I'm curious, after penning the following letter. Does anyone know of any bike-car crashes resulting from motorists overtaking bicyclists who are climbing into the Jemez? I've never seen or heard of one, and have had, in 11 years, only one instance of grumpiness on the part of an overtaking motorist. If you know of any crashes, send a comment.
Dear Transportation Board
Yesterday I received a phone call from a Los Alamos
resident who was referred to me by one of the Chandlers (I forget which one, and
did not write it down). The caller thought I was on the bicycling subcommittee of the
Transportation board.
I told him that to my knowledge, the Transportation Board
has not re-created a bicycling subcommittee and I'm certainly not on one, so
anything I say would be offered as the $0.02 of a private citizen.
The person went on to suggest that bicyclists riding
uphill on NM-4 (into the Jemez) create a dangerous situation since there are a
lot of tight curves and no shoulders, and that something should be done to make
the road more hospitable (such as adding pullouts for slow vehicles).
I told him that to my knowledge based on living here
since 2001, there has not been a crash resulting from a motorist overtaking a
cyclist climbing into the mountains on SR4 and that while overtaking on a
mountain road (or any road) often requires patience and attention to detail,
that does not translate into danger--it is the expectation in the West that we
need to plan on such situations, whether
the slower vehicle is a bicycle, large R/V, or a truck hauling horses. Back East where I am from, it is often Amish
buggies.
The two crashes on NM4 involving bicyclists and motor vehicles that I am aware of
were both caused by conflicts between oncoming vehicle operators, in one case a cyclist
and an oncoming motorcyclist, and a recent crash between a cyclist and an
oncoming car on the last hairpin. I'm not privy to the finer details.
Generally, we who live in the mountains drive and ride
that road with due diligence, as explicitly required by our traffic law. The speed limit on NM-4 West of Back Gate to the top of the climb is posted at 30 mph and sharp curves are
posted with lower advisory speeds. I am a regular cyclist on that road and
assert it is quite safe if overtaking motorists use prudence; cyclists can help
motorists overtake, such as by shading right when it is safe to do so. Since the road
is narrow, the position of a cyclist is moot on overtaking since a proper
overtaking distance (5' by county law, reasonable and prudent by state law) requires motorists to encroach into the oncoming lane regardless
as to how far out a cyclist is riding from the edge. For the record, I
generally ride about 18 inches from the edge of the pavement. It is in fact in
a motorists own interests to use care--no one knows when a deer or rockfall will lurk around a blind curve.
While improvements to NM-4 would be welcome, especially
given the damage to the road from heavy vehicle use during the Las Conchas
fire, asserting danger on the basis of one's personal comfort level
reduces the concept of danger to a subjective reaction rather than one of
science or engineering and that doesn't usually translate into good public
policy, whether it be mountain roads or roundabouts.
While I would cheer on the County if we were to contact
NMDOT on their future plans to improve NM-4, I say that with some trepidation
since the Law of Unintended Consequences will undoubtedly kick into high
gear--an improved road will probably encourage faster speeds and more
complacency. Right now, I think people hang up and pay attention, given the nature of NM-4.
I'm writing the T board and Chief Torpy since I was contacted
assuming I was a board member, so this is simply an FYI, in case it comes up.
