Planners seeking comments on traveling around city

If you ride your bike, jog or walk around the Duke City, you no doubt have noticed hazards. You know, that pole that is inconveniently located on a sidewalk … or places where you’ve nearly had a bad encounter with another trail user (or a car).

Or maybe you just want to tell city officials how much you enjoy the river trail.

Until June 18, there’s an easy way to do just that.

As part of a Regional Safety Action Plan, being completed by the Mid-Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, an interactive map is posted online. This map, at wikimapping.com/wikimap/ bikepedfeedback.html, allows people to identify and share specific barriers in the Albuquerque area. The map also allows participants to share common bicycling and walking routes that they enjoy or use regularly.

To offer input in the map, users must provide their email addresses, but this is not data that the planning organization receives. It’s used to create a log-in allowing users to visit the site in the future, according to Caeri Thomas, transportation planner at the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

The overall goal is to identify priority safety problems, locations, and strategies for urban, suburban, and rural areas of the Albuquerque area.

Traffic research shows that problematic spots for drivers are often unsafe for all modes of transportation,” Thomas said. “This effort is based on the idea that by addressing safety issues for bicyclists and pedestrians — the most vulnerable modes — we can provide improvements in safety for all.”

The resulting plan will be shared with regional governments for transportation planning.

Another option for providing feedback is to take a survey at surveymonkey.com/r/safetyactionplan.

Thomas said comments have been mostly about concerns for bikes and pedestrians crossing streets — especially in Uptown and the International District.

“We are also asking folks for things they like,” she said.