I really have nothing to add to this press release from Santa Fe Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jason Wagner.

OK, I do have something to add. I hope they park this bad boy on Agua Fria.

Update Nov. 6: OK, I have something more to add. The New Mex said yesterday that drivers won’t get auto-tickets unless they’re driving 11 mph or more over the speed limit. Which means the police are admitting the actual speed limit in Santa Fe is whatever the sign says plus 10, right?

Today’s Journal North Journal Santa Fe Santa Fe Journal* has a rather enraging story about an artist, Paul Pascarella, who, after getting hit by a passing vehicle, got a ticket for walking on the wrong side of the road. From the Journal (subscription required):

Pascarella was walking on a narrow road recently when he was hit by the side mirror of a passing pickup. Pascarella was walking with traffic, not facing it — which, as Pascarella later found out in the hospital emergency room, is a definite no-no.

A State Police officer visited him at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, heard his story, read him the state statute on which side of the road pedestrians are supposed to use and gave him a warning citation.

Speaking to the Journal, NMSP spokesman Peter Olson didn’t even come close to acknowledging that the officer might’ve made a mistake in judgment.
There’s a sort-of-happy ending (spoiler: the guy who got hit gets a new jacket), but the real takeaway from the story is how terrible things are for anyone who’s not driving a car—preferably the largest four-wheel drive vehicle available—in Northern New Mexico. Albuquerque is doing more for cyclists and pedestrians than Santa Fe. You’d think local officials might find that embarrassing.

Instead, the general attitude is not too different from the state cop who cited a pedestrian for getting hit by a car. Or from this guy:

Last night, I went to pick up some groceries at Sunflower (sorry, Zane; sorry, Co-Op—but Sunflower sells beer). After locking up my bike, I saw a scene brewing in the parking lot. An older woman who’d been crossing the parking lot with her bags was scolding a driver in a sedan who’d nearly hit her. “Pedestrians have the right of way,” she said. Which happens to be true. A middle-aged man who’d seen what happened stood there to back her up.

The driver, who was younger and bigger than everyone around, was having none of it. He got out of his car, shouted at the woman—”I wasn’t going to too fast or nothing!”—and got close enough to the man to throw a punch. That looked like where things were headed, and I tried to get in between them, telling the driver to cool it.

I was thinking, “What kind of shitbag almost runs over a woman carrying her groceries, then gets out of his car not to apologize and see if she’s OK, but to brawl with the witnesses?”

The lady had a guess. As the driver was getting back into his car, she spat at him, “Go home and beat your wife!” To which he replied, “White trash bitch!” and drove away to points unknown.

Even if this dude wasn’t a wife-beater, he clearly had an anger problem. But, as any daily car commuter can attest, simply being on the road and behind the wheel in traffic is enough to make any normally sane person gnash his teeth and curse at total strangers. There must be a better way. Matter of fact, there is. It’s just that nobody in Santa Fe is talking about it. The most recent episode of NOW on PBS focuses on the transportation infrastructure in Denmark. You’d think a story like that would be a snooze, but it’s frankly inspirational. Watch it and ask, “Why can’t we do that?”

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* I’ve noticed some confusion about what the Albuquerque Journal’s special Santa Fe edition is actually called. The website is no help, see?

Or is it…

Until I got an email from the editor, Mark Oswald, I hadn’t heard “Santa Fe Journal,” but it’s his paper, so we’ll just go with that.

Joyce Bond of the city of Santa Fe’s Public Works Department passes along a flyer for a meeting every cyclist and pedestrian should probably attend.

The meeting is about the proposed bike/ped overpass at Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive—an intersection that’s bad enough if you’re driving, but flat-out if you’re walking or riding a bike. Especially with the Rail Runner tracks that just love to suck up skinny tires and throw riders face-first into the asphalt, with speeding cars and trucks coming from not one but four different directions.

It’s that bad.

Why show up? Because it’s not a done deal. And if you think a bike/ped crossing is a good idea at this intersection, the bureaucrats and engineers in charge need to hear that. The crossing’s opponents, who don’t like the cost or aesthetics of the project, are pretty vocal.

Here’s the deets:

Alvord Elementary School, 551 Alarid St.

Thursday, July 9, 6-8 pm

For more info, get in touch with Denise Weston at 821-4000 or (303)-514-3848, or dweston@parametrix.com.

Updated 11:45 am: How long till we see this headline in Santa Fe? Bicyclist hospitalized after accident.

Hot on the heels of SFR’s own commuter survey, the Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization is out with a two-page survey, geared mainly at cyclists and timed to Bike to Work Week.

I filled one out last week. You should too—even if you’re not a cyclist—although it’s a bit of a pain to print out and mail the PDF. Better to just pick up a form at one of this week’s many Bike To Work events.

(Update: Or use this fill-out-able version of the survey PDF, released late yesterday: Click to download.)

The best part of the survey is the essay question, natch. Not to try to influence your answers, but I suggested: Bike boxes at dangerous intersections, a “rolling stop” law for cyclists at lower-traffic intersections, and smoother shoulders, among other things. Last year I wrote an article for SFR’s sister paper in Portland with many more suggestions for bike-ped improvements that could work in Santa Fe.

Last week I got a letter from Severn Thomas of Livingston, Montana, who’ll be riding in the Santa Fe Century on May 17, “in the ‘Obama’ jersey.”

“As a serious recreational cyclist I have been the target of frequent verbal abuse; had bottles, trash and other projectiles thrown at me; been threatened with bodily harm; and nearly run off the road by several motorists,” Thomas writes. “Cyclists are not simply going to go away, and brazen attempts made by ill-tempered and irresponsible motorists to deny cyclist’s rights will only radicalize elements on both sides.”

Granted, there are plenty of irresponsible cyclists. Not two hours ago I passed a guy cycling the wrong way, in traffic, past the new convention center downtown. But as I cyclist, I know that Thomas is right.

On Sunday morning, headed south on Agua Fria, the driver of a big, shiny blue pickup tried to force me out of the rode as I merged out of the right-turn-only lane approaching an intersection. He then spent a moment honking at me as we waited for the light to turn green, only quieting down when I made it clear, by shouting, that I had a right to the road as well.

Even worse, a few weeks ago I had a similar experience with a city bus while at a red light on Guadalupe at Alameda. I could hear the bus creeping forward behind me. When I turned to look at the driver, he motioned that he wanted to take the right turn on red, which would’ve required me to enter the intersection on a red light. By creeping forward, he was essentially forcing me into cross traffic. This was a city bus, mind you.

Has any cyclist in Santa Fe not had several experiences like this?

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Can we just round it up to a cool billion?

New Mexico’s share of the federal stimulus package, passed by the Senate today in its version of the bill: $953 million.

That’s the word we got just a few minutes ago in a joint press release by New Mexico’s Democratic Senators, Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman.

Notably, the biggest NM-specific pieces of the package are for highway construction and repair ($246 million), “state fiscal stabilization”—i.e., preventing budget cuts—($206 million) and nearly $100 million for food stamps.

This might better be called a “keep-shit-from-falling-apart” package rather than a “stimulus” package.

Udall and Bingaman each brag about their contributions to the Senate bill:

Bingaman was able to include in the bill a tax credit that will allow companies, such as Schott, Advent Solar, Emcore and Nanopore, to write off 30 percent of the cost of investing in facilities to manufacture renewable energy technologies, like solar panels. He also was able to include a proposal to stimulate the demand for municipal bonds – and thus enable communities to obtain the financing they need to make infrastructure improvements – by allowing banks to acquire additional tax-exempt debt of up to $30 million, up from $10 million. This increase will make it possible for states and municipalities to borrow for school and road construction projects at a lower-interest rate at a time when capital is tight.

Is a lack of new construction really the core of the problem today?

Udall won unanimous support for an amendment he wrote to expand tax incentives to employers who hire veterans who have served since September 2001. The initiative will apply to veterans who are discharged from the Armed Services from September 2001 through December 2010, and includes veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bureau of Labor Statistic reports that of those veterans who served in our military since September 2001, 6.1 percent were unemployed and the economy has only worsened. At the same time, the jobless rate for veterans of all eras combined was 3.8 percent in 2007.

Hmm…so “war on terror” vets are beating the average national unemployment rate?

None of this is a done deal yet. Now the US House and Senate have to agree on a bill. Then Obama signs it, or not.

The Senators’ very long press release comes after the cut.

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