Mayor amps up bike safety campaign

Mayor Richard Berry recently got on board with a new bike safety campaign that aims to help drivers see the road from a bicyclist’s point of view.

Chris Ramirez, City of Albuquerque communications director, said he hopes the campaign will decrease bike accidents
and increase motorists’ awareness of bikers.

“We know that bicyclists can be easy to miss, as we’ve seen from tragic results when motorists miss a bicyclist on the street,” he said.

“It was just a very sad story,” he said. “She was a mother of four young children, very involved with her community and church. It was a tragedy.”

Cleveland said that his company has recently partnered with the mayor to decrease future tragic bike accidents.

Cleveland said he is also working on getting more displays with information set up around the city, in addition to the ones at the Albuquerque International Sunport and Cottonwood and Coronado malls.

Alyssa Martinez, UNM Lobo Cycling Team member, said she uses her bike to get to school and train with her team. She said she sometimes feels unsafe on streets in Albuquerque. “I do not feel comfortable riding on the west side at all,” she said. “My parents live out there and I will not ride on Coors (Boulevard).”

Martinez said drivers should always be alert and on the look out for cyclists, especially in the University area.

“I think drivers should have more patience with bicyclists,” she said. “Sometimes you get people who think we’re a nuisance and it’s kind of unfortunate, but I think that we could work together.”

Ramirez said the mayor is making an e ort to increase bike lanes throughout the city as a part of the campaign.

He said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue is currently under construction to accommodate bike lanes. “Mayor Berry sees this as a quality of life issue,” Ramirez said. “He believes that our residents deserve to have a safe place to bike.”

Ramirez said that the Web site — EasyToMiss.org — answers drivers’ questions about what bicyclists are allowed to do on the road. One tip from the site tells drivers to “maintain a minimum distance of ve feet when passing a bicyclist.”