BPAC reviews NMDOT road safety audit process and aims to pick single HSIP application area

Las Cruces ' The Biscilla Valley MPO Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee on Monday heard a presentation from Jason Coffey, Highway Safety Improvement Program manager at the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT), on how NMDOT administers road safety audits (RSAs) and how the MPO should target a single application for Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds.

Coffey told the committee that NMDOT's RSA process is "data-driven" and that the agency typically conducts RSAs on roads it owns or those that include an NMDOT-owned segment. "For us, they've ranged in, cost from about 40,000 to 80,000," Coffey said, describing consultant-supported RSAs conducted through HSIP on-call contracts. He added that the program generally performs only a handful of RSAs each year and that "we have a safety committee practice that RSAs have a 5 year shelf life." The guidance and templates NMDOT provides are intended to position an RSA to support a subsequent HSIP design-and-construction funding application.

Why it matters: The MPO wants to submit one candidate project area that maximizes the likelihood of winning HSIP funding. Committee and staff members emphasized that NMDOT is likelier to fund RSAs for NMDOT-owned facilities and that choosing a site with realistic implementation prospects increases the chance that recommendations from an RSA will be built.

Committee members spent much of the discussion reviewing hotspot maps and common-sense filters the MPO should apply when selecting a candidate. MPO staff (Andrew Ray) and presenter Miss Provingi overlaid five years of crash data (2020'2024) and identified recurring high-crash corridors and intersections inside Las Cruces, including parts of US 70 (Main/Elks/Del Rey), the El Paseo corridor (El Paseo/Idaho/Wyatt), Lohman and its downtown approaches, and several hotspots around Solano, Spruce and Valley/University.

Several members pushed the BPAC to weigh pedestrian and bicyclist incidents more heavily than raw crash counts. "I'd like to make [a recommendation] based on vulnerable road users more than vehicular crashes," said Ashley Curry, a citizen representative, asking staff to create mode-specific overlays that separate pedestrian and bicyclist crashes. Longino Bustillos and others also urged a focus on areas near schools and neighborhoods with higher pedestrian activity.

Staff asked the BPAC to use an April work session as a deliberate winnowing step: gather input from BPAC members on priority locations, confirm jurisdictional willingness to implement projects, then rank candidates at a later meeting. MPO staff noted the BPAC does not meet in March; the April session will include a brief on-record meeting followed by a work session to refine a short list.

Clarifying details: Coffey said NMDOT district concurrence is required if an RSA touches an NMDOT segment; RSAs used as the basis for funding applications should lead to a project phase or funding commitment within five years of the RSA; and RSAs performed through HSIP on-call consultant contracts typically cost roughly $40,000'$80,000 (using agency consultants) but can be less if local agencies use in-house staff.

What's next: The BPAC will receive the presentation materials and crash maps before the April work session, asked staff to provide mode-separated crash layers (pedestrian vs. bicyclist), and aims to identify a single target area by midyear for a HSIP RSA application or further prioritization.

The committee did not take formal action on a specific RSA location at the meeting; members agreed to reconvene in April to refine and prioritize candidate areas.