After a few pieces of information, observation and consternation here at Better Burque in response to the removal of protective bike lane curbs and flexposts on 4th Street Downtown, and scant information from the City on why it happened, someone on Twitter had the good idea that we ask Mayor Tim Keller via Twitter about it.
And guess what? He/his account wrote back. More than once. Here’s that exchange:
Good point and idea. @MayorKeller, what is your position on protected bike lanes? As the Administration is new, let’s try many different methods of communication, even though this might not turn out to be the best one. Yesterday’s @ABQDMD method certainly wasn’t.
— BetterBurque (@better_burque) March 27, 2018
We’re committed to supporting and promoting our cycling community, which includes conducting traffic analyses to produce more bicycle-friendly developments, and enforcing traffic laws that protect our city’s cyclists.
— Mayor Tim Keller (@MayorKeller) March 28, 2018
There you go. This Internet, even Twitter, may prove worthwhile as an informational tool, after all. Do questions remain? Absolutely. Movie shoot? Precisely what will that “different application” look like after the movie shoot? And so on..
Still, in what has been a solid week of grim, at times heart-breakingly so, news on the non-motorized roadway user front both locally and nationally, reading of Mayor Keller’s stated commitment to “supporting and promoting our cycling community…” above is appreciated, even through a Tweet.
Yes, actions must follow tweets and further questions must be answered. But we’ve made a start here. May things continue looking up for everybody on the roads, including us non-motorized travelers.
P.S.: Here’s what Better Burque wrote back to @MayorKeller after reading the above. Note the “Ask us, anytime” close. Twitter, 140 characters or even 280, is a tricky poetic form. I meant it as an invitation to “ask us,” not a demand that we be asked. Hope that got across. More importantly, I hope we in the non-motorized roadway community get plenty of chances to engage and chat with the Mayor and his Office, via various forms of communication, in weeks and years to come.
Thank you @MayorKeller, both for update/information and your commitment to protect cyclists on our roadways. As you probably know, many of us are ready, willing and actually will be helpful in moving forward to solutions that best mesh needs of all roadway users. Ask us, anytime!
— BetterBurque (@better_burque) March 28, 2018
Better Burque 
This is dumb. Leave them down and leave the streets for vehicles as they are intended for. There are bike trails along tramway, the nature center etc. that you all can use!
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Mjacks – You realize people use bicycles to go to work, and meetings, and lunch, right? My bicycle *is* my vehicle. It’s got a lot of advantages over my car – less expensive, takes up less space on the roads, less likely to kill middle school students trying to cross the street. The bike trails along Tramway and the Nature Center don’t get me to City Hall or the Hyatt building there at Fourth and Tijeras, where I frequently have meetings.
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Then use the sidewalks ans stay off the road.
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Lol have you ever walked down a sidewalk filled with bicyclist? It’s dangerous and a pain in the ass. It’s a sideWALK not a sideBIKE. More protected bike lanes! We need to create a psychological shift that makes bike commuting more appealing than contributing to a growing traffic and pollution problem, like they’ve done in cities such as Copenhagen or Salt Lake. I’m not saying it will eliminate traffic but it will help a growing issue as it has in those cities.
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It’s everybody’s road, Mjacks. Me on the bicycle, you in the car, a 12-year-old kid using the crosswalk. That said, your sentiments are shared by many, particularly motorists. We’re working to change that sentiment. It’s going to take some time. And hopefully not too many dead 12-year-olds and others walking/cycling on our roads.
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[…] Namely, it’s that damn bike lane on 4th Street roughly between Civic Plaza and Gold. You know, the one that had curb stops and flexposts providing physical separation (aka: “Positive Barriers”) between cyclists and motorists. The same first such barriers in the City that were yanked due to, as Mayor Keller put in a Tweet: […]
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