Hi- Agree with Ron on his points. Either it should be designated for bikes, or for parking, but confusing the way it is for drivers and riders (and whatever the legality- many skateboarders also use the shoulder/parking/bike lane to travel). I ride Campus and Copper every day (twice a day) and end up going in and out of traffic to stay out of the way of cars as much as possible when there parked vehicles along the road there. I was glad to hear the response from someone who has never had an issue with cars, but I find that stretch pretty crazy sometimes. Wellseley comes into Campus right by Monte Vista and cars parked between Wellseley and Monte Vista block the view from drivers trying to turn onto Campus. A number of close calls there. I do realize the small businesses need parking, but it does seem like this will increase exponentially with ART.
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 11:20 AM
To: 'ronhalbgewachs'; 'Davis, Pat'; 'Jim Strozier'; 'David Cameron'; 'Susan Michie'
Cc: neighbors@nobhill-nm.com
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART: Parking etc.
Hello Ron,
Copper does not run from Monte Vista to Carlisle. That is Campus Blvd.
Today is trash day and I just walked outside my office on Campus Blvd. There are very few cars parked up and down the street. It is, at least at this moment, quite available for car parking and bicycle traffic. In fact, on most weekdays during daylight business hours, there are usually an abundance of car parking spaces available on this road.
The many parking spaces going unused on Campus Blvd between Carlisle and Monte Vista Avenue are probably due, in part, to the confusion created by the presence of a marked bicycle trail on Campus Blvd. While that stretch of road is part of a designated bike path according to city maps, it is also designated for free, unlimited parking in the Nob Hill Hiland Sector Plan adopted by the City in 2007. (See Figure 23 of that plan.) It has been used for car parking for the entire time I have worked here, beginning in 1997.
Last September KOB’s Haley Rush was encouraged to do a story on cars parking in the bike lane. She did. Some Parking Enforcement officers saw it and for the next few days handed out dozens of tickets to people parking in that stretch. The City reviewed the immediate cries of foul, noted there had been designated free parking along Campus for years, and then directed the Parking Enforcement employees to stop issuing tickets and cancelled all tickets that had been issued.
Part of the KOB reporting included an interview with Jennifer Buntz who is a founding member of Duke City Wheelmen, the organization responsible for the placement of ghost bikes around the city and a couple of bicycle awareness rides each year. Ms. Buntz is also a certified biking instructor and coach and obviously takes bicycle safety very seriously. In the interview with Ms. Rush, Ms. Buntz suggested removing the bike lane designation and putting in marked parking spaces along Campus Blvd. That would provide drivers and bicyclists with the full and proper expectation that bicyclists on Campus would travel in the lane of traffic. Right now the bike lane makes drivers think that is only where bicyclists will be. Bicyclists feel somewhat compelled to go there but then must dodge out again around cars properly parked in those lanes. This creates confusing and dangerous movements. (See Ms. Buntz’ interview at http://krqe.com/2015/09/21/cars-parking-on-bike-lane-causes-confusion-in-albuquerque/.)
As a bicyclist who often uses Campus Blvd, I agree. Removing the bike lane designations and replacing them with clearly marked parking spaces up and down Campus would establish the bicyclists’ clear right to be in the full vehicular traffic lane. Drivers would expect them to be there. There would be no more unsafe biking dipping in and out of traffic around a few parked cars.
Regards,
Pat Massey
From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm [mailto:neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces@mailman.swcp.com]
On Behalf Of ronhalbgewachs via Neighbors_nobhill-nm
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 8:26 AM
To: Davis, Pat; Jim Strozier; David Cameron; Susan Michie
Cc: <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART: Parking etc.
Riding a bicycle along Campus is not too bad as long as you are careful at the storm grates on corners. Riding a bicycle on Copper from Monte Vista to Carlisle is a disaster. Christine Mermier is correct...there are essentially no bicycle lanes on Copper since the bicycle markings are covered up by the cars parked along Copper. And on trash days it gets even worse.
The federal government requirement of dedicated lanes for ART is apparently not a requirement; it is my understanding that ART buses will be in mixed traffic from the Railroad tracks to University.
Ron Halbgewachs
-----Original Message-----
From: "Davis, Pat via Neighbors_nobhill-nm"
Sent: Mar 22, 2016 3:49 PM
To: Jim Strozier , David Cameron , Susan Michie
Cc: ""
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART: Parking etc.
Thanks, Susan, David and Jim for catching us up on this conversation.
The Silver Ave bicycle boulevard project had public meetings last fall and comments from that meeting were incorporated into the proposal.
The project is currently out for design with an engineering firm and I will hold an additional public meeting in April to show the final proposed designs and to take public input. My goal is to have this project commence later this year and complete before the end of summer so we have a real bicycle boulevard in Nob Hill before any ART construction begins.
--
Pat Davis
Albuquerque City Councilor, District 6
505.768.3100 | patdavis@cabq.gov
From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces@mailman.swcp.com> on behalf of Jim Strozier via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com>
Reply-To: Jim Strozier <cp@consensusplanning.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 3:24 PM
To: David Cameron <rt66churchpastor@gmail.com>, Susan Michie <sgmichie@yahoo.com>
Cc: "<neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>" <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART: Parking etc.
David and Susan,
I don’t know much about the Silver project, but my understanding is that it includes back in or nose out angled parking. I understood it was approved, funded, and should be moving forward – not sure the extents or the schedule. I would suggest checking in with Sean at Councilor Davis’ office.
Hope that helps.
Jim Strozier, AICP
Consensus Planning, Inc.
( 505.764.9801
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From: David Cameron [mailto:rt66churchpastor@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 3:16 PM
To: Susan Michie <sgmichie@yahoo.com>
Cc: Christine Mermier <cmermier@unm.edu>; Jim Strozier <cp@consensusplanning.com>; Dan Spanogle <danspanogle@gmail.com>; ronhalbgewachs <ronhalbgewachs@peoplepc.com>; <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com> <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART: Parking etc.
Susan, thanks for this lengthy reply. Jim Strozier, I'm not sure where it stands, but about six months ago there was a meeting at Immanuel to talk about some Silver Street changes. One of the items proposed is back in angled parking on Silver west of Carlisle in some blocks.
David
On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Susan Michie via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:
As I understand it, the dedicated bus lane will have a rumble strip only, so that cars can still go around drivers that are parallel parking, as they do now. The rumble strip will also allow emergency vehicles to use the bus lane if necessary. Keep in mind that buses will be running at about 7 minute intervals which amounts to about 10 buses an hour in the bus lanes (that is way less than the traffic I have on my residential street!), thus the possibility of being hit by a bus when passing a parking car or crossing Central is not great.
The reason there will not be bike lanes on Central is because there is not enough room to widen sidewalks, keep the parking, and include bike lanes. Also, Copper and Silver run parallel to Central and are both "bike boulevards" - which means bikes share the road with cars. There are also new bike lanes on Lead/Coal. The bike lanes on Copper were included to let car drivers know that Copper is meant to be a route for bikers, the city told us when the bike lanes were painted in that cars would still be allowed to park on Copper - because the parking is so important to the small business owners - I agree. I bike down Copper/Campus often and have not experienced any issues with traffic.
Just for the record - when the city conducted the first study to determine if a BRT could work on Central, the plan was to replace the landscaped medians with one bi-directional bus lane with one station in Nob Hill. The NHNA opposed the plan because we wanted to keep the trees and medians, thinking that it would be impossible for pedestrians to cross Central with five lanes of traffic and no median. We sent out multiple notices on this list-serv and many neighbors sent letters to oppose removing the medians and trees and ask that the buses merge into the regular traffic thru Nob Hill (mixed flow in BRT lingo). According to the ART planners that was not possible because the Federal funding has a requirement for a "dedicated bus lane". Thus they recommended the bus lane with rumble strip so that the bus lanes would be "dedicated" but still usable to other traffic.
After the retail expert (Gibbs) was hired by Councilor Garduno last year, Nob Hill Main Street requested that the sidewalks be widened and planted with more trees instead of retaining the medians, at a public outreach at MVCC in Nob Hill (also posted on this list-serv) in March 2015 the attendees voted in favor of wider sidewalks, because they thought it would be better for the businesses - that is how the current plan evolved.
Although I was opposed to the BRT in the beginning, after the City Council voted unanimously to support it last year with little fanfare from the public, opposition no longer seemed to be a viable option and the NHNA did its best to obtain a plan that would be helpful to businesses in the future, including wider, tree lined sidewalks, calmer traffic, better maintenance, safer bus stations, and construction mitigation assistance.
There is a certain amount of risk involved in any new development and I honestly do not know if the ART will be great for Nob Hill, but I am not convinced that it will be bad for us either, as the business district has been in decline for several years now and the rest of Central Avenue is worse off than we are. In any case, I do not think it would be realistic or wise to expect the City Council to turn around and reject the Federal funding at this point. Also, if the funding is approved based on the plan that was submitted, then changing it substantially is not really feasible as grant funding typically has to be spent as stated in the application.
FYI - the ART is part of a larger plan to turn Nob Hill into a "Main Street Transit Corridor". All of that is now being laid out in the new city/county ABC-to -Z Comprehensive Plan that will be going before City Council in a couple of months - don't wait until it is too late to give your opinion on that plan. The deadline is March 11: https://www.cabq.gov/council/projects/current-projects/abc-z
Susan
re
From: Christine Mermier via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com>
To: Jim Strozier <cp@consensusplanning.com>; Dan Spanogle <danspanogle@gmail.com>; ronhalbgewachs <ronhalbgewachs@peoplepc.com>
Cc: "<neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>" <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 5, 2016 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART
Are bicycle lanes being considered?-as it is, Copper has a "bike lane", but car & trash can parking is allowed, so most of the time we are pushed out into the lane. Monte Vista is wide enough for both, so it is much safer. I worry about traffic being pushed off into the side roads where kids (and adults) skateboard and bike, and people even walk in the streets because the sidewalks are pretty worthless (narrow, phone poles in the middle, driveway cut-outs etc.).
Thanks for the input.
Christine Mermier
From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces@mailman.swcp.com> on behalf of ronhalbgewachs via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Friday, March 4, 2016 9:44 PM
To: Jim Strozier; Dan Spanogle
Cc: <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART
Where on Monte Vista is this being considered?
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Strozier
Sent: Mar 4, 2016 2:05 PM
To: Dan Spanogle
Cc: ronhalbgewachs , ""
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ARTThe City is planning to do back in (or nose out) angled parking on Silver and looking at it as an option for Monte Vista.
Jim Strozier, AICPConsensus Planning, Inc.
On Mar 4, 2016, at 8:17 AM, Dan Spanogle via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:I don't know if it is too late to make alterations to the parking plan...
It seems to me that a helpful parking solution would be to change it to 'back-in only angle in' parking.
I've seen this in other cities and it works great.
1. It doesn't take much more road space.
2. It's easier to back into an angled space with traffic than to parallel park.
3. It's safer for drivers to get in and out of their cars.
4. Nob Hill would get more parking spaces.
5. It's easier to merge back into traffic when leaving the parking space.
Just a quick thought.
On Thursday, March 3, 2016, ronhalbgewachs via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:The single lane of traffic Cliff refers to will be a mixture of automobiles and "local" city buses. Yes, it will be bumper to bumper and I bet really hard to accomplish parallel parking.
-----Original Message-----
From: Cliff Loucks via Neighbors_nobhill-nm
Sent: Mar 2, 2016 8:30 PM
To: ""
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ARTYes, the parallel parking is remaining. But I’m confused about how functional it will be. I say given this that I picture lots of bumper to bumper traffic in the single lane available for cars here in the heart of Nob Hill. I could certainly be wrong about that.
I’ve also been curious how the two lane traffic sections surrounding Nob Hill will smoothly transition into the single lane here in our neighborhood. After watching the traffic simulations on the ART website, what appears to happen is the outside traffic lanes becomes a Right Turn Only lane. Then I start picturing lots of unsuspecting motorists suddenly trying to merge into the thru lane.
I am not against the ART project, I’m merely suffering some confusion about the real life functionality of some aspects of it.
Please and Thank You,
—-Cliff
On Mar 2, 2016, at 4:46 PM, Jim Strozier via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:
I believe that the existing on-street parking is also being maintained in Nob Hill.
Jim Strozier, AICP
Consensus Planning, Inc.
Follow us on <image001.png>
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From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm [mailto:neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces@mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Susan Michie via Neighbors_nobhill-nm
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2016 4:32 PM
To: Anderson Robert <citizen@comcast.net>
Cc: neighbors@nobhill-nm.com Hill <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART
Robert - as I understand it, there is a traffic analysis for the ART that provides an estimate of how much traffic could potentially be displaced onto all traffic arteries that parallel Central, rather than a plan to directly divert traffic onto Lead/Coal.
Also, the current design plan will remove the medians and replace the same number of trees along the sidewalks and the parallel parking along Central will remain intact.
Susan
From: Anderson Robert <citizen@comcast.net>
To: Susan Michie <sgmichie@yahoo.com>
Cc: Greg Weirs <vgweirs@gmail.com>; "neighbors@nobhill-nm.com Hill" <neighbors@nobhill-nm.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART
As I recall the early discussions in 2014 there was no open talk of shifting the traffic off Central to Lead/Coal.
That was kept on the back burner and most people focused at the time on Central traffic. Now we know the full scope of what is planned with this ART. Is it necessary to destroy the communities along Lead/Coal to make a few bucks on Central?
On Mar 1, 2016, at 12:13 PM, Susan Michie via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:
Greg is right - I know of at least 3 public outreach events held by the NHNA in Nob Hill about the BRT/ART. One at Yanni's in 2013, two at MVCC in 2014 and 2015. In addition, Bruce Rizzeri with ABQ attended a NHNA Board meeting to take comment and answer questions. All of these meetings were either advertised over this list-serv or published in our agendas. Also, two articles about the ART and where to give input were published in two editions our NHNA Newsletter that is hand delivered to every household and business in Nob Hill.
I don't have a problem with people being opposed to the ART, but there is quite lot of invalid and unsubstantiated information being passed around over this list-serv and Nextdoor by the opposition. Whatever your position, you should be well-informed by both sides of the issue. Here is a link that may help you do that....
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--Dan
•This message was drafted and sent from my iPhone. Please excuse any errors in spelling and grammar.
Dan Spanogle
SW Property Pros, Inc
Owner / Qualifying Broker
Mobile 505-453-5999
Office 505-750-4555
eFax 888-511-7149
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--David M. Cameron, Pastor
Immanuel Presbyterian Church
In the Heart of the Neighborhood
Worship, 10:30 a.m. Sundays
114 Carlisle Blvd., SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
505-265-7628
