Share the Road Ahead of significant Cerrillos Road redesign project, bicycling advocates call for a break from automobile supremacy
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BY WILLIAM MELHADO w i l l i a m @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m
rena Ossola was wrapping up the most successful year in her cycling career—completing a tour of Europe where she made it to the podium five times in a month, winning gold twice, and having just placed third at the US National Criterium Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Early one morning, she went for a ride in her hometown of Santa Fe. On her way home, she approached the roundabout that joins West Alameda Street to Siler Road. In the bike lane, Ossola slowed, assuming the car coming in the opposite direction saw her as she prepared to continue through the traffic circle. But the driver, who had just exited the roundabout, turned left into a driveway, striking Ossola before she could react. “That person that nearly killed me? That ended my cycling career,” Ossola tells SFR four years after the 2017 crash. A year passed before she felt 90% back to normal; there had been a two-month stint in the hospital. A traumatic brain injury divided Ossola’s life into two parts: before the crash and after. The toll of her injuries on her memory has forced Ossola to relearn how to manage her emotions and mental stability. Though few cyclists in Santa Fe approach the sport with Ossola’s intensity, she wants the city’s streets to be safe for everyone to ride on, from commuters to bike enthusiasts. And Santa Fe—though not one of the worst cities for cyclists in the country—has room for improvement for biking accessibility and safety. With a fatality rate of 3.2 per 100,000 residents, New Mexico ranks as the third 10
JANUARY JANUARY 19-25, 19-25, 2022 2022
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deadliest state for pedestrians and bicyclists, after Florida and Delaware, according to data from 2012 through 2016 compiled by the League of American Bicyclists, a cycling and pedestrian advocacy organization. Closer to home, the City of Santa Fe ranks third in the state for pedestrian and bike crashes, behind only Albuquerque and Las Cruces, based on the most recent reports from the University of New Mexico’s Traffic Research Unit. While the number of times cars crashed into those walking and biking in Santa Fe made up 6% and 9% of these types of collisions in the state, respectively, the city only accounts for 4% of New Mexico’s population, according to the 2020 census. Santa Fe, with its mild winters and sunny days, could be an excellent biking city, advocates and regular cyclists tell SFR. A glaring spot at which the city could do better: Cerrillos Road. The city’s busiest road, connecting the Southside to eastern parts of Santa Fe, remains a perilous avenue for cyclists, despite several redesigns, the most recent of which wrapped in 2016 and was aimed partly at improving multi-modal transportation facilities. Turns out, the addition of bike lanes and wide sidewalks didn’t result in a safer avenue for pedestrians and cyclists, according to a preliminary analysis from Santa Fe’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). The New Mexico Department of Transportation’s pedestrian safety plan released last August supports those findings. The report identified Cerrillos Road, also known as New Mexico 14, as a high-crash corridor in the state, with 44 pedestrian-involved collisions between 2012 and 2018. Even for experienced bikers, Cerrillos is strictly off limits. “As a cyclist, a biker, I have never ridden down Cerrillos Road,” Ossola tells SFR. “And I would tell anybody else never to ride down it either.” But with the final phase of the thoroughfare’s latest redesign in the planning stages—and with completion, a long-awaited handoff of responsibility for the road from the state to the city—there is fresh opportunity to give bicyclists and pedestrians more consideration that is often devoted to cars.
Highway mindset
The view along Cerrillos Road differs dramatically from that of the once-famed Route 66, which snaked southwest out of downtown Santa Fe. Parallel to the railroad tracks, the road’s growth was largely driven by commerce, eventually eclipsing El Camino Real—what is today Agua Fría Street—as the primary way in and out of the city.
