Latest news with #BikeABQ
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
'Enough Is enough': Cyclists ride in silence to remember those killed on New Mexico roads
May 23—More than 50 bicyclists stood quietly in formation Wednesday evening near Winrock Town Center. Helmets and reflective vests lined the pavement, and cyclists donned red and black armbands — symbols representing those they've known who were injured or killed by motorists while commuting. The cyclists joined others worldwide participating in the 23rd annual Ride of Silence. Hosted by BikeABQ, a nonprofit that advocates for cyclists locally, the annual event reminds motorists to be mindful of other forms of transportation. This year's ride carried a somber weight. In recent months, cycling advocate Chuck Malagodi was killed in a hit-and-run crash. Around a year ago, according to police, Sandia Labs engineer Scott Habermehl was fatally struck by a group of teens in a stolen car. Statewide, seven cyclists have been killed by motorists this year, three of them in Bernalillo County. Between 2019 and 2023, 39 cyclists were killed in New Mexico, including 15 in Bernalillo County, with nearly 1,500 cyclists being involved in a crash, according to New Mexico Department of Transportation data. Dozens of cyclists silently pedaled over 4 miles through the streets Wednesday night, escorted by police vehicles. At the center of the procession was a carriage carrying a ghost bike, a white-painted bicycle representing those riders, like Malagodi and Habermehl, who never made it home. Local leaders, including Mayor Tim Keller, City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn and Rep. Marian Matthews, D-Albuquerque, vowed during the opening ceremony to propose new juvenile crime legislation, referencing the death of Habermehl. Three boys, ages 11 to 16, are accused of striking the cyclist, telling the 13-year-old driver to "bump" Habermehl while recording video of the crash. "Enough is enough," Matthews said before the ride kicked off. "Change starts now, not in January before the Legislature." Habermehl's wife, Jamie Philpott, was also in attendance and said her husband's death highlighted "the ongoing failure" of the state's Children, Youth and Families Department and juvenile justice system to serve juveniles in need or deter them from committing crimes. "Chuck Malagodi was instrumental in supporting the Ride of Silence, and we thought he deserved to be honored in this manner, along with all the other cyclists that have fallen victim to motorized vehicle incidents," said Craig Degenhardt, co-founder and lifetime member of BikeABQ. "It's basically a funeral procession, a moment of silence that continues for the entire bike ride." David Harding, a volunteer who worked with Malagodi at Free Bikes 4 Kidz — a nonprofit that provides children with bicycles — attended the ride in honor of his friend and fellow advocate. Harding said he was "just aghast" to hear of Malagodi's death. Harding uses his wheels exclusively in the mountains, where he said it is safer to ride than in the streets. "With mountain biking, there is a chance that you'll go too fast around a turn or hit a rock funny, but in road biking, you can't really control other drivers that might be distracted texting or something else and could accidentally or intentionally kill you," he said. Leila Murrieta depends on her bike and on the Albuquerque Rapid Transit bus to get around. As events coordinator for RideABQ and a board member of the Greater Albuquerque Active Transportation Committee, Murrieta is focused on making streets safer for cyclists and wants to remind others that biking is more than just a hobby, but a mode of transportation. Murrieta has been hit by a car in the past, and said she frequently struggles with distracted drivers. "The amount of times I've seen people watching full movies while they're driving on the freeway... it's scary," she said. Despite the challenges, cyclists said New Mexico's infrastructure is ahead of many other states. "We have so many bike lanes, bike trails, and we are a silver-ranked city by the League of American Bicyclists, but we need to go for gold," Degenhardt said. "We can do that by increasing facilities like bike lanes and segregated roadways for cyclists, along with education for motorists and cyclists." During the 2025 legislative session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a law allowing Idaho Stops, which allow bicyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs and red lights as stop signs to improve cyclist safety in intersections. Some cyclists participating in the Silent Ride want drivers to know that as of July 1, when the law goes into effect, it will be up to motorists and bikers to keep one another safe. "I want to remind people that everybody they see biking is a person who has family and people who care about them," said Ryan Harris, a member of RideABQ. "I wish people would value human life a little bit more."
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
New Mexico to allow ‘Idaho stop' so cyclists can roll through stop signs
Starting on July 1, people riding bicycles in New Mexico will be able to ride through stop signs without coming to a full stop, and stop at red traffic lights and continue even if the light hasn't turned green — as long as it's safe to do so. That's according to a new state law Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed on Friday. Senate Bill 73 changes New Mexico's traffic law to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, and to treat red traffic lights as stop signs and proceed if there are no other cars, cyclists or pedestrians. While it may seem counterintuitive to people who don't use bicycles, this is already common practice among bicycle riders in New Mexico because a cyclist wants to carry their momentum on the bike, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, who carried the bill, during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Doing this gets the cyclist out of the blind spot of motorists who have stopped at an intersection, Sedillo Lopez told the committee. Eric Biedermann, a board member at-large of nonprofit advocacy organization BikeABQ, told the committee being able to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a traffic light as a stop sign enhances cyclist safety because it reduces their exposure to cars, increases their visibility to cars and reduces the risk of being 'right hooked' if a car doesn't see them or a 'left cross' from oncoming traffic. 'There are a number of ways in which being able to proceed through an intersection with a head start before the cars move really enhances cyclist safety,' Biedermann told the committee. He was also speaking on behalf of Bike Santa Fe and Velo Cruces. The so-called 'Idaho stop' — taking its name from the first U.S. state to ease traffic laws for cyclists — resulted in a 14.5% reduction in cyclist injuries a year after the state of Idaho enacted a similar law in 1982, according to a review of Idaho Office of Highway Safety data. In New Mexico, between 2019 and 2023, 1,457 cyclists had crashes, according to the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies Center. Of those, 39 were killed, 115 were seriously injured and 694 were able to walk away. Lynn Pickard, a retired New Mexico Court of Appeals judge and member of Santa Fe Seniors on Bikes, told the committee data show that as many as half of collisions between cars and bikes happen within intersections. 'So anything we can do to get cyclists into and out of the intersections quickly — leaving of course, for us, to determine our own safety if there are other cars there or pedestrians there — would be really helpful for us,' she said. Source New Mexico, like the Idaho Capital Sun, is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
New Mexico to allow cyclists to roll through stop signs
Jason Culver rides his bicycle to meet a friend at a local coffee shop on March 26, 2025 in Santa Fe. Culver said he has rolled through stop signs and he would be glad not to receive a ticket for doing it, but he thinks Senate Bill 73 could create problems in the short term, because New Mexico is already such a dangerous place to drive. "Even if you have a green light, sometimes you have to look both ways and wait, how it is here," he said. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) Starting on July 1, people riding bicycles in New Mexico will be able to ride through stop signs without coming to a full stop, and stop at red traffic lights and continue even if the light hasn't turned green — as long as it's safe to do so. That's according to a new state law Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed on Friday. Senate Bill 73 changes New Mexico's traffic law to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, and to treat red traffic lights as stop signs and proceed if there are no other cars, cyclists or pedestrians. While it may seem counterintuitive to people who don't use bicycles, this is already common practice among bicycle riders in New Mexico because a cyclist wants to carry their momentum on the bike, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, who carried the bill, during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Doing this gets the cyclist out of the blind spot of motorists who have stopped at an intersection, Sedillo Lopez told the committee. Eric Biedermann, a board member at-large of nonprofit advocacy organization BikeABQ, told the committee being able to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a traffic light as a stop sign enhances cyclist safety because it reduces their exposure to cars, increases their visibility to cars and reduces the risk of being 'right hooked' if a car doesn't see them or a 'left cross' from oncoming traffic. 'There are a number of ways in which being able to proceed through an intersection with a head start before the cars move really enhances cyclist safety,' Biedermann told the committee. He was also speaking on behalf of Bike Santa Fe and Velo Cruces. The so-called 'Idaho stop' — taking its name from the first U.S. state to ease traffic laws for cyclists — resulted in a 14.5% reduction in cyclist injuries a year after the state of Idaho enacted a similar law in 1982, according to a review of Idaho Office of Highway Safety data. In New Mexico, between 2019 and 2023, 1,457 cyclists had crashes, according to the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies Center. Of those, 39 were killed, 115 were seriously injured and 694 were able to walk away. Lynn Pickard, a retired New Mexico Court of Appeals judge and member of Santa Fe Seniors on Bikes, told the committee data show that as many as half of collisions between cars and bikes happen within intersections. 'So anything we can do to get cyclists into and out of the intersections quickly — leaving of course, for us, to determine our own safety if there are other cars there or pedestrians there — would be really helpful for us,' she said.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cyclist safety bill pedals its way through the Roundhouse
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The cycling community in New Mexico, is hoping to improve safety at intersections with a new bill. 'I've had so many close calls, I can't count them. And as a result, I do treat the stop signs as yield signs,' said Alex Applegate, an advocate of Senate Bill 73. It's an issue that's been bubbling up for years among cyclists. More than 130,000 bicyclists are injured in crashes on roadways every year in the United States. According to the University of New Mexico Annual Crash Report, 38 bicyclists have been killed in the last five years. 'As a cyclist who's been commuting by bicycle for over 30 years with hundreds of thousands of miles on the roads, I've been hit twice at intersections,' continued Applegate. Construction begins on new bike lanes along Central corridor in downtown Albuquerque This is why bicycle advocacy groups like Bike ABQ have teamed up with Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Representative Pamelya Herndon to push forward Senate Bill 73. 'Senate Bill 73 implements a new law that improves bicyclist safety at intersections,' mentioned Eric Biederman, board member of Bike ABQ. This bill would allow a cyclist to treat a stop sign at an intersection as a yield sign. 'So as a cyclist approaches the intersection, they have to check for conflicting traffic that may have the right-of-way, and if there is none, they're allowed to proceed through the intersection without making a complete stop,' explained Biederman. Within the biking community, this is already a common practice but by codifying this bill into law, advocates believe it could make significant improvements. 'The reason it improves cyclist safety is that it reduces cyclist exposure to cars at these intersections. So they can transit through the intersection more quickly than they would under the current laws, and they remain more visible to traffic,' emphasized Biederman. Soon, advocates hope to develop the necessary infrastructure to maximize safety for all motorists on the roads by adding raised sidewalks and protected bike lanes. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
