Had the nicest “Ride Through Hellish Bike Infrastructure” experience just the other day with the two folks unprofessionally photographed below, Margie Davis founder of ABQ’s Cycling Peeps and Charlie Otto, former brewery master and long-time world bike tourist.

The ride, taken generally through the northeast part of town really wasn’t that Hellish, except in the few places where it went from nice to crap, as these things (bike infrastructure, doughnuts, bowling, life) often do.

One nice turning possibly to crap place was where Moon Street ends for vehicles at Bear Canyon Arroyo Trail (the *red mark on the left):

The intersection is actually terrific, a crossroads of two multi-use paths amid a general sea of bike infrastructure, except that walkers/riders entering Bear Canyon from Moon in the direction of the photo below are blind to whether anybody is zooming downhill on the Bear Canyon Trail. Note that friendly neighbor X has put up a wall taller than the monolith in “2001: A Space Oddity” making for this potentially very dangerous situation:

But this little bit of Hell can be addressed, via one or more of the following methods:

1. A rounded mirror on the NW corner of this intersection, allowing riders on both Bear Canyon and Moon to see what’s around the corner;
2. A stop sign on Moon
3. A stop sign, a huge stencil saying “STOP” and a sign depicting a rider cut in two by another cyclist (with plenty of blood shooting out in graphic slow motion); or,
4. A sensor on Bear Canyon which would activate flashing lights at the intersection.

I actually prefer #4 above, both because it would be most effective and would cost the most money (and don’t we multi-use path users deserve nice things, too?).

Talk amongst (we’re British at Better Burque) yourselves and get back to me with your preference on how to correct this dangerous situation. Or come by the Greater Albuquerque Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting next Monday where we’ll be discussing this and several other little bits of biking Heaven and Hell around town.

Thanks to Margie and Charlie for an excellent time. Let’s do it again soon. By the way, anybody wanna join us into Hell?

*Also by the way, the other red mark denotes another blind intersection along this Trail.