In case you’re interested in the draft 2024 revision of the City’s Bike Plan, but not interested enough to consume 142 pages of Bike Plan, here’s the most important stuff excised from pages 99 and 100.

Given 142 pages, even a bureaucratically-saturated document (and even one in which your humble blogger played a beyond miniscule role in producing) does have more info that the two-page table above, but…not really. Also nowhere in the document is the first and most important question to be asked and/or answered: Why does the City have a separate Bikeway and Trail Facilities Plan instead of just a snigle citywide transportation plan for all roadways users?

Nevertheless, let’s ignore the obvious and unanswered questions and take a gander at the projects listed. At first I thought the above was listed by priority, but, alas, it’s merely alphabetical. Thus, the “Plausible, Near-Term” ones are chronological numbers 1, 2, etc. with “Long-Term” meaning everything from “yeah, maybe that will happen” to “never in a million years.” Sticking with my mistaken thought, however, let’s take a quick look 5th St. from Coal north to I-40 as it’s the “first” “Plausible Near-Term” project listed.

Here’s one-way 5th looking north at Slate. My riding buddy (ahead) and I rode the street north to I-40 at its most bike friendiest: 6:30 on a Sunday morning. MRCOG tells us 5th at Slate averages about 5,000 drivers a day, so the current lack of any bike lane/shoulder would have pretty much any cyclist riding the sidewalk. Come to think about it, this 6:30 on a Sunday morning ride was the first time I’ve EVER ridden this stretch of 5th as a self-proclaimed “Enthused & Confident” cyclist.

That said, the opportunity to “road diet” 5th here down to one lane (what with only 5,000 drivers a day) and setup a buffered/separated/physically separated bike lane looks pretty low-hanging fruit. It’s too bad the City just repaved this stretch (oops, not having a single, unified transportation plan), but there’s potential here.

That potential goes downhill as one gets to what will eventually/maybe/probably not be the fabled Seven Cities of Gold “ABQ Rail Trail.” Despite the wider roadway and striping obstensibly for parking (note bus stop sign above; the striping is actually an attempt at “traffic calming”) there’s a very noticeable increase in driver speed here, even at 6:31 on a Sunday morning. By the time one gets to the infamous 5th/6th curve (at far, far top of photo above), Creamland milk trucks and all sorts of driver whatnot prevented taking a photo for reasons of trying to stay alive. This whole stretch is gonna take major calming, Rail Trail or no.

Then comes the worst part: Arriving at your destination. This photo is taken from the west side of 6th Street to give an idea of just how bad an idea it is to ride (or walk) anywhere near this intersection. Moreover, the massive intersection doesn’t directly connect to anything other than signs like this:

6:32 on a Sunday morning or not, NOBODY feels “enthused and confident” walking or rolling at 5th and I-40. Also, to what bike infrastructure would this proposed terminus connect? Sure, one could try crossing under the interstate and continuing on 5th, but one is very likely more interested in staying alive. There is a potential east-west connector, but that’s gonna take some work.

You wily BB readers were probably already thinking of this: It’s the eastern start (actually restart, if you think about it) of the I-40 Trail a couple of blocks west at 7th St.

The current traverse from 5th/6th to this trailhead is an icky, dangerous go. If the proposed “Plausible Near-Term” project for 5th is to make any sense, significant improvement is required to make this connection safely viable. I know some of you wily BB readers are saying “That I-40 Trail is no great shakes, either, and only gets you to 12th.” Granted, but at least this connection would offer the relative safety of journeying north on bike-laned 12th, for example, over insanely choosing to venture further north on 5th past I-40.

So looking at the Plan list of high priority projects with “Plausible Near-Term” designation, that’s one down and nine to go. Damn. That means nine more bike rides. In case you don’t know me well, I’m kidding. I wish it were 900 more bike rides, especially as that would mean 900 more “Plausible Near-Term” projects.