There’s A Reason For Trail Photos

YOU WANT TO TRIGGER THOSE BIKE TRAIL SENSORS, RIDERS: Gavin Flury says “on my commute to work I sometimes use the paved Bosque Trail. I have found that at the Alameda trail head in the pavement there are now sensors that when ridden over trigger a camera on a pole to take a photograph of the rider. What possible reason could the city need to photograph bikers for? I now ride around the sensors so I don’t trigger the camera.”

That would hurt the cause of bike trail maintenance and expansion.

David Mitchell, director of Operations and Maintenance for Bernalillo County, says the camera “is one of two that the county put up as part of the Alameda Trail project, however it is all of ours in that it was federally funded and sends regional bike use data to the Mid-Region Council of Governments, and our commuter cyclist friend does exactly the wrong thing to avoid the sensor. … What is important is demonstrating increased usage justifying more funding for bicycle network connectivity.”

Mitchell says several more monitoring stations are planned, including a total of three on the Alameda Trail, four along the Bosque Trail, and one at Paseo and the Tramway Trail.

In addition to the cameras, “high-sensitivity loops were also embedded (in the pavement) to corroborate what the camera is seeing. This double-confirmed data is used to show that every time a bike is being used, that a 3,500-lb gas-powered metal box (i.e. car) is not, and we actually can demonstrate real offset credit for air pollution thresholds to the EPA against the Albuquerque Metro area’s sometimes non-attainment status.”

So Mitchell recommends Gavin “gather a lot of his cycling friends and wave as they go over” the sensors.

WHY IS A COP ALWAYS PARKED DOWN THE STREET? Anne Rice emails “I live near the KOAT-TV station at Carlisle and Comanche. On Tulane Drive NE just to the west of it, there is a new condo development that has been selling condos for about two years now. I drive or bicycle by there frequently on Saturdays, and every time I do, I see an APD police car parked next to the building, apparently all day. I can’t help but wonder why this is.”

There could be any number of reasons, including that a sworn officer lives in the development and parks his/her take-home car when not on the night shift.

THOSE WHITE LINES MEAN SOMETHING: Karen emails “you know what really drives me crazy? The drivers that do not know what the three white lines at an intersection are for. The first one is the widest and THE ONE YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO STOP AT! The next two, which are not as wide, mark the crosswalk. There are too many New Mexico drivers who stop at the third line, thereby BLOCKING the crosswalk.

“It would be great if you could address this sometime in your column.”

Done.

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER ROAD FATALITIES: According to the statistics compiled by the University of New Mexico for the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s Traffic Safety Bureau, 27 people died on the road in the Land of Enchantment in September, 28 in October.

Twenty-nine were in motor vehicles, 14 on motorcycles, 11 on foot and one on a bike.

Alcohol was a factor in at least 16 of those deaths.

Through October, 326 people have died on N.M. roads. Of the 209 in vehicles, just 65 were wearing seat belts. Of the 57 on motorcycles and two on all-terrain vehicles, just 10 were wearing helmets.

Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103; or go to ABQjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.
— This article appeared on page A4 of the Albuquerque Journal