Decked in festive fall attire, Isabela Chacon, 6, gets an escort across the street Wednesday at Amy Biehl Community School. Students commuted from Rancho Viejo Park for National Walk and Roll to School Day. The Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee presented its strategic plan at Wednesday night's City Council meeting, which includes advocating for more bike lanes on the south side and protected bike lanes.
Jordan Noble, 6, gets some help from his mother, Mamie Noble, right, to pump up his bicycle's tires Amy Biehl Community School students gather Wednesday at Rancho Viejo Park for°®¶¹appNational Walk and Roll to School Day.
Bree Jaramillo, right, escorts students across the street at Amy Biehl Community School during a commute from Rancho Viejo Park on Oct. 9 for National Walk and Roll to School Day.
Decked in festive fall attire, Isabela Chacon, 6, gets an escort across the street Wednesday at Amy Biehl Community School. Students commuted from Rancho Viejo Park for National Walk and Roll to School Day. The Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee presented its strategic plan at Wednesday night's City Council meeting, which includes advocating for more bike lanes on the south side and protected bike lanes.
Yolanda Eisenstein doesnāt think itās likely sheāll still be biking in the year 2050. But as part of the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the past five years, sheās hoping she can help the committee reach its ambitious goals for making Santa Fe a more bike-friendly community by the middle of the century.
āThere needs to be a paradigm shift,ā she said.
Eisenstein delivered a presentation Wednesday to the City Council about the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committeeās strategic plan, which includes a long list of tasks to support the committeeās °®¶¹app of making biking and walking safer and more accessible.
By 2050, the 10-member committee would like Santa Fe to be certified as a Diamond-level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists, have 20% of Santa Feans commuting to work by bike and have 90% of arterial streets include bike lanes.
Other goals include reducing the number of cyclist and pedestrian deaths and putting Santa Fe in the top one-third of walkable cities of its size.
The targets will take a lot of work to achieve. Currently, 65% of arterial streets have bike lanes, but only an estimated 1% of city residents commute by bike, Eisenstein said. A 2021 survey conducted by the committee found that while many Santa Feans use bikes for exercise and entertainment, safety concerns and a lack of connectivity between bike paths kept commuting limited.
Students from Amy Biehl Community School gather at Rancho Viejo Park for National Walk and Roll to School Day on Wednesday.
Eisenstein said the survey found the biggest infrastructure need is bicycle lanes that are separate from the road, followed by more easily navigable bike routes on the south side.
āWe cannot control the car culture and drivers ... and so, we have to protect our bikers with separate lanes,ā she said.
The city does not have any protected bike lanes, though they have been received well by residents at pop-up events hosted by the Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Some of the committeeās ongoing tasks include advocating for a āVision Zeroā approach to road safety and eliminating traffic deaths as city policy via ordinance, helping Bike Santa Fe host a bike summit, creating a committee website, conducting more outreach with the general public and supporting Santa Fe Public Schoolsā Safe Routes to School project.
In an interview before the meeting, Councilor Michael Garcia said a resolution supporting the Vision Zero approach to traffic safety is something he āabsolutelyā plans to introduce in the near future.
Jordan Noble, 6, gets some help from his mother, Mamie Noble, right, to pump up his bicycle's tires Amy Biehl Community School students gather Wednesday at Rancho Viejo Park for°®¶¹appNational Walk and Roll to School Day.
Garcia, who is the council representative on the advisory committee and who sponsored a resolution earlier this year supporting bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, thanked the members for their advocacy.
āItās been one of my joys as a councilor having the opportunity to work with BPAC,ā he said at Wednesdayās meeting.
Mayor Alan Webber said he would support Vision Zero, noting New Mexico has the unfortunate distinction of being the deadliest state for pedestrians. While thereās a sense this is āthe cost of doing businessā in a car-centric culture, policies can be implemented to change that, he said.
Jennifer Webber, president of Bike Santa Fe, said the nonprofit hopes to hold another bike summit next year. Its current big project is a ābike auditā of several intersections, which it received a $2,500 grant from the American Association of Retired Persons to conduct.
On Sunday, volunteers from Bike Santa Fe will monitor four locations using a bike audit toolkit created by AARP and the League of American Bicyclists, which assesses safety and accessibility. The locations are:
Richards Avenue from Governor Miles Road to the first roundabout past Santa Fe Community College.
Airport Road from Cerrillos Road to South Meadows Road.
The Maez Road trail connector to Rufina Street and Siler Road.
Camino Carlos Reyās intersections with Rodeo Road and Zia Road.
Jennifer Webber said the audit focuses on the south side because that is the area most in need of improvements when it comes to bike paths and lanes.
āOur °®¶¹app is to make biking safe throughout the entire city,ā she said.
Bree Jaramillo, right, escorts students across the street at Amy Biehl Community School during a commute from Rancho Viejo Park on Oct. 9 for National Walk and Roll to School Day.
She said the group will deliver a report on the audit to AARP and present its findings to Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee and the city Public Works Department.
Councilors for the south side encouraged the committee to engage more with the areaās residents, who they noted are more likely to rely on bicycling as their main form of transportation.
āIn Districts 3 and 4, a lot of people may utilize those pathways to get places because they donāt have a vehicle,ā said Councilor Lee Garcia.
Councilor Amanda Chavez said those districts also have the highest number of students, many of whom bike or walk to school. That was on display Wednesday morning as about 30 students rode their bikes from Rancho Viejo Park to Amy Biehl Community School as part of National Walk and Roll to School Day. Other schools, including E.J. Martinez Elementary, El Camino Real Academy and Aspen Community School, are participating in the initiative this week.
Michael Garcia reiterated his support for the city putting more money behind initiates promoting cycling.
āWeāve been able to leverage relationships with entities such as Bike Santa Fe but I think the city has a responsibility to lead some of that charge,ā he said.
