Beyond Recreation

Commuter bikers know the revolution won't be motorized

They’ve endured sandpaper scrapes, hairline fractures, dislocated shoulders, bruises and even death. They’ve been honked at, yelled at, threatened by menacing dogs, tailgated by truckers gushing machismo and hit by rocks. But they maintain that kissing the pavement on occasion isn’t so bad once and a while, because after all, what’s better than kissing the wind on your way to work nearly every day?

Meet Santa Fe's cyclists. In just the last few years, they've grown in numbers and political power, bending receptive ears from City Hall officials for better cycling conditions across the region. The advocacy has furnished both symbolic and practical results.

On the symbolic side, Santa Fe is a city whose mayor and longest-serving city councilor issued a public challenge in May to city employees, encouraging them to win the Bike-to-Work Week challenge. And the Santa Fe Police Department now employs a Bicycle Unit comprised of five full-time bicycle officers and a sergeant, along with 17 "auxiliary bicycle officers"—putting a sort of official badge on a mode of transportation that hasn't taken hold here as much as other cities. Some cyclists point to the the previous administration of Mayor David Coss for jump-starting the movement. "Coss," says Rob and Charlie's bike mechanic and salesperson René Van Kuijk, "he was definitely a bike man."

Practically speaking, cyclists have pushed City Hall to plow taxpayer money into a growing network of trails and dedicated bike lanes that make it safer for both cyclists and motorists to trek across town. Just recently, the city secured $3.8 million in federal pass-through funds to help finance the construction of an underpass in the fourth most hazardous intersection in town, the St. Francis Drive-Cerrillos Road crossing. That's a plus for cyclists, who gripe about crossing the busy intersection. "The St. Francis and Cerrillos intersection—I've never seen anything like that anywhere," says Veena Vasista, whose riding experience in London, where she lived for 20 years, led her to conclude that Santa Fe's roads are actually relatively wide.

Indeed, the cycling movement hasn't taken off here as it has in other cities like Portland, New York and Minneapolis, as Santa Fe still consistently gets snubbed by the national cycling press from its lists of most bike-friendly municipalities.

We're not on par with other cities using a number of metrics, including size, grid and culture, but SFR asked some amateur and avid cyclists how Santa Fe matches up with them. They've had experiences in Amsterdam, London, New York, Chicago and Houston, and the cyclists say the City Different is different in many ways—some bad, some good.

At least we beat Duke City, says Rob and Charlie's mechanic Leo Quintana, who's almost been hit riding down Central Avenue in Albuquerque. "It could be worse," he says of cycling conditions here.

Kuijk, the other mechanic at the shop, moved here 12 years ago, spending 25 years in Amsterdam previously. In his time here, he points to a lot of improvements for cyclists, and that he hasn't been in an accident, but one aspect that never seems to change is the mentality of certain motorists toward cyclists. "Machismo," he says, noting that he's been cut off many times, "you never get rid of. The guy with the biggest truck always wins."

George Bradley, whose 26-inch Giant Revel 2 was being fixed in the shop, hasn't been so lucky. He bikes to his job at Walmart off Cerrillos and counts four accidents with motorists in the past 15 months, hit-and-runs, and the worst resulting in a hairline fracture in the forearm. He's been cycling here for seven years, earning previous experience in Houston, which he calls a safer city for cyclists. "I've even had a city truck behind me," he recalls of one incident biking on the trail behind Sam's Club, "honking for me to get out of the way."

It's not going to stop him from riding, however, and he says conditions here have improved recently.

Joe Abbatacola, as a member of the Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee, has advocated for some of those improvements in his five years in Santa Fe. Speaking from personal observation—rather than on behalf of that committee—he says cycling in Santa Fe is not as prevalent of a mode of transportation as it is in Chicago.

Abbatacola is about as avid as a cyclist as they come. In Chicago, he rode year-round more than 30 miles on workdays for his commute. In Santa Fe, he hitches a trailer on his bike, so he can load his groceries or other gear and pedal around town. Once while riding on Agua Fría Street, he had a rock thrown at him. He turned over video footage to police from his helmet camera, which caught both the license plate and the offender.

Despite the incident he maintains that the biggest misperception about cycling—and why people choose not to do it—is that it's dangerous.

Abbatacola and his peers argue that it'll become safer as there's more cyclists on the road. That's what happened in the Windy City, he says from the phone in Chicago, where he spent the summer.

Motorists there, he says, have become more aware of cyclists as they've grown in numbers. There's a bike-sharing program in which commuters can pay a small fee to rent a bike for short distances. And, he says, motorists have become more aware of cyclists with even small warnings on crosswalks that says state law mandates that motorists are required to stop for pedestrians. "That has really helped for safety for both pedestrians and cyclists," he says.

Still, in Santa Fe, the latter group continues to grow in numbers, and with them, even the number of bike shops. Choice Cycle Exchange just opened shop off Cerrillos weeks ago. Maria Archuleta Gabriele, an Española native, moved back to the area from New York with her husband, for that purpose.

"I'd love to see more things to make it safer not only for cyclists but also pedestrians," she says.

Letters to the Editor

Mail letters to PO Box 4910 Santa Fe, NM 87502 or email them to editor[at]sfreporter.com. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. Letters will be edited for space and clarity.

We also welcome you to follow SFR on social media (on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and comment there. You can also email specific staff members from our contact page.