With pedestrian fatalities doubling in the last year alone, the Albuquerque Police Department will begin enforcing the city’s new median safety ordinance which applies to narrow medians at busy intersections located around the city.
The ordinance states that it is unlawful for any person to stand in any travel lane of a street, highway or controlled access roadway or any travel lane of the exit or entrance ramp.
There are 15 locations which have been designated as a priority for APD that they are actively monitoring as enforcement begins.
Officers started giving warnings about the new ordinance in mid-May and began handing out citations the week of the 22nd and twelve citations were issued on Monday.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said he’s hopeful that the department’s efforts will lead to few incidents involving individuals occupying these medians.
“We’re hoping by moving these individuals and by focusing on the biggest intersections, the intersections with the most traffic, the narrowest medians, that we'll be able to accomplish these. We’re going to continue to work through this with the possibility we could add more intersections later. But the first step is these first 15 intersections that have been identified to each commander.”
Below is a list of the 15 locations where signs have been placed alerting pedestrians not to stand on medians:
- Montano and 4th Street
- Indian School and Carlisle
- Carlisle and Lomas
- Louisiana and Menaul
- Avenida Cesar Chavez and Broadway
- Copper and Eubank
- Montgomery and Louisiana
- Menaul and San Mateo
- Menaul and San Pedro
- University and Gibson
- Yale and Gibson
- Montano and Coors
- Ellison and Coors
- Coors and Irving
- Alameda and Corrales