BY DAVID NORTH
Former Chair
Los Alamos County Transportation Board

There is no reasonable way to describe Los Alamos County as Bicycle Friendly. Personally, and through no real fault of the county, I consider it downright Bicycle Hostile. This is entirely due to two roads: State Route 4 and the Truck Route. Neither are controlled by the county.

But, you ask, do average folks ride those roads? Or just bike fanatics? It’s a little complicated, so more on that later!

First, SR4. When asked which stretch of road in the county is the most dangerous for bicycles, retired Deputy Chief Oliver Morris said with no hesitation State Route 4. It’s in very poor condition with no shoulder at all in many places, and several spots where the edge of the road itself is in collapse. There is no reasonable way for bicyclists to get out of the road, which is very busy indeed at times. It is also used extensively by tourists who are often lost, or looking for the right turnoff, or surprised by the curves and generally lousy road surface. This is a recipe for the disasters that happen on a fairly regular basis (see Los Alamos Reporter 6/20/22, 4/19/21; labikes 3/27/20. It’s even worse when you include motorcycles getting hit).

The lack of maintenance is something of a mystery. As you drive around the state you’ll see many roads with far less use getting full resurfacing and other improvements. Even up near the Valle we’ve seen major repairs, but nothing for Los Alamos County.

Then there’s the Truck Route. When most of it was resurfaced as part of the Lab’s penance for negligence, they actually managed to make it worse for bicycling. Anyone who rides it will soon see the archeological results of increasingly bargain-basement repairs: each layer ends further in on the shoulder, so it is now essentially useless for bikes in many places because of the ridges. The guard rails are so close, especially downhill, that bikes are forced into the road in front of people regularly going well over the speed limit. It feels suicidal.

The lab adopts a posture of wanting to encourage bicycling, but this does not include even resurfacing the off-road trail down to LANSCE or supporting minor work to extend access at least to Elk Ridge.

Consequently, the Truck Route and SR4 from the Y to the West Gate are among the worst roads I’ve ridden anywhere. Sure there are roads in worse shape, but usually not with that much traffic. There is no good way to bike between the two towns in the county, or down to Espanola or Santa Fe.

Los Alamos has tried to help out by making it possible to get between the two population centers by putting bikes on the front of busses, but this turns out to have limited value. Since they are on the front, they’re exposed to 55 mph weather and flying debris. It soon becomes obvious that you won’t want a quality bike to chance that kind of abuse. My best solution is to have a beater road bike so it doesn’t much matter.

Some of the heavier ebikes are hard to get onto the front carriers, and especially sensitive to wet weather or flying salt. And during commute hours, this just doesn’t scale at all. Only a few bikes per bus would not support a significant increase in bike use. Still, good for the County for trying.

So, there’s no good way to get from one place to another in the county, but what about when you’re just toodling around in one town or the other? Then things actually look pretty good, but that’s another story.

Dave North spent four years dealing with bicycling issues during his tenure on the Transportation Board and rides bikes almost daily — yes, even this time of year. This is first in an exclusive to The Reporter series of articles about how to get the most out of cycling in Los Alamos County.