City of Albuquerque, APD tout progress in West Side road safety

By KOB

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The City of Albuquerque and APD are highlighting the steps they are taking to improve road safety on the west side of the city.

City officials gathered for a press conference Friday to discuss the improvements, including repairing and building roads, landscaping medians and adding new street lights and automated speed enforcement cameras.

The Albuquerque Police Department also highlighted their traffic operations. According to APD, officers in the Northwest and Southwest Area Commands have done the following over the past two months:

1,794 citations
475 traffic stops
68 felony arrests
32 misdemeanor arrests
23 misdemeanor citations
Four median violation
Two drug arrests

“This is about more than making the Westside beautiful. We want it to be safe, too, and we’ve been doing patrols as well as using our speed camera slow down traffic,” APD Chief Harold Medina said.

City officials said they have also added 489 streetlights, including:

23 lights in Tierra Oeste
New lights on Galataneu St. NW, Rosewood Ave NW, and 72nd St NW
Southwest Mesa Decorative Streetlights
35 lights on Westside Blvd
16 lights in Volcano Cliffs
14 lights near Volcano Vista HS
13 lights in Saltillo
10 lights in Ventana Ranch
Seven lights in Tiburon

The city is also starting a median landscaping project this week on Coors Bypass from 7 Bar Loop Road to Ellison Road. According to the city, this stretch sees about 100,000 cars daily. The project is a continuation of a median project from Ellison to Westside Boulevard. It’s aimed at helping welcome visitors to the future Northwest Multigenerational Center that the city is touting.

These projects are also in the pipeline:

Additional lighting along Arroyo Vista
SW Mesa Streetlighting Project, phase 2
Sierra Sunset Park Streetlights
West Central Complete Streets from 90th to Sarracino Place