Saturday, May 16, 2009

Bomb Town to finally have a Co-Op

According to Greg Kendall over at Los Alamos County Views, we are finally going to get a cooperative market. It will be located in the Entrada development.

Well, the good news is we will have a Co-op. The bad news is that it will not be downtown. Greg tells us "...there will be turn lanes and acceleration lanes on State Road 502 at Entrada..." Sure. These will serve motorists, but we need to find out how the cyclist will be served. Its probably written down somewhere, and forgive me for not knowing where.

Entrada and Airport Site Details here, including links to blueprints including intersection changes.

The NM DoT link for NM 502 improvements is here. It stops at Tewa.

Its a little ironic that we continue to talk about Complete Streets and a compact, sustainable city, but continue to build outwards with the assumption that everyone will continue to jump into their cars. I guess we have to build where we get the land, i.e., DOE land transfers, since we can't seem to figure out how to fill in some of our vast acres of parking lots Downtown.

Presumably, once Entrada is up and running, an Atomic City bus route will be out there serving the eastern community and this new center for economic development.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said. I'm afraid crossing 502 on a bike anytime during the week after work and at other times of the day would be nearly impossible.

On another note, I see riding on Diamond now will almost be impossible, too, because of the narrow construction lanes. Does the County expect cyclists to ride on the sidewalk if we want to go down Diamond? It will be a long summer riding through North Community.

-Caroline

Khal said...

For those not happy with riding through the construction zone, I would recommend taking North Road around the mess (i.e., Conoco Hill to where North comes back out near Quemezon). I rode straight home through the mess on Friday without incident, but plan on doing the end run in the future.

I saw some cyclists riding the wrong way behind the construction barriers today. That might work on Sundays but would be hazardous and probably against the law when workers are working behind the barriers.

I realize it sucks, but there just isn't much room there for alternatives, if we are going to get that job done in our short construction season. Short term pain, long term gain.

Jimbo said...

Hey Khal,

I'm glad you noticed the sprawl aspect to Entrada and Airport Basin. It's a little ironic that the County insists on encroaching into or approving developments that encroach into our raison d'etre for the quality of life we enjoy here in an attempt to enhance our quality of life.

It's madness.

As I've said before, mankind won't be content until it's paved every square inch of the planet. The County is doing its part to ensure that no corner of our community goes unpaved.

Madness, again.