Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico

Local governments take steps to ban hazardous paving technique by NMDOT; State bicycle coalition pushing to eliminate practice statewide.

The Los Alamos County Transportation Board will consider a resolution in August to prohibit the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) from using cost-saving techniques that render paved highway shoulders hazardous and unusable by bicyclists. A decision to proceed would follow the lead of the Santa Fe City Council, which approved a similar resolution banning “partial paving” earlier this year.

Both efforts reflect growing interest around New Mexico in ensuring that government agencies provide the traveling public with “complete streets,” where the needs of all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users, are appropriately addressed. In southern New Mexico, both the City of Las Cruces and the Town of Mesilla have passed “complete streets” resolutions in the past year. A similar “Downtown Streets Standards” resolution is set to go before the County Council in Los Alamos.

Federal and state law already require NMDOT and other agencies using public funding for transportation to adequately provide for bicyclists and pedestrians in all of the work they do, but for years NMDOT has skirted this requirement by choosing not to re-pave shoulders in routine maintenance overlays nor to apply a top layer of “friction course” to paved shoulders in new construction. Both practices result in inferior shoulder conditions including a pavement edge that poses a hazard for a variety of road users. In many cases, the partial paving technique makes it impossible for bicyclists to use the highway shoulder, forcing them to share the travel lane with higher-speed motor vehicle traffic.

Nationally-accepted professional guidance for highway engineers from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Organizations (AASHTO) states that “pavement surfaces should be smooth, and the pavement should be uniform in width. Wide cracks, joints or drop-offs at the edge of the traveled way parallel to the direction of travel can trap a bicycle wheel and cause loss of control.” (AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities, p. 18)

The problems resulting from incomplete paving can now be found throughout the state, on popular scenic byways as well as busy urban highways where paved shoulders were constructed with the specific intention of safely accommodating bicyclists, and even where NMDOT has designated bike routes and bike lanes. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which is New Mexico’s primary source of highway construction funding, is subject to explicit federal laws and policies requiring that funding recipients address the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians but has not taken a stand on this issue.

New Mexico bicyclists around the state have complained about these conditions for years, but the problem has never been publicly acknowledged by NMDOT. The Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico (BCNM), along with a variety of partners including a motorcycle safety group, recently contacted the Governor’s Office in order to discuss the issue and how to resolve it. In an earlier communication with BCNM, NMDOT stated that budgetary considerations prevent the agency from adequately addressing cyclists’ safety needs, a stance which runs counter to specific federal and state law on the matter. According to BCNM President Diane Albert, "It’s because of this kind of practice that New Mexico’s ranking by League of American Bicyclists has dropped to 46th place among the fifty states.”

BCNM has singled out a reconstruction project on the “High Road to Taos” slated for 2010 as an opportunity for NMDOT to return to the practice of providing a uniform, smooth and safe surface for all road users, including bicyclists. BCNM would like bicyclists and others in New Mexico who are concerned about this problem to express their concerns to Gov. Richardson, NMDOT Secretary Girón, and FHWA/NM Division Chief J. Don Martínez. More information, including photographs of incomplete pavement overlays on various highways around the state, the City of Santa Fe resolution prohibiting the practice, and a copy of BCNM’s letter to Gov. Richardson on this matter, is available on the BCNM web site at www.bikenm.org.

High Road to Taos: Incomplete pavement overlay leaves hazardous edge in brand new shoulder after reconstruction of NM76 near Cordova NM in 2006.

RELATED LINKS:
1. BCNM Letter to Governor, with references to federal and state law and photos of the issue on various state highways: http://www.bikenm.org/files/090626_CompleteStreetsToGovernor.pdf

2. City of Santa Fe Resolution 2009-10, CALLING UPON NMDOT TO CEASE USING A CERTAIN METHOD OF PAVING STATE HIGHWAYS THAT HAS PROVED TO BE DETRIMENTAL TO THE SAFETY OF BICYCLISTS: http://bikenm.org/yabb/Attachments/090128_sf_ResReNoLips.pdf

3. League of American Bicyclists, Bicycle-Friendly State Rankings:
www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/bicyclefriendlystate/pdfs/09state_ranking_list.pdf
4. National Complete Streets Coalition: http://www.completestreets.org/