Group pushes for road safety on main drag

A group of concerned residents wrote a letter to the las Cruces City Council outlining concerns they had with traffic safety on a stretch of Lohman Ave. and Amador Rd.

Las Esperanzas and The Alameda Depot Neighborhood Association penned the letter highlighting the stretch of road that goes between Solano Dr. and Alameda Blvd. as a danger.

 Las Esperanzas president Martha Rodriguez said it is home to chronic speeding, racing, and a lack of pedestrian infrastructure.

“There are no crosswalks for pedestrians and obviously people who cycle through there are taking their lives in their hands,” Rodriguez said.

This is not the first time that this group has gone to the city for help with this issue. They say that in June of 2023, they proposed a road diet — the process of removing one lane from a road — alongside a protected bike line and more and better sidewalks for pedestrians.

They say that they got vocal support from the mayor and members of city council, but nothing from that plan has come to fruition.

The group cites a report from The Mesilla Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization and the City of Las Cruces that show intersections along this stretch having more accidents than in many other parts of the city as reasons why change is needed.

“It’s the lack of receptiveness from the city to see a dangerous situation is what is pretty frustrating for me,” former state representative and Las Esperanzas member Antonio Lujan said.

The group also said that similar projects to this have been done in the city and have shown “marked improvement.”

The City of Las Cruces Interim Public Works Director Kyle Arend said that the city did read the letter and that this project would be a “significantly large undertaking.”

As for any updates to the plan that was discussed in the summer of 2023, Arend said that it really has not progressed past that point.

“I recall that the mayor said, ‘yeah, we will look into it’ but really that is kind of as far as its gone,” Arend said. “We took a brief look at it but it didn’t fall as one of the high priority areas to be addressing.”

According to the 2024 Mesilla Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization Safety Report, the Amador and Water intersection had the second highest crash rate in the city.

Arend continued by saying that pedestrian infrastructure is something that the city is looking into improving in that area due to their Active Transportation Plan but many areas in the city also need this type of improvement.

“Certainly, a lot of areas right here in the oldest part of town have narrow sidewalks, missing sidewalks, so it helps prioritize that as well,” Arend said.

One possible source for funding a project like this is the Safe Streets for All Grants. The city was just awarded this grant that will be going to collect data on where the more dangerous roads are and help fix those areas.