Readers’ questions have DOT thinking of answers
SOMETIMES READERS KNOW BEST: Recently two calls from readers got the traffic experts at the New Mexico Department of Transportation thinking. First, a caller asks about the white lines across what used to be a second eastbound turn lane on University under Interstate 40. The turn bay seems marked out, yet there are still arrows.
Our caller asks if the striping or the arrow need to be changed so it’s uniform as a single or a double turn.
Bernadette Bell, spokeswoman for the NMDOT District 3 Office, got with the traffic engineer, who says “we will evaluate and decide which would be the most appropriate fix to the described issue. Definitely clarity is needed for the motorist, so we will address it as soon as possible.”
Second, Stephanie Allen points out the southbound frontage road along Interstate 25 has a single left onto Menaul when all the turns to other major arterials — Lomas, Candelaria, etc., — have double left turns. Her point being, Menaul has three lanes to turn into, so why not use another of them?
NMDOT’s traffic engineer told Bell that’s a “valid question. We will conduct a field review and identify if the intersection traffic operations will support the proposed change.”
TRAPPED ON TOWER WITH NOBODY ON COORS: Joseph Mascarena called to say the signal at Coors and Tower gives too much green time to Coors when there is no traffic. East-west traffic has to “wait and wait and wait” even though there is “nobody on Coors.”
And that means “it gets scary around 9 or 10 o’clock at night. I’ve seen people run the light,” he says, because they get tired of waiting.
Robert Baker, Bernalillo County’s traffic control administrator, says “between 7 and 10 p.m. the county’s signals (on Coors) — Tower to Barcelona — are coordinated using a 90-second cycle length, which means it takes 90 seconds to service every movement.”
Specifically for Coors at Tower, that means the “left turns and through movements on Coors and through movements on Tower. The delay on Tower is approximately 60 seconds, which feels like longer to a lot of motorists. After 10 p.m. all of the signals run manually, so the wait time on Tower can be 30 seconds to just several seconds, depending on traffic. All of the county’s intersections on Coors run the same cycle length throughout the day, so the wait times on the side streets are pretty much the same.”
LOVING THE NEW HAWK SIGNAL: Roger Flegel would like to give “my sincere kudos to the city of Albuquerque for the (new pedestrian High-Intensity Activated CrossWalk) traffic signal on Lomas at Alvarado. I frequently walk my dog across Lomas and now go out of my way several blocks just to cross at this intersection.”
Roger feels “Albuquerque was overly planned for high-speed motorists with half-mile, traffic-controlled intersections. This is always a problem for pedestrians to cross elsewhere. Hopefully this will break the trend, and more pedestrian and bike crossings will be designed in other high and fast traffic areas.”
That said, Roger has “noted on several occasions; however, that motorists often wait for the pedestrian to pass and then speed through the intersection while, for them, there is still a red signal. This morning three cars went through. In addition, this morning I heard a motorist shout something at me. Since he was wasting his time at the light while I was passing, I’m sure he wasn’t telling me ‘good morning’.”
TEXTING BAN NOT ENOUGH: Tom Leith has noticed drivers justifying use of handheld devices, telephonic and otherwise, leading him to believe the new statewide texting-while-driving ban needs more enforcement.
“I was walking near the University of New Mexico and motioned for a driver to put down his phone, which he was holding in front of him like he was texting. He stopped, rolled down his window and asked me what did I want. I said ‘put down your phone.’ He replied, indignantly, that it was not a phone, rather it was a voice-activated GPS system. ... A few weeks ago I motioned for a woman to put down her phone while she was definitely texting while driving down Lomas. She became angry, slowed down, got behind (my motorcycle) and proceeded to speed past me, trying to run me off the road.”
“Without enforcement, there will be no change, no matter how much the message is displayed.”