[Neighbors] ART: Parking etc.

Sat Mar 5 13:02:12 MST 2016

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 at mailman.swcp.com>
 To: Jim Strozier <cp at consensusplanning.com>; Dan Spanogle <danspanogle at gmail.com>; ronhalbgewachs <ronhalbgewachs at peoplepc.com> 
Cc: "<neighbors at nobhill-nm.com>" <neighbors at nobhill-nm.com>
 Sent: Saturday, March 5, 2016 8:06 AM
 Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART

#yiv4852337415 #yiv4852337415 -- P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}#yiv4852337415 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 at mailman.swcp.com> on behalf of ronhalbgewachs via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Friday, March 4, 2016 9:44 PM
To: Jim Strozier; Dan Spanogle
Cc: <neighbors at 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] ART 

The 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 at 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 at 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] ART 

Yes, 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 at mailman.swcp.com> wrote:
I believe that the existing on-street parking is also being maintained in Nob Hill. Jim Strozier, AICPConsensus Planning, Inc.( 505.764.9801www.consensusplanning.com  Follow us on <image001.png>P SAVE PAPER - Only print this e-mail if necessaryhttp://www.dyslexiefont.com/en/dyslexia-font/ From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm [mailto:neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Susan Michie via Neighbors_nobhill-nm
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2016 4:32 PM
To: Anderson Robert <citizen at comcast.net>
Cc: neighbors at nobhill-nm.com Hill <neighbors at 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 at comcast.net>
To: Susan Michie <sgmichie at yahoo.com> 
Cc: Greg Weirs <vgweirs at gmail.com>; "neighbors at nobhill-nm.com Hill" <neighbors at 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 at 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.... In Defense of ART – A Response to Save Route 66 Central’s Open Letter
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| In Defense of ART – A Response to Save Route 66 Central’...By Dan Majewski Edited by Jessica Carr, Chad Gruber, Leila Salim, Michael Vos and other UrbanABQ team members February 21, 2016 Preface  As of Tuesda... |
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 Susan From: Greg Weirs via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com>
To: "neighbors at nobhill-nm.com" <neighbors at nobhill-nm.com> 
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2016 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] ART I'm sorry, I have to disagree with your statement "It is a lie" that public meetings were held to get input. Here are some links to the archives of this email list where meetings were announced and other posts on the topic. There may be others as well, I did not do an exhaustive search. I do recall attending at least two meetings, and I estimate there were 50-100 other attendees at each. March 5, 2015: http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/neighbors_nobhill-nm/2015-February/006056.html June 2013: http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/neighbors_nobhill-nm/2013-June/004056.html May 2013: http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/neighbors_nobhill-nm/2013-May/thread.html (please browse the thread titles for a number of posts)  Greg On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 1:04 PM, Anderson Robert via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com> wrote:
Pete Dinielli is right on this.  We should all go to city council Monday night and put this on their agenda again.  What I keep hearing from the city is how they consulted with so many people on this before hand.  It is a lie.  I figure they did talk to a few developers and people who want to spend a pile of money.  I have lived here near 40 years now and know hundreds of local community residents, neighbors and friends and none of those folks told me the city had done outreach to them about this project.  In fact if any of us voiced opposition we were deliberately excluded it seems. We need more public transit for sure but this project with its stealth component of turning Lead and Coal and Zuni into major interstate highways will destroy the stable long-term neighborhoods on both sides of Central.  What we will have is a major exit of what makes up stable middle-class communities.  Speculators like this kind of out migration.  The plan has no consideration at all of the impact on the communities as far as I can tell. The more the public looks at it the more problems we can see with it, trees, crossings, more oil, parking, bankruptcies from more loans to businesses not doing well now...  I found the meeting last night helpful and learned a lot from folks who spoke in opposition to this plan. This ART is BARF, Shut it Down!  Bob  On Feb 26, 2016, at 11:11 AM, Thomas Simic via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com> wrote: I attended the meeting last night. There were a lot of angry people and rightfully so. After attending the meeting, I am more concerned about the negative affect this project will have on Nob Hill, by eliminating appx. 71 trees, 68 parking spaces and most left turn signals on Central.  There is limited parking for people coming to Nob Hill presently and we are taking away more parking.All of this will affect businesses. There will be an increase of 300 cars during rush hour on Lead & Coal. I live on Carlisle & Coal and witness first hand the speeding,excessive noice from modified mufflers and big boom speakers in vehicles that rattle your house,  accidents and loss of life at this intersection, not to mention the trash that people throw out of their windows. this will only increase this problem.  The new buses will still use fossil fuels. There was mention about looking at an electric bus but no promise of such.  I think we need to find a way to get a moratorium to stop this project and have everyone go back to the drawing board. I am in favor of progress but.....is this progress?? Will the ART plan compete with plans in other states 5-10yrs. from now?? Let's think about the future when making Albuquerque progressive. I am not sure if buses are the answer.  I encourage everyone to take the survey online at Albuquerque Free Press and voice your opinion on this project.   Thank you for hearing me out. Let's do what is right for Nob Hill and the city of Albuquerque._______________________________________________
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 --Greg Weirs
505 265 9995
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Dan•This message was drafted and sent from my iPhone. Please excuse any errors in spelling and grammar.Dan SpanogleSW Property Pros, Inc
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