Albuquerque residents demand better mass transit

Editor,

Albuquerque is really trying to put the big boy shoes on when it comes to opening up alternative forms of transit around the city. Although I applaud them for trying to move away from the “car in every garage” mentality, there is plenty of room for expansion. While the city makes great strides in bicycle lanes and pedestrian access, it’s the mass transit department the city is continuing to neglect.

ABQRIDE, a much better incarnation of its predecessor, SunTran, has made leaps and bounds in terms of reaching out to its citizens. First it was purchasing new buses, then adding commuter routes and finally the opening of the Rapid Ride routes (of which the first one, the Red Line, turns 10 this year). Albuquerque, by this point, showed to its citizens that they are responding to its citizens’ calls for a more expansive mass transit system.

Now here we are in 2014, and the kinks of a system that is not keeping pace with the growing population of the area are starting to show. The further away you get from Central Avenue, the less frequent buses become — as infrequent as once per hour. Many streets still only receive commuter buses, which go inbound twice in the morning to the Alvarado Transportation Center, and then outbound in the afternoon. Some of these streets include San Pedro, Indian School, Constitution, Comanche and more. The west side is completely underdeveloped, and the South Valley has been neglected (no bus service on Sundays?).

ABQRIDE is trying to expand the Rapid Ride as well as Bus Rapid Transit service to the entire Metro area, but isn’t doing it fast enough, nor serving all the markets needed to make this transit system truly economical in both time and money. The department is a reactive system, where it will only change in response to overgrowth and demand in a particular area. In order to be a proactive system, the city needs to put frequent buses on all routes, reduce times between buses to 15-20 minutes and immediately start offering 24-hour service on the most heavily traversed routes (I recommend the 5, 8, 11, 66, 141, and 155 to start).

Put the buses out there now, show people that bus service is frequent, economical and fast. Then you will watch the cars disappear. For instance, I wholeheartedly recommend the removal of all street parking from Central Avenue in Nob Hill. The shopping and entertainment make that area dangerous, and by removing parking you reduce the amount of cars that will be in the area and encourage Transit use.

The Albuquerque Journal posted an article on Monday about Albuquerque’s Transit and walk-ability and proves that we have a long way to go. Support Transit, encourage the city to expand service and make your commute less stressful over time. Hope to see you on the bus.

Alex Ramos

Psychology major and avid bicyclist, who now solely stresses over homework instead of driving and parking.