will be open on Lead.”

Paving starts this morning at 8, and “while paving and re-striping are going on, Coal Avenue residents and businesses may not have access to driveways for one hour. Crews will try to coordinate with residents to avoid inconvenience.”

There are also changes to on-street parking starting now.

“There will be no parking on either side of Lead or Coal except in designated on-street parking areas,” according to city Department of Municipal Development spokesman Mark Motsko, who passed on information for the project. “Vehicles must be parked in the same direction as the one-way roadway on which they are parked. Any vehicles parked in the opposite direction will be towed at the owner’s expense. Also, motorists cannot park in bike lanes or on newly constructed sidewalks, or block access to new sidewalks. Anyone parking on or blocking access to a new sidewalk or bike lane will be subject to a ticket, fine, and/or towing at the owner’s expense.”

PDN BECOMES P DEL NORTE: Last month, a reader questioned the use of “PdN” on the freeway electronic message boards that give estimated times to upcoming exits, saying “I did finally figure it out (Paseo del Norte), and I guess locals will too, but I think that those initials will not help any out-of-town drivers.”

At the time, the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s stance was “using that three-letter designation (PdN) is more accurate, and less ambiguous, than listing the roadway simply as ‘Paseo.’ ”

What a difference a few weeks and — perhaps — a little commuter input make. On Tuesday, I noticed the electronic message board on northbound Interstate 25 said the estimated time to “p del norte” was six minutes.

And a call to Ray Herne, who handles information on NMDOT’s Intelligent Transportation System, turns up that yes, “the designation has been changed.”

ON THE INTERSTATE LIGHTS CASE: Lawrence Jones emails “I commute Interstate 40 routinely to Albuquerque and return to the East Mountains where I reside. I keep noticing, for over six weeks now, that the pole lights on the south side of the interstate at (the) Tramway overpass are lit during daylight hours. I’ve seen in your column that lamps that have been replaced are left on 24-7 for a ‘burn-in period,’ but this time has exceeded what I recall was stated for that time. I suspect that there is a stuck lighting control. I don’t know who else might know who to contact to get this remedied. You would be my hero.”

Give the credit to the state, city and PNM instead.

Phil Gallegos, who handles information for NMDOT’s District 3 Office, says “I have reported these lights to the city of Albuquerque, and they will have Public Service Company of New Mexico go out and take a look to see which ones may need repairs.”

MORE ON ALL THOSE OUT-OF-STATE PLATES: After last week’s column included a reader questioning the many out-of-state license plates here and the low probability all those drivers are tourists, several readers have weighed in on the state’s exceptions to the 30-day rule of getting an N.M. plate.

Richard Flores emails that “military personnel stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base do NOT become residents of New Mexico just because they are stationed here, so we have the non-resident military cars on our roads — all legal. … Out-of-state students at the University of New Mexico can also be here, and like the military do not become automatic residents. Add these up and you have thousands of cars being driven LEGALLY.”

Dick.turner says “when I was in the Air Force, military personnel had the option to either take residence in the state where they were assigned, or claim residence in a ‘home of record,’ usually either their birth state or the state where they joined the service. With the home of record option, they were allowed to maintain their vehicle registration in that home state rather than being required to change registration with every change of station. … I suspect that … with the number of personnel and families at Kirtland and other facilities here it would explain a lot of out-of-state plates.”

And finally, Jim Brown adds “GIs may choose to register their vehicles either in their home of record or their state of physical residency. … The next time you see Alaska, Texas or Colorado tags you may be driving behind one of our boys in blue.”

— This article appeared on page A4 of the Albuquerque Journal