Signal issues on Alameda to be fixed

ALAMEDA SIGNALS WILL BE BACK IN SYNC: J.B. says her commute has been put into park since signal timing has changed on Alameda at Corrales, at Rio Grande, and at Fourth.

“It’s gridlock across the river,” she says.

Robert Baker, who handles the signals for Bernalillo County, says he “manually re-set all the (Alameda signal) clocks last week from Second Street to Loretta because the copper communications was recently disconnected to install fiber. Having all the clocks synced is critical for coordination, and they were off enough to affect the coordination.”

Baker says “the fiber is scheduled to be spliced the week of March 11, so the clock issue will be resolved once the splicing is completed.”

CYCLIST THOUGHTS ON THE NOW-OFF RIO GRANDE ROUNDABOUT: Local attorney and cycling advocate Diane Albert has a few points to make now that the proposed $1.5-million roundabout at Rio Grande and Candelaria is off the table.

Primarily about speed and safety.

She emails that she bicycles on Rio Grande several times a week and “the speeding and reckless driving is endemic.”

“It’s well known that motorists in Albuquerque often speed up when approaching a light in order to ‘beat the light,’ ” she says. “Vulnerable users need road diets and facilities like roundabouts for enhanced roadway safety. … 38 percent of bicyclist deaths in 2008 occurred at intersections. Roundabouts, as well as installing a road diet of single lanes, can and do decrease injuries at intersections.”

The Federal Highway Administration agrees and says roundabouts improve intersection safety.

According to the city’s Department of Municipal Development, 85 percent of people traveling on these two roads go at least 10 mph over the speed limit. The Mid-Region Council of Governments says there were 49 crashes at the intersection between 2004 and 2009.

Adding the roundabout on Rio Grande, Albert says, would likely have diverted the higher-speed drivers “to Second Street or Interstate 25/Paseo because the speeders will not like being forced to travel at 25 mph from Indian School to Alameda.”

Albert says it really comes down to tailoring the best commuter routes. “Roads like Rio Grande Boulevard are not suited for high-speed traffic. Rio Grande is one of the prettiest streets around, and its rural character should be preserved. Streets like Second and Fourth are more suited for higher-speed commuter traffic and commercial traffic, respectively. There must be a way for commuters to the West Side to be diverted away from Rio Grande! That’s what citizens expect elected officials and staff to do – come up with wise solutions to things that degrade our quality of life.”

If the roundabout were installed, she says drivers who continue to use Rio Grande would find that “roundabouts force motorists to slow to 25 mph or even 15 mph at intersections. Why is this important? Danger to pedestrians and bicyclists increases dramatically with small increase in speed. A pedestrian or bicyclist hit by a car going 30 mph has a 20 percent chance of dying, but bump the speed up to 40 mph and the chance of death rockets to 70 percent. … It’s amazing that 10 mph in a vehicle is a matter of life or death.”

It will continue to be now that newly appointed District 2 City Councilor Roxanna Meyers has opted to cancel the project. The $1 million in federal funding will go back to the federal government; the $500,000 in city bond money will go back into the budget for other city projects.

In a news release last week, Bernalillo County Commission Vice Chair Debbie O’Malley, who advocated for the roundabout when she held Meyers’ job, encourages residents to “make their voices heard,” and contact Meyers and Mayor Richard Berry “and let them know this project is important, and I will do the same.

“I want everyone to know that I still support this project,” she says, “and that I will do what I can to move it forward.”

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, N.M. 87103; or go to ABQjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.
— This article appeared on page 07 of the Albuquerque Journal