We commend city of Albuquerque spokesman Johnny Chandler for his frankness speaking with KUNM’s Bryce Dix about why the city isn’t writing a whole lot of parking tickets for cars blocking bike lanes:

“With only five parking enforcement officers, we don’t have the ability to patrol the entire city and to enforce parking around the entire city,” said Johnny Chandler, spokesman for the Albuquerque Department of Municipal Development. He said they’re prioritizing ticketing in areas where there are parking meters like Nob Hill and downtown over bike lanes…. “We need to maximize our resources to focus on the areas where the economic activity is.”

So the city’s acknowledging an explicit decision here to prioritize the use of its police powers and scarce resources on behalf of retail businesses. Rather than road user safety.

The gap between ordinance and execution is vast. “Complete Streets” and “Vision Zero” face an uphill slog.