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After a year in Denver spent working an alternative teacher-licensing position, I am moving to Albuquerque to work as an elementary teacher. I am incredibly excited, as I have visited friends from college who live down here and fell in love with both the city and state of NM. I find the state and city to be truly one-of-a-kind, truly the Land of Enchantment.
A few questions:
1) I prefer to bike anywhere when the distance is within 30-40 minutes biking, the weather conditions are favorable, and the route is safe and manageable. I will be living with my friends in the NE Heights near Sombra del Monte. I was looking up bike-routes to parts of town that I expect to spend free time in such as Downtown and Nob Hill. My biking distance is definitely reasonable. Are Pennsylvania St. and Lomas Blvd safe to bike on at night? Is nighttime biking around town generally safe or to be avoided? I'm a bit concerned about general crime at night. I love nighttime biking, and spent a semester in Tucson biking all over at night, often alone, and never felt threatened. I've also heard that ABQ drivers can be crazy. (I've been in places back East such as Miami, NYC and Boston which have some truly crazy drivers, so I don't know how much of an exaggeration this is).
2) Something I may miss about Denver are the well maintained and utilized public parks. Is there a particular park where younger people go to picnic, play games/sports or just hang out? Perhaps Tiguex or McDuffie?
3) For anyone involved in the LGBT community: I know ABQ's "scene" will be smaller than Denver or other large cities. I've done some reading through the forums and have an idea of the general spirit of the ABQ LGBT community, which I understand to be smaller but well integrated with the community. I'm wondering if you foresee a growth in LGBT-oriented businesses, such as another club to give Effex some competition. Is there strong opportunity for LGBT political activism in the city? Lastly, is the singles dating scene decent?
I know these questions were a bit long-winded! I bolded the questions for anyone wanting to skip the context of my question. Feel free to answer any of these you may have some insight on - Thank you!
2) Something I may miss about Denver are the well maintained and utilized public parks. Is there a particular park where younger people go to picnic, play games/sports or just hang out? Perhaps Tiguex or McDuffie?
1) Where your friends are near Sandia High School is a safe spot. Lomas and Pennsylvania less so at night, especially around the fairgrounds. I'm assuming you are asking because you're looking at a bicycle map and trying to map the most direct route to Nob Hill? As a rough rule of thumb the area south of the 40 freeway and east of San Mateo Blvd. is a higher crime area, so if you are concerned I would choose one of the many alternate routes to avoid this area at night instead. Bike Map
If you are an aware and defensive rider on your bicycle, you'll be fine. Bad driving here is mostly on the freeway (speeding and tailgating).
2) Hyder Park and Bataan Park, both near UNM.
3) You may have noticed that two gay guys posted tonight about moving to Albuquerque, so maybe that's a sign! That being said, I'm not sure the economics are great for gay bars/clubs in general anymore, given the efficiency of online alternatives for meeting people. The gay scene here tends to be more about outdoor stuff (we just went hiking with a gay group this morning), yoga, or low-key dinners/brunches at peoples' houses or restaurants rather than going to bars or clubs.
I am married so I don't know much about the dating scene here, but if you are college/grad-student age, there are tons of gay guys at UNM. It's easy to make friends here, gay and straight.
1) Where your friends are near Sandia High School is a safe spot. Lomas and Pennsylvania less so at night, especially around the fairgrounds. I'm assuming you are asking because you're looking at a bicycle map and trying to map the most direct route to Nob Hill? As a rough rule of thumb the area south of the 40 freeway and east of San Mateo Blvd. is a higher crime area, so if you are concerned I would choose one of the many alternate routes to avoid this area at night instead. Bike Map
If you are an aware and defensive rider on your bicycle, you'll be fine. Bad driving here is mostly on the freeway (speeding and tailgating).
I think Pennsylvania has bike lanes through some sections, but Lomas does not. I wouldn't personally ride on Lomas...it's a fast-moving 6-7 lane boulevard with virtually no bike amenities. The nice thing about cycling in Albuquerque, though, is that everything is gridded so most of the time an alternate route going the same direction is only a block or two away. I don't know the Sombra del Monte area too well, but Moon and Comanche both have protected bike lanes, Claremont (between Candelaria and Menaul) is a wide, straight residential street good for riding, and a very good dedicated cycling trail along a channelized arroyo begins at Sandia High School (Pennsylvania and Candelaria) and runs west to the North-South Diversion Channel trail, which is one of Albuquerque's best, most heavily used bike routes. That area's also not far from the Paseo de Las Montanas trail, which runs along a smaller arroyo between Tramway and the Winrock Shopping Center and is another of the city's best bike routes. Paseo de las Montanas feeds right in to the cycling infrastructure the city is working on between the malls (Uptown) and downtown, so once you get to Winrock there are many developed options for taking you into the downtown/UNM area including a bicycle boulevard and several minor arteries (Constitution, San Pedro, Indian School, etc.) with dedicated bike lanes and relatively limited traffic.
As far as personal safety goes, I'm a male in my early 40s and have ridden most of the routes above night and day for the better part of 10 years without incident. Mostly you'll just encounter people with their dogs, families out for a ride, etc. I've seen homeless camps on parts of the Diversion Channel near highway underpasses and have heard of nighttime cyclists being startled by dogs or homeless people having mental health crises, but for the most part those incidents are few and far between and the city does an OK job of moving people along. The Diversion Channel is fairly heavily used by cyclists, and if the prospect of riding it at night doesn't appeal there are other options that pass closer to populated areas.
Abraxas's rule of thumb for avoiding the sketchiest areas is well-taken, and generally I wouldn't ride by myself at night in areas south of Lomas and east of San Mateo.
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2) Hyder Park and Bataan Park, both near UNM.
There are many other parks that attract families and picnickers as well: certainly Tiguex (bigtime), but also Summit, Altura, Taylor Park across from Inez Elementary, Cutler Park along Pennsylvania, Snow Park at Moon and Indian School, etc.. You will have many options.
I do not ride a bicycle, but I wouldn't recommend riding on Lomas, particularly at night (though I don't think it's ideal at other times either, especially east of San Mateo, where the speed limit increases). Much of Pennsylvania would probably be okay. Indian School might be a good east-west road for bicycling, but I have to admit I still get confused (as a driver) when Indian School suddenly jumps north or south several blocks (see I still don't even know--I need to look at a map some day).
I do not ride a bicycle, but I wouldn't recommend riding on Lomas, particularly at night (though I don't think it's ideal at other times either, especially east of San Mateo, where the speed limit increases). Much of Pennsylvania would probably be okay. Indian School might be a good east-west road for bicycling, but I have to admit I still get confused (as a driver) when Indian School suddenly jumps north or south several blocks (see I still don't even know--I need to look at a map some day).
Indian School is pretty good, but does get confusing and has some wider stretches with heavier traffic (though not heavy compared to something like Lomas). I prefer Constitution: it mostly passes through the same neighborhoods, but is a straight shot from UNM to Tramway and never gets wider than two lanes. I'm pretty sure there's a marked bike lane for almost its entire length.
Having been a bicycle commuter in Albuquerque for over ten years, I can recommend that the fastest, safest, and most interesting route from the Sandia High School area to Nob Hill/UNM area is via the bike path. With recent bike dedicated underpasses an the cross streets, you don't even have to slow down and the views of the Mountains (northbound) and North Valley, Big-I, and Downtown at night are great. Access it directly west of Sandia HS's parking lot, travel west to the main diversion channel, cross the pedestrian/bike bridge, turn left. In a few miles you will pass the UNM North golf course and finally end up in UNM Hospital's parking lot. From there it is 5-10 minutes to the heart of Nob Hill, mostly passing through UNM's attractive architecture and landscaped campus.
Pennsylvania Blvd. has wide bike lanes and is a good route from the Sandia HS area to the Uptown shopping area/mall.
Lomas and the other major boulevards are really not suitable for cycling, though if you want to visit a particular shop on one of those streets it is perfectly acceptable to take a parallel bike route (usually more shady and/or pleasant anyway) to a side street that will get you to within a block or two of your destination which you can then navigate to via the sidewalks (legal but not recommended on high traffic non-designated bike streets) and frontage parking lots that line these major streets.
Pick up a free bike map at any bike-related shop around town. That will help you plan your routes. Constitution Ave. (parallel to Lomas, about 1/2 mile north of it) is a bike-friendly east-west route through the NE Heights. For nighttime riding you will need to comply with the regulations for lights and reflectors (also spelled out on the bike maps).
I was a daytime bike commuter in Albuquerque for most of the last 26 years and loved it year-round (now retired) and don't consider any part of town "unsafe" as far as crime goes. I only consider traffic, which means I avoid routes where the speed limit is high even when there is a bike lane. To get downtown use Martin Luther King Blvd. I would not feel comfortable riding in the dark for visibility reasons (not crime) and the perception that more drunk driving occurs at night.
And get a strong U-lock, since bike theft is very common.
Pick up a free bike map at any bike-related shop around town. That will help you plan your routes. Constitution Ave. (parallel to Lomas, about 1/2 mile north of it) is a bike-friendly east-west route through the NE Heights. For nighttime riding you will need to comply with the regulations for lights and reflectors (also spelled out on the bike maps).
I was a daytime bike commuter in Albuquerque for most of the last 26 years and loved it year-round (now retired) and don't consider any part of town "unsafe" as far as crime goes. I only consider traffic, which means I avoid routes where the speed limit is high even when there is a bike lane. To get downtown use Martin Luther King Blvd. I would not feel comfortable riding in the dark for visibility reasons (not crime) and the perception that more drunk driving occurs at night.
And get a strong U-lock, since bike theft is very common.
I like using Constitution, too. Though that hill between Carlisle and San Pedro, peaking at the 4-way stop at Washinton, will kick your butt, especially on a single speed. But I have it to thank for my sculpted calves :-)
I can also second using MLK to get downtown especially since it, too, is accessed right off of UNM, thus accessible from many of the bike routes and bike paths.
I have to say I like to daredevil it down Lead, though, and just pray no drivers make a careless right turn. If you are going fast enough and make the light at Broadway, you can get most of the way uo the overpass over the railroad and the view of downtown, the railyards, and the Gertrude Zachary mansion along the way can be cool.
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