Standing on medians in Los Lunas now illegal

LOS LUNAS — The Los Lunas Village Council recently approved an ordinance that prohibits people from occupying narrow medians in village roadways for an extended period of time, which police can now enforce.

Los Lunas Deputy Village Administrator Erin Callahan said there are several narrow medians in the village where this has been an ongoing and increasingly common safety issue.

“We have seen throughout the state attempts by other jurisdictions to address this issue, to provide some means to say we can’t have people on dangerous medians, such as this for prolonged periods of time, where they could be endangering themselves or creating a traffic hazard,” said Callahan at the Oct. 24 council meeting.

Callahan said there have been legal challenges to similar ordinances introduced by other jurisdictions, so they have been waiting and watching to see how other areas have successfully implemented them. The hurdles to creating such ordinances have mainly stemmed from concerns of infringing on people’s civil rights, she said.

“There have been numerous challenges in courts that say attempts to regulate use of medians is really an attempt to impinge on the civil rights of our homeless population or infringe on somebody’s rights to solicit funds, whether that is a person who may be engaged in panhandling or maybe asking for somebody to visit their car wash,” said Callahan.

“The intention of this ordinance is not to infringe on anyone’s free speech rights; however, we recognize that we’ve now appeared to see some more successful ordinances that clearly outline the safety purpose.”

Callahan noted several statistics regarding pedestrian safety to support the ordinance including data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which states more than 6,000 pedestrians die and 75,000 are injured by encounters with vehicle traffic annually. Data also showed New Mexico being among the worst states for pedestrian fatalities for several years, she said, including 2023 with the highest rate of pedestrian death per 100,000 residents in the country.

“These deaths and injuries occur in part because roadway medians are not designed for use by pedestrians. Instead, they are designed for the purposes of channelizing traffic, promoting roadway safety…and enhancing community aesthetics through landscape and artistic features,” said Callahan.

Los Lunas Police Chief Frank Lucero shared his support of the ordinance, saying the ordinance is needed and will allow law enforcement to better ensure the safety of pedestrians.

“I think everybody here can attest to the fact that we’re seeing record amounts of pedestrian traffic on our roadways,” said Lucero. “Unfortunately, even just last month, we had a pedestrian fatality just south on N.M. 314 from (the N.M 314 and N.M 6 intersection) so we feel this is a step in the right direction.”

Los Lunas Public Works Director Michael Jaramillo agreed.

“It is heart wrenching for me to see people in those medians that are probably only about 13 inches doing fundraising or trying to get money,” Jaramillo said. “I understand people need money, but it’s just an unsafe place to be.”

The ordinance stipulates it is now unlawful for any person to occupy or congregate on a median that does not possess a flat area of at least 4 feet in diameter for a prolonged period of time on any roadway with a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater.

Callahan explained law enforcement previously could only ask and strongly recommended they move off the median, but this ordinance will now allow for enforcement authority.

“We did extensively review this ordinance with our legal counsel in order to establish a very solid foundation for why this is a safety measure that we believe is necessary,” she said.

The goal here is to identify medians within the village that are not safe for pedestrian prolonged use and then to provide an enforcement capability for our police department to identify these situations and assess a warning and a small but increasing fine. This is not intended to be a highly punitive amount of money that gets fined, but it is intended to be enough of a deterrent.”

Callahan added there are exceptions to the ordinance, such as construction, injury or emergency repair, but otherwise someone found to be in violation of the ordinance will first be given a written warning.

The first conviction is a fine of $25, the second violation is a fine of $50 and the third violation is between $50 and $100.

The ordinance went into effect on Nov. 5.