Unser Lanes Should Not Be Closed During Rush Hour

UNSER CLOSURE ALMOST TWO HOURS TOO EARLY: Adolphe says every morning there is a lane drop on southbound Unser near Bridge for landscaping work.

And while he says the landscaping of around 100 to 150 yards is most welcome, it is happening at 7:30 a.m., smack dab in the height of morning rush hour.

And losing the center through-lane is forcing last-minute merges as vehicles approach the intersection, causing wrecks, including a two-vehicle crash he saw around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday.

Mark Motsko, who handles information for the city of Albuquerque’s Department of Municipal Development, explains “this is the last median on Unser that needs to be landscaped. The city was waiting for the private developer to install a left-turn bay in the median to allow access to Unser Crossings. That hasn’t happened, so we decided to finish up the landscaping project.”

And he says the work should not be happening before 9 a.m. “We will send our inspectors out to make sure the contractor is not dropping lanes in either direction before 9 a.m. While sometimes we can start work earlier because of rush-hour traffic flows, in this case there is too much volume in both directions to allow it.”

CHURCH TRAFFIC STILL STALLING COORS: When the Albuquerque Police Department laid out its traffic control strategy for Sagebrush Church traffic last week, Jon Erler said it sounded great.

It just isn’t happening.

APD explained last week that in theory, the plan “basically lets the lights cycle traffic as normal while only merging the northbound Coors traffic into two lanes just at the intersection to allow the far right lane of east-to-north traffic on La Orilla to flow out freely.”

Erler emails that in practice, “I travel on Coors many Sundays during the time people are leaving or arriving for Sagebrush Church services.

The last time was this past Sunday, and the police officers were not letting the light go through its normal cycles.

They had turn(ed) the signal to blinking status and were giving priority to vehicles leaving the Sagebrush Church. The traffic backup on Coors was far greater than the backup at the church. I find this to be the norm as the officers, being paid by Sagebrush, seem less concerned with the flow of traffic on Coors than with getting people in and out of the Sagebrush Church.”

And Charlie called to say Coors traffic is routinely “backed up for miles” as drivers exit the church, and Coors drivers end up waiting several signal cycles to get through the backup. He says “that church is wrong for doing that. It’s just not fair or right.”

Officer Tasia Martinez, APD’s public information officer, explains that “we are only one element of the situation and trying our best to keep everybody safe.”

She says “I spoke with the church and I myself went down there to develop what I thought would be a fair plan, (that) seemed to work well and the church (said) that they would adopt the new plan and have officers utilize the new plan.”

But “ultimately that is up to them to keep the plan in place because the officers that work the overtime are different every weekend, so I can’t speak for what those officers were doing. We rely on the direction of the church to tell us what they need us to do and how they need us to do it — that is why I fully explained my plan to the church staff and their security and ensure(d) that they had all the necessary tools and materials to execute every single weekend and explain it to every new set of officers.”

Bottom line, Martinez says, is “I don’t think that anybody is going to be fully happy in this situation until a new egress/ingress outlet has been placed, but that is determined by the state not us. Our primary concern is making sure that people are passing through that area and also exiting and entering the church safely. Safety is why we are there.”

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 31 of the Albuquerque Journal