The City of Albuquerque is working on a traffic improvement plan for Central between 8th and 47th streets.
The area most impacted would be from 8th to Rio Grande Blvd. where the city plans to implement a “road diet” which is transportation lingo for reducing the number of lanes.
Currently, the road is four lanes but under the plan it would be reduced to two lanes, one lane in each direction.
The plan also calls for more on-street parking and wider sidewalks.
Acting Municipal Development Director Michael Riordan says, “If you talk to some pedestrians, they’re not comfortable walking along that stretch of the roadway, if you talk to business owners there’s not enough on-street parking to service businesses and really develop the area economically.”
But drivers KOB spoke to are opposed to the plan saying, “Under no circumstances do I support central being reduced in that area down to one lane each way, it should remain two lanes each way at a minimum, they should look at a way of trying to get it three lanes each way.”
City officials insist reducing lanes won’t add congestion, but instead it will improve the flow of traffic.
In about six months, workers will begin re-striping Central from 8th to Rio Grande to give the plan a test run as engineers work on a permanent plan which would come about a year later. The test run alone will cost up to $200,000.
The city did the same thing with Lead and Coal, reducing them from three to two lanes. However, city officials say they don’t anticipate reducing lanes on the stretch of Central from Rio Grande to 47th.

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