You might have seen recently via local TV news a story about removal of four “dangerous traffic circles” along Sunset Rd. S.W. between its southern terminus with Goff SW and Dolores Huerta/Bridge Blvd. after a study revealed it would be safer to remove them. As a South Valley resident who rides this stretch of Sunset a fair bit, allow me to dive in a tad to relate and illustrate the situation for those who don’t get out much to that part of the area.

The traffic circles were installed back in 2019 by Bernalillo County as an attempt to get drivers to go anywhere near as slow as the posted 25 mph speed limit. The circles start up southernmost at Beverly SW, with the furthest north at Yakima SW, a school crossing for Armijo Elementary.

And heck, while we’re here we might as well finish the set and show you the fourth and final removed traffic circle, at Bowe between Beverly and Yakima.

One thing to keep in mind is that BernCo has been trying to slow speeders down on this stretch of Sunset for years and years, not just going back to 2019. For instance, here’s the same Sunset/Bowe intersection from the other direction in October 2011.

A Short Diversion into Local TV News Coverage

Looking at the 2011 v. 2022 Streetviews of Sunset/Bowe, notice also that there was no sidewalk back in 2011, just a curbed gravelly path going one way and a no-way-in-hell-would-I-walk-this patch of gravel amid beat-to-hell reflectors going the other. These sidewalks created in the 2019 improvements along with the traffic circles aren’t brought up at all in the KOB story, while KRQE does mention that they were part of the $4 million project. Not surprisingly, neither story interviews any neighbors who walk/roll on these sidewalks, nor is it mentioned that raised medians, “Keep Right” signs, and beat-to-hell reflectors were in place prior.

Mention of sidewalk improvements, or lack thereof, is part of a subtle, yet significant difference between the KOB and KRQE versions of the story. From the KOB report we get declarative sentences such as, “Workers with the county are tearing down the structures residents say are the root of the issue.” The “issue” is not speeding drivers but these traffic circles because “residents say.”

KRQE’s Scott Brown and Jessica Barron take a different approach. Focusing on quotes from BernCo traffic engineer Rodrigo Eichwald, the story’s central declarative sentence is, “The county said a recent study revealed a problem: Drivers were speeding through the traffic circles meant to slow them down.”

While many might not see much of a difference in these two approaches, I’ll admit my multi-modal mindset might somewhat overstate that there IS a BIG difference. Nevertheless, there is a difference.

Just as we far, far too often get news in which a “car hits a pedestrian/cyclist” instead of a driver, KOB places blame on the inanimate (traffic circle) instead of drivers. In other words, “the issue” isn’t that drivers are going so goddamn fast up and down this stretch of Sunset that raised medians haven’t worked, these traffic circles haven’t worked, and BernCo is having to go back to the drawing board to try to figure out just how the hell to slow these drivers down.

No, it’s the traffic circle’s fault.

KRQE quite rightly focuses blame on speeding drivers and the inadequacy of this latest attempt at slowing their ass down. In my thinking, that’s a big difference.

End of Short Diversion

I live further south from the southern terminus of Sunset Rd. where it runs into Goff SW. Whether cycling or driving, there are generally three ways to get from my beloved South Valley to Central Ave. west of the River.

I say three ways because no South Valley cyclist in their right mind would try using Coors to get to Central and, as there are far too many drivers not in their right mind using it, even driving Coors to Central is a bad idea. Taking Old Coors, especially by bike, is somewhat like drinking old Coors relative to “new” Coors. It’s not a good idea, either. So you got Atrisco and Sunset.

Both of them also suck from a cycling perspective.

Atrisco SW is a checkerboard of new roadway with bike lane striping and new/old roadway without such striping. It’s fine until a driver shows up behind you. Then, like so many places around town/country/world, it is not fine. The same is true for Sunset, with the added wrinkle of periodic raised medians, very short speed bumps, and traffic circles. The raised medians are lousy because they squeeze driver and cyclist together, unless the driver crosses into opposing traffic to pass, which is often not a very good idea. Also, as many of these onrushing drivers are pissed off that they have to slow down because of the cyclist, they zoom post-median around/near the cyclist in an explosion of testosterone, truck exhaust, and shitty driving.

As I,KRQE, and Bernalillo County mentioned above, the problem is shitty drivers. Period.

So what are we going to do? Personally, until the situation truly improves, your humble blogger is not cycling north to Central west of the River 99.5% of the time. For me, it’s La Vega north to Dolores Huerta/Cesar Chaves/Bridge and across to the East side, even if my goal is to get back to, say, Atrisco NW to head up and over the bike/ped bridge at Atrisco and I-40. I almost always cross the River twice just to avoid Atrisco or Sunset SW.

The things we do because of drivers. As another example, I wonder how many kids use that crosswalk at Sunset and Yakima to get to their school, Armijo Elementary, raised median, traffic circle, or not versus how many would walk/roll to school if we just got rid of the shitty drivers. Because they are the problem (not the school kids).

Just one more thought as we pour out a 40 for the newly departed traffic circles on Sunset SW. I recall now that when I did ride Sunset during the era of traffic circles, I would ride as fast as I could and use the traffic circles as a way to get at least a little more separation from the drivers, due to the bike’s maneuverability compared with the big-ass drivers in their big-ass trucks. Notably, this personal attempt at a solution almost never worked better than any County attempt, so far.

Now that we’ve identified, reidentified and continued to identify ad nauseam the REAL problem on Sunset SW, let’s please not bash traffic circles as a traffic calming device. Countless studies have shown their effectiveness in elevating safety, even in environments with shitty drivers (I don’t think these formal studies use the term “shitty drivers” much, still…). Now, we’re the traffic circles on Sunset a good idea? Were they placed in the optimal locations and place within the roadway? More to the point, were they large enough, with tall, damage-causing curbs and significant damage-causing concrete/steel bollards?

No, this particular installation of these wimpy traffic circles wasn’t a good idea. For reasons outlined above, it turns out we can blame the traffic circles. But not quite in the way reflected in local TV news reports, particularly by KOB.

For now, the wimpy traffic circles are being replaced by stop signs. There’s a certain rich irony in this, one I plan to enhance by fully stopping on my bike in front of an onrushing big-ass driver/truck sometime soon. Maybe. I don’t know if “Scot as Traffic Calming device” is a good idea, either.