July 15th — As a non-speeding driver, I understand the feelings of readers who contact me about speeding on the Tramway.
“The tramways. I wish the police would monitor them more. A few speed cameras would be fine.”
So why are tramways not candidates for speed cameras?
First, the roads are monitored by the state, not the city of Albuquerque, which administers its automated speed camera program: There are currently 20 cameras in the city, with no plans to add more.
But speed isn’t the only issue: all current speed camera locations have been identified on a network map as priority areas with a high number of fatal and injury collisions – areas of the city that are most dangerous for pedestrians.
According to UNM’s accident density map, accident density on the tramway is lower than some other parts of the city.
“There are some areas that are much more dangerous for pedestrians than the streetcars,” said Dan Mayfield, a spokesman for the city development department.
Where to report an overgrown median: Carroll says the landscaping on the median blocks the view for traffic heading east on Tierra Pintada and makes it “near impossible to make a left turn safely,” especially in the spring and summer when the leaves are thick.
“Who is in charge of maintaining and trimming the medians?” she asked. More than 600 acres of medians are maintained by the city’s solid waste crews and sometimes volunteers through the Adopt-A-Median program, such as the Tierra Pintada median mentioned above. The Solid Waste Management Agency maintains the medians on streets from Calle Azulejo to Unser.
Department spokesman Alex Bukoski said Clean Cities inspectors visited the site on Tuesday and scheduled maintenance.
Bukoski said the city is maintaining some of its medians, but not all of them.
“Depending on where the median is located, it could be DMD and DOT jurisdiction,” Bukoski said. “Any median that has an irrigation system in it tends to be SWMD jurisdiction.”
As for the rest of the city’s medians, we reached out to SWMD to find out who we should contact with questions about median maintenance.
Because maintenance can span several different departments, Bukoski encourages people to call 311 if they experience an issue.