"It's Like Armageddon..."

32 Comments

Comment by Adelita on October 9, 2008 at 6:28am

I have a usually very short commute from work to home on Rio Grande Blvd. But yesterday was different. It was weird, cars stacked up from I-40 all the way to Candelaria. That's is a real rarity for Rio Grande. I guess a van caught on fire on Indian School near Rio Grande. So combine that with the accident on the freeway - it felt like living in LA.

Comment by Doug R on October 9, 2008 at 8:33am

If this becomes a regular occurance you may want to do what we do out here in California - getting into work early and staying late JUST to avoid traffic. If I get on the roads before 6:30 to 7am I can usually avoid traffic jams. from 6:00 to 6:30pm onward is not bad either. Just pack a lunch and dinner and you have my typical week day pattern.

(Can't WAIT to move out of here in January.....)

When are most people on the major roads in ABQ during the week days? Typical patterns 7 to 8:30am and 5 to 6:30pm?

Comment by Benny the Icepick on October 9, 2008 at 8:58am

I really shouldn't say anything.

Comment by Angela on October 9, 2008 at 9:18am

Yeah, I would love to ride my bike to work, but there are a few problems.
Actually three.
My children.
It's just not very practical.

Comment by Benny the Icepick on October 9, 2008 at 10:12am

I still shouldn't say anything. Nada. Zip.

Comment by Benny the Icepick on October 9, 2008 at 10:14am

Sorry; I forgot "zilch."

Comment by Angela on October 9, 2008 at 10:15am

Probably not a good idea in my case. :)

Comment by mombat on October 9, 2008 at 10:23am

This seemed to spill over to all of the side streets. We hit this crazy traffic at !-25 and Lomas and it took 10 minutes to make the 3 minute drive home. So not as bad as many of you .
There was the scariest bicyclist I have ever seen though- she came flying down Lomas in between the traffic lanes, weaving in and out cars. I was impressed to see that she made it to Broadway in one piece.

Comment by the hand model on October 9, 2008 at 10:39am

It seems like it was a "perfect Storm" scenario, with multiple accidents, and Balloonatics roaming our city.
Not your everyday occurrence, so rest easy DougR.
Amusingly enough, I was stuck in traffic trying to get over to the Bosque trail for an end of the day bike ride.
I did get to see the charred remains of the (old VW) van fire.
Bong related, me thinks.

Comment by Black is the new Black on October 9, 2008 at 10:53am

I was blown away by the number of cars on Mountain. As a bike commuter it didn't actually impact me at all, but it was very strange to have the street I normally share with only three or four cars be filled with at least 50+ cars backed up it.

I too had thoughts of "wow, this is really crazy I've never seen anything like it" until I remembered that back in Oakland the street I lived on (Telegraph Avenue) would back up equally bad or worse every day between 4 and 6 PM. Doug R. is completely correct - traffic in the SF Bay is far worse every day then what we had last night here. While Albuquerque has some pretty significant infrastructure challenges, especially related to the number of routes to the West Side over the river we are lucky in that we don't suffer even fractionally as much as people in large cosmopolitan metro areas do.

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