Just a brief update on progress in our work to compile personal stories from the many, many cyclists who have crashed trying to cross the poorly angled train tracks on El Pueblo NE just south of Paseo del Norte:
Several have already reported such incidents (thanks!). Better Burque and members of the Greater Albuquerque Bicycling Advisory Committee are compiling those and other reports via public records request and other means.
Do we have your story yet?
If not, please email details to us here at Better Burque, directly comment to this post, or visit us at our Facebook page. In addition to the ongoing public records requests and other contacts, we have also been contacted by local media about this. News and outreach for more stories from sources far more popular than Better Burque is expected in the next few days.
Decisions on next steps on how to best use this information to get these tracks fixed will be made as we get a better handle on the volume of stories passed our way. We KNOW there are many cases out there; the more specific incidents we hear about, the more persuasive will be efforts to correct this literally decades-old problem.
Thanks for your story; thanks also for passing along the request for information to others who have crashed over the years. Getting these tracks fixed will take ongoing, persistent advocacy, and evidence of the damage caused by their existence is vital in that work.
Thanks!
Better Burque 
I crashed here in October of 2018. I had to visit the ER that night. My tire was caught in the railroad track and I was thrown over the handle bars. I have since been diagnosed with a hip pointer, concussion/TBI, and shoulder impingement. We were on our way to Balloon Fiesta and I had not ridden in this area before.
I have since had the following medicals:
MRI and EEG on head with neurologist.
CT scan in ER on head, neck and pelvis.
MRI on shoulder, awaiting results. I had a shot of cortisone in my shoulder. I may need further treatment depending on my MRI.
Xray on shoulder.
Physical Therapy for hip injury and shoulder impingement injury-4 plus months of PT.
Hearing aids to help with my brain injury processing issues.
Speech Therapy to help with my memory issues from concussion-8 sessions.
Multiple visits to a chiropractor.
Missed work for injury and doctors appointments
My helmet was cracked all the way through. My bike tire was bent.
It has been 5 months and I still feel like I have a long way to go to recover. I have memory loss, shoulder pain, trouble processing speech, aches and pains.
Please contact me if you would like more information.
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[…] have more recently brought this long-standing problem back to greater public attention, and we have roughly 30 stories from those kind enough to send in personal stories of crash and injury over these tracks. The […]
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[…] perhaps ride the train, when you could spend far less money preventing injuries, many serious, to cyclists who ARE ALREADY RIDING TO THE EVENT EACH YEAR in such significant numbers that the Bike ABQ bike […]
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