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WAITING TO TURN LEFT ONTO UNSER OR COORS: That’s what Joe M. says happens during morning and afternoon rush hours as drivers try to navigate the intersections at Tower and Bridge without dedicated left-turn arrows.
He says it can take three cycles of the signal to get through to do drop-offs and pick-ups at the local elementary school.
David Mitchell, director of Operations and Maintenance for Bernalillo County, says there have been some interim adjustments, and a bigger fix is in the works.
Tower and Coors “is that place we striped and signed for less confusion, and there’s obviously almost unlimited holding capacity (for waiting vehicles to line up), and I understand it must be holding a lot.”
He says “there’s another seemingly unrelated interim project about to start farther downstream east at Tower and Old Coors that may provide a little more near-term relief.
“The reason a lot of people are turning left at Tower and Coors is to avoid going straight up Tower to get caught and blocked out from turning right onto Bridge to get into town,” Mitchell explains. “They’ve found they can go left at Coors and right on Bridge and get through that better. What this project will do, thanks in part to the forward-thinking Greater Albuquerque Bicycle Advisory Committee and city of Albuquerque for letting us build it, is to temporarily sacrifice a small segment of dedicated bike lanes in favor of ‘share right of way markings’ to allow a protected right for Tower drivers and more lanes getting through the signal at Bridge and Old Coors.”
That’s the recent past and near future. Mitchell says “long term, in the next several years, the Bridge Boulevard project will divert the mainline of Bridge to Coors along Tower instead of Bridge, and the Coors/Tower intersection can be made with full-blown double lefts, etc., if that is necessary at that point.”
But in the “meantime, more folks coming east on Tower will choose to head straight up Tower instead of adding to all those waiting to turn left.”
DOWN BUT NOT ROUNDABOUT ON RIO GRANDE: The debate continues on the now on-hold roundabout at Rio Grande and Candelaria.
On the con side, Valerie Cole emails the “roundabout at Candelaria and Rio Grande Boulevard is not a wise solution. You may be able to divert all but local traffic away to other, higher speed roads miles away, and therefore lower the accident rate. But, let me speak for trail users – a large group. If cars are not broken into spaced groups by traffic lights, the popular pedestrian and equestrian crossings on Rio Grande south of Candelaria at Campbell Road, north of Candelaria at Headingly, and east of Rio Grande at the Griegos Drain, will become unusable and an entire network of ditches and trails will be cut off for riders, walkers and family groups, which often consist of parents, a stroller, a dog on a leash and a child on a tricycle.
“Let us keep the trails. Leave the lanes alone, enforce the speed limit and try the much less expensive alternative of a protected left-turn light. … I am thrilled that (new) Councilor Roxanna Meyers … agreed to listen to all of us who felt disenfranchised by a largely secret process.”
On the pro side, Gregory Wright emails “this project is by no means dead. Not yet. At the March 4 City Council meeting … the Councilor seemed unimpressed with (pro-roundabout) speakers’ efforts, but did withdraw a motion she had planned to make to the Council that would have revoked the city’s portion of the roundabout project’s funding.
“So the battle over the Rio Grande/Candelaria roundabout is not over. … Constituents … have worked long and hard on this important public safety project for the district. If Councilor Meyers believes we’re simply going to go away, she needs to think again. We will use any and every means available to see to it that the project is not shot dead in the back by someone we don’t even know.”
SPREAD THE TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT AROUND: That sentiment comes from Edmund Baca, who says several Sunday mornings he has seen no fewer than three officers running radar along Tiguex Park in Old Town to make sure drivers don’t exceed the 18 mph on the Mountain bike boulevard. Yet he has to drive at least 10 mph over the speed limit on Coors to avoid getting a one-finger gesture from other drivers.
“It’s crazy,” he says.
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. Deck starts here
— This article appeared on page 14 of the Albuquerque Journal
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