Response to "Cities can help extend bike riding enthusiasm" in the New Mexican

 I sent this in a week and a half ago. Posting it here, too although it was published Sunday, March 27th, along with Judith Gabriele's bike piece.

I thank the Editorial Board for its editorial support of making Santa Fe a more bicycle-friendly community. This is a complicated process requiring synergy in transportation design, land use planning and zoning, and tax policy.

Case in point. Some years back, the Bicycling Coalition of New Mexico strenuously objected to the rebuild of St. Francis Drive to three narrow lanes in each direction rather than installing bike lanes. This rebuild was done to increase motor vehicle level of service regardless of what effect that would have on transportation alternatives along this critical arterial. Another case in point. You can add "protected bike lanes" to a road like Cerrillos, but numerous turning and crossing points serve side streets and businesses while high speeds are posted; a bicyclist is only protected until, as a friend once quipped, the moment of impact. Thus two critical business corridors are bicycle-hostile. 

Santa Fe Bicycle Crash Map. Source, SFPD study published in the Santa Fe New Mexican

Urban sprawl is our enemy. Many European cities can more easily adopt mass transit and the bicycle as they have stayed compact. American cities have meanwhile sprawled because Americans like low density development and recent “arterial and cul-de-sac” designs for privacy. These designs rapidly create safety and distance hardships to the point where the bicycle is not viable for transportation. While e-bikes may change the distance factor, it is still a hard sell.

Creating an environmentally-sustainable, bicycle friendly city takes an enormous amount of work, and means synergistically looking at road design, land use planning, tax policy, and enforcing safe behavior. Our bike trails need to be well maintained and connect people to where they need to go. Distances must be managed by intelligent land use planning. Road speeds must not be so excessive as to create instant death to someone hit by a car. Do we really need 40-45 mph arterials in a city? Finally, citizens must be made aware, through tax policy, that low density development means each of us has a bigger bill to pay for the city services we take for granted.

One thing the city could do right now to show the way is declare that Canyon Road is a Woonerf, i.e., a European design where motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists have equal rights to share space without a hierarchy. Considering the foot traffic and narrowness of the road, it should be a no-brainer. Such a move would demonstrate a change in paradigm in how we treat mobility in our city. One has to start somewhere, and that's my suggestion.

 

More here: To Tunnel, or Not to Tunnel, That is the Question

First Day of Spring Ride

 

The road descending into Cañada de los Alamos

Being the first day of spring, I decided to get off my hind end yesterday, wind and all, since the weather was forecast to go back to snow, sleet, hail, and rain today, which it did. Not that I mind, as we need every drop of moisture we can get.

I rode through town and out Old Santa Fe Trail to where it bifurcates into two dead ends. One looked intriguing, going down a steep hill into a little hamlet called Cañada de los Alamos (no relation to BombTowne). So I figured that since my knees, which have been a little creakly lately, seemed to be holding up pretty well, one more steep climb back out was acceptable.

It was a lovely little jaunt down a fast set of switchbacks and then through the little hamlet until...suddenly the pavement ended, going to a dirt road, so I turned around. Riding back out, I had a sudden flashback to riding on the Windward side of Oahu near Olomana, as it seemed eerily familiar--on the windward side of a range from the beeg city, in a little hollow of a hamlet, and a vista off to the east which in this case was not an ocean but the flats of Eldorado.

A nice first day of spring ride it was, about 24 miles.

Gasoline vs Mac and Cheese vs. PB&J Sandwich?

 The Santa Fe New Mexican is telling us that gas is at an all time high price. Well, not quite, actually. If corrected for inflation, we have a few cents to go to top the 2008 shock. But still, if one is on a limited budget, $4.09 a gallon translates into trading several pictures of Andrew Jackson to fill a tank. Not good if you are on a limited budget.

But if you live in town, there is an alternative to consider as a cost/benefit. Ride a bike. At 20 mpg city driving, a ten mile trip will cost about half a gallon of gas, or a little over two bucks right now. At fifty calories per mile for an average American on a bicycle, one can ask how expensive food is to cover that same distance.

 It all depends on what you eat, but right now, Trader Joe's Hatch Chile Mac and Cheese sells for about three bucks and has about 520 calories per box. So about three bucks for that ten mile trip. That calorie intake is also about one and a half peanut butter sandwiches, so one can go far more frugal. See below.

Of course, there is a lot more than energy content that goes into the discussion. My car needs insurance, a place to park, a lot of up front money to purchase, and more expensive maintenance. But at some point, the fuel in the tummy vs. the fuel in the tank break even and cross over and frankly, we are there. And then there is the fun factor. Which is why bicycle infrastructure that gets you where you need to go rather than built as a purely park resource matters.

Getting back to that peanut butter sandwich, the 500 calorie goal can be hit for under a dollar, or half the price of gas. Mind you, these are 2014 numbers so increase them by 20% to correct for inflation.

Source, Business Insider

So fasten on the fenders and panniers and go get 'em, tiger. The groceries, that is.

 

The Surly Long Haul Trucker in urban utility dress

With a tip of the hat to Patrick O'Grady at Maddogmedia.com for getting me thinking about this. And speaking of 409....with a tip of the hat to my old man, who worked for a while in the Tonawanda Chevrolet Engine Plant, where they made those bad boys, before transferring to the Gear and Axle plant, where he had more seniority.

Somewhat related, over at Strong Towns:

High Gas Prices Are Just One Symptom of a Much Greater Problem

 

NM Dept of Transportation Seeks Input on Ski Hill Road (NM 475) Repaving

 This just in. Sorry for the short notice. With a hat tip to the Seniors on Bikes

Ski Hill NMDOT seeking input on repaving

By bobb on Mar 02, 2022 09:32 am

This is an opportunity for cyclists to give their input to a cycling route that begs for improvement.

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/6fad5b60253145b3ab4d106c89655b8b

Also on March 3, today when you read this, at 6pm an online public meeting hosted by the NMDOT to discuss a reconstruction project on NM 475 from Bishops Lodge to the SF Ski Basin. Meeting is intended to inform public of plans and to solicit input. This is great opportunity for NM cyclists to provide input on what they consider a safe riding environment. Meeting is free but participants must pre-register. Go to NMDOT website at www.dot.nm.gov and click on link for events/public meetings.