Reimagining Albuquerque

The Keller administration continues to stall on road safety in the aftermath of tragedy

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On Broadway between Lomas and Coal, the story is cars. Four wide lanes of them, running fast through what should be the connective tissue of two historic neighborhoods. Residents in the Huning Highland/East Downtown and the Downtown Core neighborhoods have been waiting more than a decade for the city to act on what everyone agrees is a dangerous street built out of scale to the most urban districts in the city. Consultants drew up plans, nearly finished. Funding was assembled by Councilors Isaac Benton and his successor, Joaquín Baca. The restriping was ready to go.

Then the Keller administration pulled back.

Instead of approving the restriping—which would have narrowed Broadway to two lanes with bike corridors and safer crossings—the administration announced it would “restart the process.” They staged an open house, highlighting congestion projections and downplaying safety.

The result: another delay, more risk, and another year where families, employees, and neighbors face danger just crossing the road.

Safety Deferred

Broadway’s record is grim. Since 2015 at least six people have been killed between Coal and Lomas¹. The pattern is familiar: four wide lanes, minimal signals, and no bike facilities. “It’s really built for 55 mph,” said David Tanner of the East Downtown Neighborhood Association².

The restriping plan was not a grand fix, but it could be done quickly. Paint and bollards can be applied in weeks, not years. “We definitely support a larger intervention on the road,” said Strong Towns ABQ’s Jordon McConnell, “but where we get confused is the restriping doesn’t prevent any future interventions. Starting from zero doesn’t make sense.³”

For residents and business owners, the project meant basic safety and more foot traffic. Even the city’s own Vision Zero plan commits to redesigning streets like this without delay. Yet the administration has chosen to pause.

That pause comes only weeks after the death of 19-year-old city employee and professional cyclist Kayla Vanlandingham, struck and killed at a Carlisle trail crossing^{4 5}. In response, Mayor Keller promised to install more HAWK signals across Albuquerque⁶. Necessary, yes—but far too little, far too late. And on the same day he made that announcement, his administration staged the Broadway “open house,” presenting congestion charts while brushing aside eleven years of planning. The admin presented ideas as if the future of Broadway were still undecided, laying out poster boards and congestion charts while avoiding mention of the plans already years in the making.

Councilor Joaquín Baca made sure that silence didn’t hold. He arranged for the nearly finished restriping plans, drawn up by city consultants and 90 percent complete, to be displayed in the same room. And though the event had no formal speakers, Baca addressed the crowd early on, reminding both the public and DMD staff that funding was secured, designs were done, and the project was close to implementation⁷. It was a reminder the administration seemed to hope would go unmentioned.

The contradiction is stark. In 2021, Keller signed the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan, declaring that “any loss of life because of preventable traffic crashes is unacceptable.” Yet after another preventable death, the administration once again delays. The message is clear: symbolic gestures are easier than fixing arterials, and political caution still outweighs public safety.

Picking Apart the Opposition

Critics point to congestion. A study projected evening rush delays at Lead would rise from 33 seconds to 120 seconds if lanes are reduced⁸. Damian Taggart of Barelas called the road diet “aspirational urbanism” that punishes drivers in a car-dependent city⁹.

But congestion measured in seconds cannot outweigh a decade of deaths. Residents who support the project (co-signed by nine people from across Albuquerque) said it directly: “Prioritizing a few seconds of convenience over the life of someone’s child, sister, or grandparent is both morally indefensible and incompatible with Mayor Keller’s Vision Zero objectives.¹⁰“

Some opponents suggest testing a lane closure with construction barrels¹¹. That is what the restriping plan already does: a low-cost, reversible pilot. Others argue Albuquerque will never be walkable due to its climate, density, or sprawl¹². Others argue Albuquerque will never be walkable because of its climate, density, or sprawl. But Broadway isn’t a theoretical experiment; it is about whether people can cross the street safely in the center of the city. And the claim that Albuquerque is somehow exceptional rings hollow when other regional cities with the same challenges have already moved ahead.

Denver has retooled arterials with protected bike lanes, Tucson has built road diets into its network, and even Phoenix — once the poster child for car dependency — has invested in pedestrian corridors and light rail extensions that support walkability. These are cities with heat, sprawl, and freeways, yet they are proving that redesigning streets for people improves safety, equity, and economic vitality. Albuquerque has every reason, and every tool, to do the same. We, unfortunately, just lack the leadership.

Furthermore, this is not the Pat D’Arco Highway in Rio Rancho, where walkability is limited by geography and subdivision design. This is Broadway, in the heart of the city, where much of the urban fabric is already walkable except for the scars of urban renewal. Broadway itself is one of those scars, an arterial imposed on a neighborhood that was once designed to be crossed on foot.

Opponents also invoke the working class, casting the road diet as a burden on people who “have to drive.” In reality, it is working-class residents who pay the steepest price for car dependency, with the cost of ownership and maintenance running upwards of $12,000 per year. They are also disproportionately the victims of road violence, and the most likely to rely on walking, biking, and transit. The claim to protect working people often masks something else: a desire to preserve our own car-centric habits, even when those habits come at the expense of safety for everyone else.

A Main Street, Not an Expressway

Broadway is not a suburban highway. It is a main street dividing EDo and Downtown, lined with housing, hotels, schools, and small businesses. Instead of connecting the two neighborhoods, it cuts them apart. “Everything around Broadway lends itself to being pedestrian friendly, and then we have this thoroughfare going through it,” said Krista Smith of Huning Highland. “It causes cognitive dissonance.¹³”

The city’s own Comprehensive Plan recognizes this. Broadway is designated as a “Main Street Corridor,” which calls for slower traffic, pedestrian activity, and compact, mixed-use development. For years, the stated vision has been to integrate Broadway into Greater Downtown, knitting the east and west sides together rather than allowing it to remain a high-speed “stroad.”

Residents describe Broadway as a barrier on par with the Central underpass. That is not a metaphor you hear in healthy urban districts.

The Politics of Delay

Why the pause? Many believe the administration feared the optics of shrinking lanes in an election year¹⁴. If that is true, it is a case of politics placed over public safety.

Responsibility falls on Mayor Keller, his former DMD director and now Chief Operations Officer Patrick Montoya, and current DMD head Jennifer Turner. Their decision to reopen planning at the last moment does not show prudence. It shows an unwillingness to lead.

Councilor Baca has been clear. “The traffic study said this will make things better for pedestrians and bicyclists, and I’m placing them above cars.¹⁵” That is the kind of clarity and leadership Albuquerque needs, particularly Downtown.

A Moment to Lead

Broadway is a test of whether Albuquerque is willing to move past outdated priorities like “level of service” and design its streets for the people who live along them. Every week of delay is another week of risk.

Mayor Keller once said at a road safety press conference: “We can seize this moment to move much, much faster on things that we know we should have done a long time ago.¹⁶”

The city should not stall. It should act. Restriping should begin now.

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1. Downtown Albuquerque News, August 19th, 2025 ↩︎
2. Idem ↩︎
3. The Mountain Eye, https://themountaineye.news/2025/08/23/broadway-remains-unsafe-as-city-goes-back-to-the-drawing-board/ ↩︎
4. KRQE, https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/family-of-19-year-old-bicyclist-killed-in-crash-calls-for-change/ ↩︎
5. KOAT, https://www.koat.com/article/family-remembers-19-year-old-bicyclist-hit-and-killed-in-northeast-albuquerque/65645387 ↩︎
6. KRQE, https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/city-to-install-hawk-signal-on-carlisle-after-bicyclist-killed-in-crash/ ↩︎
7. Downtown Albuquerque News, August 19th, 2025 ↩︎
8. Idem ↩︎
9. Downtown Albuquerque News, Letter to the Editor, August 22nd, 2025 ↩︎
10. Idem ↩︎
11. Idem ↩︎
12. Idem ↩︎
13. Downtown Albuquerque News, August 19th, 2025 ↩︎
14. The Mountain Eye, https://themountaineye.news/2025/08/23/broadway-remains-unsafe-as-city-goes-back-to-the-drawing-board/ ↩︎
15. Downtown Albuquerque News, August 19th, 2025 ↩︎
16. Downtown Albuquerque News, Letter to the Editor, August 22nd, 2025 ↩︎