I was going to attend Tuesday’s 5:00 PM NMDOT “I-25 S-Curve Study” public meeting at CNM’s Smith Brasher Hall, but hesitated to risk riding up Coal Ave. across I-25 during a darkening rush hour due to safety concerns. Going up that hill from Downtown at dusk with all those drivers desperate to get home isn’t much fun.

Which is precisely, and ironically, why the meeting, study, and eventual changes to I-25 at Coal and environs are so important to those of us who walk and roll their way to places around town.

As any of the media stories about the Study and Tuesday’s meeting will tell you, the project is all about drivers and cars and drivers and more cars. Trucks, too. And how the drivers are in danger because of the infamous curve.

Full disclosure: I don’t really give a shit about those drivers killing themselves on I-25, curve or no curve.

All I care about is when those drivers try to get on/off the Interstate and run into me interact with me at one of the I-25 crossings, most particularly the ones I have taken at least once a week now for about 25 years: Lead and Coal.

In the cycling parlance, I “don’t do” Central & I-25, and I sure as hell don’t do Cesar Chavez. I do MLK (or Indian School) sometimes when I need to end up north of Central, but most often I take Coal up whether ending up north or south of Central, followed by some Silver Bike Blvd. and cutting through UNM if bound for points north, because riding through UNM is wonderful.

Going back home to the South Valley, I take Lead 95 times out of 100, using Silver to avoid the traffic to various points west, before dropping onto Lead somewhere such as near Presbyterian. Neither Lead or Coal are for every cyclist; plenty of folks who regularly roll won’t do either of them because of the danger. The sad result is that many of us who walk and roll don’t cross I-25 at all for this reason.

Hence I really wanted to go to the public meeting, but…

Instead, I spent quite a bit of time yesterday, post-meeting, staring at the presentation materials now generously available online. It’s really easy to get overwhelmed with all the lines, arrows, and details multiplied through the many Project “Alternatives” and Alternative judging criteria. So, let’s sift through much of that, especially the drivers-specific stuff like the number of driving lanes on the Interstate itself, and focus on what matters to me, and maybe a few others who walk and roll their way through town.

At this point pretty late in the process, the Study folks have whittled down choices to four identified Alternatives with the unhelpful designations, “E,” “G,” “J,” and “L.” Calling them something like “John,” “Paul,” “George,” and “Ringo” (i.e., “The Beatles”) would make the choices infinitely easy to remember, but this is NMDOT we’re talking about. There’s also the widely touted and favored “No Build Alternative,” i.e., “Don’t Do a Damn Thing.”

Urban advocacy folks such as Strongtowns Albuquerque have advocated for “No Build” instead of the Beatles, summing up the Study as an “outdated highway expansion.” Many S-Curve neighbors have also pressed for “No Build,” concerned about property relocations, including some identified as historically important, project noise and disruption, and other negative impacts.

Here at Better Burque we’re going hyper-specific. In our admittedly self-preservation centered opinion, all the choices boil down to preference regarding just two of the approximately seventy-eleven images and Alternatives sprawled through the Study materials.

First we have Alternative George (i.e., “J”) at Coal west of I-25

And then there’s the same intersection in Alternative Ringo (“L”)

Putting some words to the pictures above, George proposes that we maintain the current direct driver southbound I-25 access for folks turning from eastbound Coal right/north to the on-ramp (or going straight through from Lead, etc.). Ringo says fuck that and proposes (in an endearing Liverpudlian accent) that we make Coal a two-way stop, offering drivers NO direct access to I-25 southbound.

Well, as much as I love George Harrison and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” I’m signed on to Team Ringo in the biggest way possible. You mean I get:

1. Zero drivers jonesing to get on that autobahn with zero speed enforcement as they zoom up from Downtown to get to their 3-2-2 cul de sac Mcmansion in Los Lunas in time for a quick pop or two before dinner?
2. And a separated fancy sidewalk, perhaps separated, of some sort (I think it’s supposed to be a plenty wide multi-use path at which I never even have to stop as I huff and puff my way up that Coal hill until past I-25?

Well, give me Ringo over George every time, my personal dislike for “Octopus’ Garden” be damned. And this is important for many reasons, most importantly including what’s laid out in this “Analysis Summary” from NMDOT:

Yep. Alternatives John and Paul are dead, walrus or not, “No Build” is just moving forward as benchmark (sorry “No Build” fans), and it’s between George and Ringo. All subject to change of course, especially if the “No Build” folks can build enough community and politico rage.

Let’s wrap up by pulling our sights back on Ringo to take in the project scope and a few other details.

Readers are highly encouraged to stare at the presentation materials, such as this one with a bit more pedestrian/cycling detail with big-time magnification. There’s a lot going on in these things. A few of those things with Alternative Ringo are:

1. The aforementioned lack of driver access southbound, actually zero between Central and Cesar Chavez. Thus, drivers couldn’t get onto southbound I-25 from Coal OR Lead, and would only take a left east of I-25 if they wanted to go back up the hill on Coal. The resulting huge reduction in left turners would be great, especially if a separated bike lane could be configured for the left side of Lead from, say, Sycamore west, thus avoiding the still resultant from Alternative Ringo hell that is all the drivers jonesing to turn right/northbound from Lead to I-25.
2. Yes, Ringo would mean folks living near Roosevelt Park would have to drive north to Central to find a street with access back south on I-25. As mentioned earlier, I don’t care, but my guess is that many neighbors/drivers are going to complain, perhaps successfully, about this. Ringo could be in danger.

The I-25 S-Curve Study details many, many other changes, and readers who care but don’t happen to care much about Lead/Coal can find many other things to get happy/pissed-off about through the links above. Perhaps mostly pissed off. Change is like that, especially when that change does not include perfectly good ideas like putting an urban lid with affordable housing and parks over this whole stretch of interstate, ala Phoenix, or at least installing a walk/cycle bridge over the interstate at Silver.

We’re now in another public comment period before a final decision is reached, and let’s finally finish this thing by passing along that info while also learning how well a simple copy/paste does with the links, etc. in the information below:

You can still provide public comments in various ways:

• Fill out the survey online:

Online Survey

• Call the study team at 505-600-2232 
• Email the study team at study@i25scurve.com
• Mail a comment to:

I-25 S-Curve Area Study c/o Horrocks

6001 Indian School Road NE, Ste 250

Albuquerque, NM 87110