On the evening of Thursday, December 1st, UNM professor Michaele Pride spoke at the Hotel Andaluz as a part of the “UrbanABQ Presents” speaker series. This event was co-sponsored by the City of Albuquerque Economic Development Department.
The topic of the talk was “Healthy, Equitable Urbanism” and the audience was exposed to a variety of best practices from around the world on how to make cities more livable places using a variety of methods.
Written and Edited By Members of the UrbanABQ Collective and Better Burque
Check out BetterBurque.org for in-depth, Albuquerque-focused articles about bicycle and pedestrian safety, infrastructure and more!
In late 2014, we wrote an article called “A Great 2014 + The 2015 Forecast,” which can be found HERE. That piece covered positive changes that happened over the previous year and investigated some things we wanted to see happen in 2015.
Much of what we wanted to see in 2015 didn’t happen … until this year, 2016. In fact, most of the items on that list have become a reality in the last couple of months! So, we decided it was time for an update on the update:
– By Leila Salim, Michael Vos, Dan Majewski and other members of the UrbanABQ team
March 17, 2016
We have been told that this could be the vote that makes or breaks the project. We have also been told that City Council has been receiving primarily negative feedback on the project.
Have you been sitting on the sidelines? Have you been unable to attend meetings or unable to articulate your support for the project?
By Dan Majewski
Edited by Jessica Carr, Chad Gruber, Leila Salim, Michael Vos and other UrbanABQ team members
February 21, 2016
As of Tuesday, February 9, the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project, otherwise known as ART, was approved for $69 million in federal funding from President Obama’s annual budget. This budget has not yet been approved by Congress so the funding is not guaranteed. However, there is a very good chance this funding will be approved and allocated, based on similar projects being approved in the past.
Regarding opinions in the community around this project, attendees were surveyed at a recent public meeting. The results were split in three ways with “38 percent of [the] 134 citizens who were polled — out of 247 who packed the rehearsal hall for the meeting — [saying] they don’t support the project, compared to 30 percent who said they do ‘very much’ and 57 percent who said they desire improved mass transit in the corridor.”
At the end of January Save Route 66 Central, the foremost antagonist in the effort to bring bus rapid transit to Albuquerque, published a critique of the city’s newest plan for the project. The entire letter can be found at this link.
We would like to say, in short, that this letter is well-thought-out. It is filled with ideas that could be successful if implemented in conjunction with the ART project. Unfortunately, the letter is also filled with misinformation and other data taken out of context.
“Paseo del Volcan plan hailed as future of the west”
“Full steam ahead on ‘active’ Paseo del Volcan project”
“DOT considers proposals to ease traffic on U.S. 550”
The headlines always sound so romantic, don’t they?
Though these are all real headlines from the Albuquerque Journal about real projects, they’re selling a myth. This is part of the discussion within the #NoNewRoads campaign by our friends over at Strong Towns—an education and advocacy nonprofit working to create resilient communities through better development models. #NoNewRoads strives to transform the national transportation conversation through a nontraditional campaign (emphasis ours):
This week at Strong Towns we are going to focus our attention on the embarrassing mess that is the American system of transportation finance. Our premise here at Strong Towns has been, for some time now, #NoNewRoads, a rejection of any proposal to spend more money on this system until we undertake dramatic reform.
That position puts us at odds with advocates on the left of our political spectrum as well as those on the right. So be it. The current political paradigm is bankrupting this country … . It’s time to create a new paradigm.
Click here to read more about the premise of #NoNewRoads
Everyone loves a ribbon cutting for a new road project, but maintaining the infrastructure once it has been built is not quite as fun or exciting. Our current financing system emphasizes new construction without accounting for long term maintenance costs.
New and widened roads are subject to an economic rule known as “induced demand.” It works like this:
Urban ABQ 