The Albuquerque traffic code has remained nearly unchanged since 1974, but is now being updated after a unanimous city council vote in the wake of multiple pedestrian and bicycle traffic accidents, including one that killed 19-year-old cyclist Kayla VanLandingham, who was struck by a car at a bike crossing near Carlisle Boulevard.
The ordinance intends to update the traffic code to improve protections for bicyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, Albuquerque District Seven City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn — who sponsored the ordinance — said during a City Council meeting on Nov. 5.
VanLandingham’s grandmother, Diana Zamora, spoke about her granddaughter's death during public comment at the meeting.
“My hope is that there will be a proactive process to review this ordinance in the future; my granddaughter lost her precious life and my family will struggle without her till the end of our lives,” Zamora said.
The updated code introduces the term “vulnerable road users” instead of "pedestrians” and “bicyclists" throughout the code, to focus on the shared vulnerability and risk faced by road users without the protection of a “metal shell,” according to the City’s website.
According to Consumer Affairs, which uses 2023 crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Albuquerque has the highest rate of pedestrian deaths in the nation.
Nick Ferenchak, director of the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety, and associate professor at the University of New Mexico in the department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, said the ordinance is “movement in the right direction,” but that more can be done.
“There's a new rule that drivers are required to stop if there's a pedestrian in a crosswalk. It's kind of no-duh stuff. It's a rule, but how many people actually know it's a rule? Is that actually going to get drivers to stop? Is that going to make it safer for a pedestrian to cross the road? Probably not,” Ferenchak told the Daily Lobo.
Ferenchak said that pedestrian safety around campus needs a “major upgrade,” and suggested that some of the bigger streets like University Boulevard could have fewer travel lanes to slow traffic and make it safer to cross into campus.
“In some of our classes, we actually do traffic modeling to show these roads don't need to be that big,” Ferenchak said. “There definitely are things that we could do to make it easier for people to walk or bike across these roads to get to campus.”
Ferenchak said that solutions exist to prevent all pedestrian fatalities, but that a lot of them would be unpopular.
“Being killed by cars is a pretty new thing in the grand scheme of things. They're all preventable. Are they preventable in a way that the general public would be accepting of? If we lowered the speed limit of every road down to 20 miles-per-hour, nobody would die on our roads anymore, but that would be very unpopular,” Ferenchak said.
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During public comment, VanLandingham’s mother Melinda Montoya thanked the city councilors for investigating the traffic code. She said that she believes her daughter would still be alive if the code existed earlier.
“Our review (of traffic codes) really shouldn’t be reactive as it was in Kayla’s case because we can’t let another 50 years lapse and people lose lives,” Montoya said.
Further amendments to the traffic code include revising the definition of a pedestrian to include those traveling with wheelchairs or assistive personal mobility devices to comply with the American Disabilities Act, Fiebelkorn said during the city council meeting.
“This is the first time that we have updated our traffic code in fifty plus years to make sure that we are protecting everyone that uses the roads, not just those that drive,” Fiebelkorn said.
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88
