Interview with D'Val Westphal on Red Lights, Orange Barrels

Here we go! Thanks to all you readers who have logged in and who make the road warrior column with your great questions!

OK kevin, I'll take your first two questions together, because the state department of transportation is on record as saying you can't fix Paseo and I-25 without fixing Paseo and Jefferson. addressing backups at one will just "move the problem from one point to another," according to their traffic engineer.

Reconfiguring the interchange and the intersection by adding flyovers -- like at the Big I and at the just-completed Coors/I-40 interchanges -- will cost an estimated $120 million to $150 million, according to NMDOT.

So far, congress via Jeff Bingaman has ponied up $20 million.

Just $100 million to go! The city/state/feds just have to come up with the rest of the money before the project gets the green light.

i'll take these in order, brian:

-- plans are to make the stretch of eubank between san antonio and paseo four lanes with a raised median, left-turn lanes at intersections, bike lanes, sidewalks and a horse/walking trail. eubank wold also get a frontage road to collect traffic from quintessence, san francisco and a point between palomas and san bernadino.

-- 2016 :(

-- it can be done sooner if it moves up on the priority list, which would be facilitated by pressure from residents via their county commissioner. squeaky wheel and all that.

sage and unser is scheduled to get a full-blown intersection with signals, turn lanes and increased transition zones (merge areas).

the ball started rolling in april, andrew, so look for construction in august.

as for sage extending to unser, that's developer driven, meaning when a developer puts something on the vacant land along that stretch, the city will get them to pony up cash for the road.

you make a great point, john. back in december a reader called the state on the carpet, questioning if the corridor's do any good.

nmdot's response is that the corridors are stretches of highway where there are a lot of fatalities -- from 2002-2004, 170 wrecks and 19 deaths on the section of i-40 headed into town from the east and the section of i-25 headed into town from los lunas.

but your point on enforcement is key. the reader, an ex-cop, said picking off speeders now and then wasn't going to do anything. the state agreed, and the nmdot traffic engineer said not only enforcement but consistent enforcement is what will deter speeders.

until there are enough cops to sit out there 24-7, or they plant mobile vans with cameras and radar detectors, the best defense is a good offense. know that people have died there and you don't want to join the numbers.

$40 million worth of plans, andrew.

the cool message boards started going up last june. they cost around $500,000 each and are designed to warn drivers of upcoming delays but can also carry those missing-child amber alerts -- i've seen those on the boards on i-10 in texas.

the metro area is getting 11 of the giant boards under the current program, along with an $800,000 command center manned by the mid-region council of governments. on the system so far are i-25 at tramway, around central, and south of gibson. i-40 gets 'em at nine mile hill, coors and tijeras canyon.

the balance will be used over the next six years to add more roads to the system, so the short answer to your question is yes!

sounds like something's screwy with the signal, kathy. could either be the timing is off or, if the intersection uses loop detectors (sensors in the pavement that tell the signal traffic is waiting), the loops could be cut. this often happens during paving and/or utility work.

best bet is to call 311. i can't say enough good things about this city info call center. they will send a report to traffic engineering, which will send a crew out to check the signal operations.

the red-light cameras are set up to catch specific movements. without knowing which intersection you're talking about, dan, i can't help you.

but the camers do not catch all directions of traffic at at intersection. they are set up to catch drivers running red lights in the directions that are most often blown through.

one big concern is when do the cameras catch you. you have to cross the stop bar (the thick white painted line that marks the entrance to the intersection) on red. enter on yellow, and you won't get a citation.

you also have to hit the stop bar to let the signal know you are waiting (see kathy's question above). if you don't come up and land on it, or if you drive just over it, the signal doesn't know you're idling and waiting.

my advice: follow the mvd manual and stop on yellow if you can do so safely. after 17 years in albuquerque i don't even go on green anymore without looking both ways.

what you're talking about is progression, mary, and the city tries to set the signals so the optimum amount of traffic can be moved through intersections safely.

probably what's going on on wyoming is it's busy, but so are all the major streets it crosses (i.e. lomas, menaul, montgomery, etc.) so it becomes a balancing act of what to keep moving when.

again, i'd recommend a call to 311. and the real key to traffic signal complaints is to be specific. just saying wyoming has start-and-stop traffic isn't enough. saying wyoming has no green-light progression at 7:30 a.m. between montgomery and lomas while traveling at the speed limit will give traffic engineers something to work on.

the city, county and state all use various products to mark lanes and intersections.

paint with glass reflector beads is used on shorter-term projects because it goes down quick. but it doesn't last as long as thermoplastic tape, which takes more time to put down.

nothing's cheap, especially in the traffic world where a speed hump runs around $1,500, but the reflectors do help. they don't survive snowplows, however.

one interesting thing on this topic: the old single-lane montano stripes were thermoplastic. when the mayor got the bridge and approaches re-striped to two lanes it was a real rush job, so crews painted the tape black, put down white paint, and plan to go back later and heat up the old tape stripes to pull them up and also stick down new stripes that will have a longer road life.

more than you ever wanted to know, i bet. ...

what makes the road warrior column work is great readers who are concerned about their commutes and their roads, and really responsive city, county and state traffic experts.

that may sound like a big kiss-up, but when you get past the beauracracy and down to the individuals who set the signals, paint the stripes, approve the extensions, etc., they are all real people stuck driving the same roads as the rest of us. i can't even count the times traffic engineers have called to say they just drove a street a reader was asking about and found ... you get the idea. if i've learned anything doing this column, it's that we have very challenged roads and very talented people willing to rise to meet those challenges. the sticking point, as with a lot of things, is cash.

i don't know of any, kevin. a recent column focused on the quick merges and how they confused drivers, but nmdot's response was freeway traffic always has the right of way over merging/ramp traffic.

to check out current/upcoming projects, check out nmdot's web site, nmshtd.state.nm.us