UNM’s Campus Blvd.: You Say Parking, I Say Plastic Poles

If you don’t have a reason or chance to visit UNM much these days, you might not have seen the recent changes to Campus Blvd., the road pretty much paralleling Lomas Blvd. south at the north edge of the Main Campus.

From the Project webpage.

About 99.9% of the University’s information regarding the project pertains to parking, car parking, reverse angled parking, and parking. There is also information about “convenient vehicle loading,” (i.e., parking). Nevertheless, the work has interesting multi-modal treatments, particularly at the corner of Campus and Redondo, seen here first pre-project looking west and in a series of poorly composed photos recently taken by your humble blogger.

As a frequent cycling user of turning left/northbound at this version of the three-way stop, I invariably found the drivers across from me kind and extremely cautious. The only uncertainty was the “no you go first; no, you go thing,” which is a good problem to have versus, say, crossing San Mateo at Claremont.
If you want to bore others at any upcoming holiday parties, you can bring up reflexive delineator posts (the white plastic poles) and truncated domes (the yellow textured pads). Note also the striped bulb-out, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than curb.
No, I don’t know what that Stop sign is doing way over there. Thanks for asking.
Yes, there is another, appropriately placed Stop sign in addition to the useless one. One other note: you can see Vassar NE at the top right. This very slightly off-set street is used by many, many walking/rolling folks (including me) to get across/from Lomas.

So instead of raised median east and west of Campus & Redondo, we have a arrangement of poles, domes, and stripes sticking out into the road. This type of “lo-fi” (i.e., inexpensive) treatment style is growing in popularity, as evidenced by its use along Louisiana Blvd. in that stroad’s recent project.

Look Ma! No curbs!

Two quick observations:

  1. Use of such lo-fi road dieting would seem to work (i.e., not kill anybody) a bit better at tranquil Campus & Redondo than at deadly Louisiana & Ross SE.
  2. It’s interesting that amid the plethora of info to drivers about how to use newfangled reverse angled parking (see below), there’s no info out there about what drivers are supposed to do regarding flexposts, etc. There seems to be a supposition that drivers are just supposed to know how to act in these lo-fi environments, but ask any walker/roller in town about the condition of, for instance, flexposts they’ve seen up close. It ain’t pretty (see further below).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. & Elm NE

All-in-all, I’m fine with the changes at Campus & Redondo, and folks tell me the overall project accomplished what it most highly prioritized, more multi-modal safety parking. If you haven’t had the chance/reason to walk and/or ride to/through UNM lately, use taking a gander at this roadway project as an excuse. As the single-greatest multi-modal experience in town, any excuse to visit the University will do.

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