Carol Clark reports that a second NM-4 rollover crash in two weeks has put a Los Alamos resident in the hospital and with a citation from the Santa Fe Sheriff to boot. A previous head on crash and resulting rollover killed a thirteen year old boy riding in one of the vehicles. I'm still waiting to hear if anyone was cited on that one. Finally, a cyclist riding on NM4 said a Government vehicle recently ran an oncoming car off the road on NM-4 while unsafely passing the bicyclist. Sheesh.
Many of us have complained about the sorry state of the pavement on NM-4 (narrow broken surface, zilch for paved shoulders, steep drop-offs from recent chipseal application) and the sorry driving of many of the motorists using it, but until the political issues of land ownership, funding, and roadway responsibility are resolved (the land is a state route set on a narrow San Ildefonso Pueblo easement and the state is broke), permission given to widen the road with decent shoulders, and money found to fund it, all of us have to be extra careful out there. That message seems to be ignored by a lot of people, at least based on my own observations and those of other cyclists who write to local email and blog forums. We can't always have great roads, so our only other choice is great operators--both "us" and "them".
For the long term, an improved NM4 will help not only cyclists but help all of us on the hill in the event of an evacuation, and help all of the commuters coming on and off the hill to go to work each day. I therefore suggest we all write the transportation board, the county council, and the Governor to keep them aware that we need to solve this problem. Think about that, and meanwhile....
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