Community exhibits mixed response for cyclists’ safety

City of Albuquerque traffic engineers are urging the state to do something about a stretch of road where two cars in one week have careened onto a popular bike path
The State Department of Transportation plans to study the problem on Paseo del Norte in depth but city officials would like the state to provide some temporary protection in the meantime since Paseo is a state highway
On Sunday a car heading eastbound on Paseo leaped up the embankment smashing through a chain link fence missing a bicyclist by just a few feet It was almost the same spot where another out of control car struck and killed bicyclist David Anderson a week earlier
Really freaky said Mark Motsko of Albuquerque s Municipal Development Department Two instances within the last week that we ve seen something like this Prior to this I ve been here 7 years nothing like that has happened We have engineers that have worked for the city for 25 years– they re telling me that they ve never seen anything like this happen
Bicyclists on the Paseo trail say they want some action– sooner not later– but state engineers say it s still very early in their study process
In both crashes the drivers said they lost control of their cars when they were cut off in the eastbound lanes of Paseo just west of Rio Grande Boulevard