I’ve generally avoided information regarding the long-awaited I-25/Montgomery-Montano interchange project, as my capacity to be irritated beyond all belief is limited. Nevertheless, this morning I decided to drop by NMDOT’s “i25improved.com” project website thinking I could handle at least a very quick look at what is currently planned.
That was a mistake.
Here’s your cycling nightmare, fellow bike enthusiasts!
Apologies to those trying to make this out on a phone, but the plan image above calls for a long, very long bike lane stuck between three driving lanes through and one, make it two, turn lanes heading from eastbound Montano to southbound I-25. Heck, the image above only captures about two-thirds of this bike lane. It goes on for what will surely seem forever to whomever is brave/dumb/insane enough to try riding it alongside the roughly 30,000 drivers per day heading similarly eastbound.
Anybody who has tried riding a bike between two lanes of drivers, for any length of travel at all, can tell you how uncomfortable it is. These unfortunate situations generally arise for only a few seconds at/near intersections. This project seems to offer that feeling of extreme discomfort for a long, long time. A nightmarishly long time.
Meanwhile, the plan, at least as imaged at the website doesn’t include any separated multi-use path and also has a similarly stupid bike lane stuck between driving lanes on Comanche. There’s more, but I withstood all the irritation I can stand just gathering the info outlined here.
I’m truly hoping that I’m looking at these maps wrong and/or they are wrong. Unfortunately, there’s damn close to zero written information throughout the website, including a FAQ that offers extremely scant info on anything and nothing about multi-modal travel whatsoever.
I truly welcome anybody willing to look through the website or pass along other information they have on this project, particularly if that information gives me anything other than my current opinion based on the few minutes I could stand to look upon it.
Because right now that opinion is more of a nightmare.
Better Burque 
Doesn’t seem like I can embed an image in the comments here, but it does look like there is a separated bike path a little to the west on both sides? Maybe to connect to north channel? Doesn’t excuse the seemingly disconnected suicide lane, but maybe I’ll call the hotline and see if they have more information. There honestly shouldn’t be a single bike lane on Montgomery unless they want to redesign the road or properly separate it.
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