LOS LUNAS, N.M. — Standing on certain medians in one place in New Mexico is now against the law.

The Village of Los Lunas is enforcing a safety ordinance passed in October. It bars people from standing or using 19 different medians in Los Lunas.

All the main roads within the village are state highways and, because of that, they’re intended to move quickly and efficiently.

In November, the village enforced a median safety ordinance, meaning people can no longer stand at certain medians – except to walk across. That includes medians that are less than four feet in diameter at a high-traffic intersections, as cars drive by at more than 30 mph.

No matter what the reason is, village officials like Erin Callahan say it’s just not safe.

“Whether that’s to solicit a car wash, participants or another type of a group or we do have pan handling here but for a variety different reasons these are just not safe medians to stand on,” said Erin Callahan, the deputy village administrator for the Village of Los Lunas.

New Mexico has been rated among the worst states for pedestrian fatalities for several years. According to Callahan, they hope this ordinance will help with that statistic. She also acknowledges the ordinance might come with other concerns.

“We do understand that there are challenges when those overlap with those concerns where they’re very narrowly targeted to panhandling and restricting somebody’s freedom of speech and that they may be by standing in the median,” Callahan said.

Callahan added people standing in the median will get a warning the first time. Then, if they are found standing in the median again and again, they will face a fine of up to $100.