Road Warrior: Why are Albuquerque traffic lights horizontal?

Dec. 4—WHY ARE ABQ LIGHTS HORIZONTAL?: Coloradan Erin, who visited Albuquerque last week, asks why the traffic lights in Duke City are horizontal rather than vertical.

The answer? Nobody knows, according to the city's Department of Municipal Development.

In some cities, horizontal lights are used to set off special neighborhoods, including historic districts. But that's not the case here.

Traffic lights are horizontal around the state — not just in Albuquerque, said DMD spokesperson Dan Mayfield in an email to the Journal. They've been that way for over 100 years.

There's an urban legend that the horizontal design is better suited to windy climates, Mayfield said, but several other windy states use vertical traffic lights without issue.

"In our case, it's like green chile," Mayfield said. "It's a statewide tradition that many people who move here have a hard time adjusting to ... but for all of New Mexico, it's simply how we do it."

READER IN THE DARK ABOUT SAN ANTONIO LIGHTS: As winter brings earlier sunsets, one Road Warrior reader asks why there aren't streetlights on San Antonio between Wyoming and I-25.

"Especially now at this time of year when it gets dark so early the darkness on this boulevard is very dangerous," the person wrote.

San Antonio is a wide, safe road, Mayfield said, with separated east and west lanes.

That means the stretch of road isn't a "conflict area" — parts of the road like intersections and other zones that become dangerous in the dark.

"Not every road needs lights," Mayfield said.

PEDESTRIAN DEATHS DOWN IN NM, BUT STILL HIGHEST RATE NATIONWIDE: It's been seven deadly years in the Land of Enchantment.

For the seventh year in a row, the state topped the Governors Highway Safety Association list with the highest per capita pedestrian deaths in the nation. The rate — 4.4 deaths per 100,000 — was almost double the nationwide rate.

No other state cracked four per 100,000.

The report projects pedestrian deaths based on preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System. This year's report estimates there were 93 pedestrian deaths in New Mexico in 2022.

That means a high proportion of those fatalities came from Bernalillo County, which saw 40 pedestrian deaths in 2022, according to data from local officials.

But the statewide number is down about 10% from 2021, while nationwide the number is rising. Across the country, pedestrian deaths have increased by 77% since 2010.

Florida had the second-highest rate of pedestrian deaths.