someone else got hit by a car on bicycle blvd. the other day.
6.20.07 bike abq puts this presentation on youtube. according to ben sovaca (vice president of bike abq), when asked by jeremy jojola of kob tv, it was an idea started by the johnny mango of the duke city fix blog. lot’s of history there. now here is my question…why the hell did they pick silver avenue to be bicycle blvd.? and how does an avenue become a boulevard anyhow? usually by widening the ave. to multiple lanes and adding a median. but that’s all moot.
when i first rode on silver ave., things were hectic. people trying to park for shopping, school, lunch, etc. seemed to make it one of the most bicycle unfriendly places in town. i wonder if the original idea had silver in mind, or maybe some other street. 4.14.09. bicycle blvd. is unveiled to the public by mayor chavez and others. i saw all this coming down because i live off of silver.
so the purple signs went up, as well as the 18mph speed limit and the bike stencils. this is going to be great, i thought. i imagined that maybe something would be done about the parking on the street. alas, there never was, leaving us with an angry, disfunctional child of a bike boulevard. nobody obeys the speed limit, pedestrians cross where they feel, douchebags shoot in and out of alleys to find the grail of parking spots (god forbid you might have to walk a few hundred feet).
nothing changed…. but wait, something did change. now it seems that every cyclist in town thinks those purple signs give them the right of way and the ability to blow through the stop signs, thereby causing that much more grief on “bicycle boulevard”.
i’m sure it was great publicity and all. i’m sure the nob hill neighborhood assoc. just loves it…as long as their kids don’t ride on it. i’m sure our former mayor got an extra 15psi in his over-inflated ego. but…
i think it endangers cyclists and was a waste of tax money. me thinks they should move all the signs to copper/campus. but that’s just my opinion….
