Visualizing safer roads in Albuquerque
Affordable improvements in pedestrian experience would benefit Albuquerques public health, climate, and equity goals - but what does that look like? Vision Zero series - post #2
Visualization, I believe, is a key aspect of achieving any goal. In my track and cross country days, I was coached to visualize myself winning a race, running a certain time, or finishing a tough workout. Visualization is one of the many steps between setting goals and achieving goals. I was more prepared to execute a race with confidence and reach my goal after visualizing myself doing it. This is a practice used by many professional athletes and high achievers in any field.
When it comes to building a better city, why not apply that same goal-oriented visualization?
Last week’s post touched on the financial reality Vision Zero faces in Albuquerque - the city with the most pedestrian deaths per capita in the US. Vision Zero, a city-wide goal to eliminate said deaths, has been on Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s agenda since 2019. While progress has been made, more funding must be secured to implement the entire vision, and we need to picture what that vision physically looks like. Today’s post will focus on visualizing the minor investments that can improve Albuquerque’s built environment.
Vision Zero is about more than decreasing deaths - it’s also about improving the lives of all of Albuquerque’s residents. Between the economic, health, and environmental benefits, it’s a surprise that we didn’t implement Vision Zero long ago. Walkable, comfortable neighborhoods are more aesthetically pleasing, quieter, and cleaner than car-centric neighborhoods, and the health benefits are astounding. Minor investments like paint, bollards, and trees, can transform a neighborhood and invite people to feel safe exploring on foot.
Some investments like light rail may seem expensive, but are still cheaper for a community than the car-centric alternative when you factor in health and infrastructure costs, and economic implications. Albuquerque has a ways to go until all its streets have accounted for people. It has a lot of wide streets, narrow and incomplete sidewalks, and fast drivers. Drivers that, per capita, kill more pedestrians than any other drivers in the US.
Then again, it would be lazy of me to blame drivers for all pedestrian fatalities - just as one shouldn't blame pedestrians for being in the way. We need to move away from the “Traditional” way of thinking, and move toward a “Safe System Approach,” as charted by the Vision Zero Network:
We’re all a product of our environment. Speeding is one of the biggest causes of pedestrian fatalities, yet our streets are engineered with vehicle speed in mind. By providing drivers with wide, five and seven-lane highways going through neighborhoods, drivers are encouraged to speed.
On the other hand, narrow streets are proven to decrease driver speeds. More inclusive road engineering practices can provide an environment where drivers don’t want to speed and pedestrians are protected. Overall, American transportation engineers haven’t quite grasped this. Steffen Berr, a Dutch-American transportation engineer says that in America, “transportation engineering" is a specialty within civil engineering when it's really a separate field. They think "transportation engineering is just where the paint goes. They don't know what transportation infrastructure actually is.”
According to Berr, “transportation engineers” in America are typically ex-civil engineering students who took a class or two in transportation during their undergrad. I’m sure there are many great, people-centric transportation engineers in the US with civil engineering backgrounds, but America’s built environment doesn’t reflect well on the strength of transportation engineering in the US.
U.S. pedestrian deaths are at their highest level in 41 years while other developed countries have improved significantly:
Furthermore, the more active transportation a country has, the less obese people are and the US has become plump. It’s obvious that the U.S. is going in the wrong direction, but what exactly should be different?
Suppose the US focused a little more money on pedestrian infrastructure, and a little less on widening highways - what would it look like to implement Vision Zero?
The most effective way to decrease pedestrian fatalities is to ban or seriously restrict cars in key places. A street without cars is hard to come by in the US, but some exist, and they’re very popular among citizens, increasingly so since the pandemic. Of course, nobody is about to ban cars across all of Albuquerque, but the city should revisit the idea of giving Albuquerque a car-free street for shopping, dining, greenery, and… I don’t know, chess boards or something.
Given the backlash from businesses the last time Albuquerque tried something like this on 4th Street, it’s probably unlikely to happen anytime soon. Yet, I have hope that Albuquerque will someday realize how successful ART has actually been, and other major pedestrian projects will follow. One of the next big additions to the ART line should probably spur off from the Central vein South between Isotopes baseball and UNM basketball and football stadiums, down to the airport. Strategically placed car-free streets, pedestrian paths like the Rail Trail, and more ART lines will eventually be the pillars of Vision Zero Albuquerque.
While bigger projects like the Rail Trail unfold, and hopefully a new ART line in the future, the city should tick off less expensive and controversial Vision Zero projects - like implementing wider sidewalks and traffic calming measures city-wide.
Daylighting, according to mobility journalist John Surico, is, “a process that pays close attention to the schematics of the street where most crashes occur: the corners of crossings. If intersections are clear of obstructions like parked cars — or “brighter,” to follow the expression — then drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists would all be able to see one another better.”
Daylighting efforts have decreased vehicle/pedestrian collisions in New York City, and residents are beginning to realize the benefits of such cheap, easy-to-implement solutions. Bumpouts, or curb extensions, are another common technique used to daylight, narrow the road, and decrease the crossing distance for pedestrians. With a little paint, plastic reflectors, concrete bollards, a dining shed, or greenery, cities can quickly make sketchy intersections safer.
Decreasing visual impairments on the road (like parked cars) is only part of the equation - speeding is one of the biggest causes of pedestrian fatalities in the US, and simple street applications can help. Daylighting efforts help reduce speeds by narrowing the street in key areas - like near crosswalks, or in an alternating fashion to create meandering lanes that don’t allow drivers to simply straight-shoot with a lead foot.
Other simple additions like speed tables reduce speeds further while offering more comfort for pedestrians and drivers.
Speed tables give pedestrians a raised path to walk across the street - increasing their visibility and comfort - and, unlike speed bumps, give drivers a less jarring, but equally effective reason to slow down.
Physical barriers are the last no-brainer infrastructure needs I’ll touch on. Seperated bike lanes with more than just paint between the cars and the bike lane are hard to come by in Albuquerque. I often see cars swerving into the bike lane to pass other cars going over the speed limit - usually prompting me to yell obscenities as if my antics make a difference. Concrete bollards and dividers give pedestrians the safety and peace of mind that strengthens an urge to walk or cycle places.
Despite Albuquerque’s Complete Streets ordinance, most streets are still “incomplete.”
Wide, incomplete streets without traffic calming measures are more like freeways, and drivers will go as fast as they feel comfortable going. In residential and retail areas, fast vehicle speeds come at the expense of the people who live and work there. Fast streets are louder, more dangerous, and more polluting than slow streets, and everyone deserves to walk outside their home or workplace and cross the street safely and comfortably.
Decreasing pedestrian deaths is the major focus of Vision Zero, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about tapping into the plethora of benefits that come from pedestrianizing - it’s about providing human scale to cities - and it’s about equity. There’s a long way to go, but the beautiful thing is it’s not rocket science - we just need to slow cars down and give pedestrians more room.
Abq’s Vision Zero and Complete Streets programs have given the city pedestrian safety goals, but maybe it’s time to start visualizing Albuquerque achieving those goals. I hope that the examples I shared in this post helped you better visualize the changes that need to happen in your neighborhood.
I’d love to see all of these pedestrian focused actions taken in Albuquerque. A safer and more walkable city is what our community needs. All for it!