Daily Lobo new mexico
friday April 17, 2015 | Volume 119 | Issue 142
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
ABQ transit to shift gears Types of transit layouts for proposed ABQ RIDE
(top) Possible rendering of landscape throughout Central Avenue transit lane
Nick Fojud / Daily Lobo /@nfojud
Samantha Ascoli writes a message on a pair of jeans for Denim Day in the SUB Atrium as a part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Organizers of Denim Day encouraged supporters to leave a pair of pants in the Atrium, where others could write positive and motivational quotes on them.
courtesy: brtabq.com
(middle) (left) cross sections of transit lanes from Oak Street and Valencia Drive on Central Avenue
LoboRESPECT hosts events, forums on sexual assault By Marielle Dent
Student opinions sought on transforming public transport By Moriah Carty Albuquerque Rapid Transit made an appearance on campus Thursday in an effort to hear students’ opinions on a new line that will connect Tramway Boulevard and Central Avenue to 98th Street and Central in about 30 minutes. This meeting was one of a series dedicated to receiving feedback from the community, said Dayna Crawford, deputy director for ABQ RIDE. Forty-one percent of ABQ RIDE’s passengers commute along Central, which is why the $100 million project is so important, she said. The line will stretch 17 miles down Central, stopping every seven minutes. Another key point in
having the open meetings is talking to business owners. “It’s a delicate balance that we’re looking at between the students and what their needs are and business owners and what their needs are, and then the neighborhood associations, because this will have a huge impact on our community,” Crawford said. “We look at this as an economic opportunity.” One of the primary concerns addressed was in regard to the higher traffic in an already-busy area, she said. Trends are now showing that people don’t want to drive, and by making the public transportation system more accessible, people will be able to commute much easier, she said. Travel time is expected to improve 15 percent with the new system
and on-time performance will improve 20-25 percent as compared to before. RapidRides, like the Blue Line, Red Line and Green Line, are comprised of 7 to 8 percent of students. The many bus lines throughout Albuquerque carry 24 percent of all employment within the Albuquerque Metropolitan area. Construction will begin in November this year with a projected finish date of September 2017, and would replace other bus lines, Crawford said. Through a large portion of Central will be a median guideway where the bus has its own line and the multiple stops in the center of Central. Although the project is still in the preliminary stages, it has been narrowed
Nick Fojud / Daily Lobo /@nfojud
Davida Hollis explains to Josep Powers what the new Albuquerque Rapid Transit Cornell location will look like. ART plans to develop multiple transit systems that run across Albuquerque, making public transportation faster than existing bus systems.
down to four major concepts, she said. The line will be a combination of reversible, bi-directional and mixed flow. The foam-board displays showed the potential locations for ART stations, as well as renderings of what the stations could look like. Plans for the alignment of the roadway, medians and landscaping in the areas around UNM were also revealed. Other features include dual-side entrances, signal priority at traffic lights, offboard fare boxes and an inside bicycle rack. Taro Peixinho, a CNM sophomore geology major, said he has been commuting on the bus line for the last three years. Peixinho said he spends at least 50 minutes one-way getting to school, and although it’s time he can do homework, with the proposed ART line he said he thinks he would have more free time to work on it elsewhere. “More often than not I’ll walk to a bus stop and find that it’s faster for me to walk up, and I can get two or three bus stops up before the bus even gets there,” he said. ABQ Ride is Albuquerque‘s principal form of public transportation. It boards 13 million passengers a year and logs a daily average of 160 thousand passenger miles on its buses, according to the press release. Moriah Carty is the news editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ MoriahCarty.
A panel of experts spoke about the process a survivor of sexual assault at UNM would go through at an open forum on Thursday. LoboRESPECT organized the event in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and in perfect timing with respect to the Department of Justice’s visit next week. “I get this question quite a bit: ‘When are you going to be satisfied? When is it going to be enough?’” said Thomas Aguirre, dean of students. “And I always say, ‘Until we don’t have any more sexual violence.’ One is too many in my mind, so we’re just going to keep pushing at this and keep working on this until we have created a culture where everyone feels safe.” The forum was supported by the Dean of Students Office, the New Mexico National Guard, the Rape Crisis Center of New Mexico, the Women’s Resource Center and the Student Health and Counseling Center. Each of these organizations is working to educate students and change the culture surrounding sexual assault. “Bystander intervention is a big thing that we teach right now,” said Capt. Tabitha Baker, a sexual response coordinator for the National Guard. “If you see something wrong, it is up to anyone — no matter how old you are, what rank you are in the military — to stop what you see before it gets to a level that we shouldn’t have.” Each of the experts did express an upswing in people reporting sexual assault and using the counseling services available to them. That includes a rise in male survivors reporting their assaults. Education is one of the most important components of dealing with the
issue overall, multiple experts said. Getting dialogues started and ensuring that people know to step up and protect one another is also important. “I wish there had been a bigger turn-out, but with events like this that’s hard to do,” said Jacquelyne Eckman, co-coordinator of LoboRESPECT. “It’s been a slow start, but we’re doing as much as possible to get the ball rolling in a timely manner. We’re working up to having more events every month.” LoboRESPECT will be hosting two more events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month this month, according to a UNM press release. “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” will be held on April 23 at 12 p.m. in the Student Union Building Plaza. Participants will gather outside of the SUB and circle campus with the aim to bring attention to sexual assault and show support for survivors. Walking in high heels is not required, but is encouraged. The event will be held in conjunction with SHAC’s Condom-Mint’s birthday bash at the SUB Plaza from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. the same day. A screening of “The Hunting Ground” will occur on April 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Union Building Theater. “The Hunting Ground” is about sexual assault on college campuses in the United States. It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in March. There will be a panel discussion after the screening. The event is free and is open on a first-come, first-served basis until the theater is full. Marielle Dent is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ Marielle_Dent.