Albuquerque expands traffic safety campaign after cyclist’s death

The road rules Albuquerque drivers are most likely to miss are now the ones city officials are pressing hardest: stop for people in marked or unmarked crosswalks, and do not overtake a vehicle that has already stopped to let someone cross. The city has widened its Stop for Everyone campaign with TV ads, digital signs, flyers and outreach to drivers who receive speeding tickets, then added a webinar to spell out the changes after the death of 19-year-old Kayla Vanlandingham.

The campaign grew out of ordinance O-25-98, enacted as O-2025-032 on Nov. 19, 2025. City leaders have described it as the first comprehensive modernization of Albuquerque’s traffic code since 1974, and as the strongest protection yet for bicyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. The law also adds or clarifies definitions for bikeways, multi-use trails, crosswalks, pedestrian hybrid beacons, known as HAWK signals, rectangular rapid flashing beacons, or RRFBs, and vulnerable road users. It codifies Idaho Stops for bicyclists in Albuquerque and amends the automated speed enforcement ordinance so revenue goes to Vision Zero traffic safety initiatives.

City documents trace the overhaul to the city’s Vision Zero commitment in May 2019, the Vision Zero Action Plan released in May 2021 and the 2023 Vision Zero Year-in-Review, which recommended traffic-code updates and continued education campaigns. The message behind the new outreach is simple: safety is a shared responsibility, and the law now places clearer duties on drivers at the places where crashes are most likely to happen.

Vanlandingham’s death gave the policy its emotional force. Melinda Montoya’s daughter was struck and killed in July 2025 while biking across Carlisle Boulevard near Delamar Avenue and the Hahn Arroyo trail area in northeast Albuquerque. City officials later said the crash occurred at a crossing on Carlisle and that the tragedy directly shaped the ordinance overhaul. Montoya has since become one of the public faces of the city’s traffic-safety push, turning private grief into a warning for other families who use Albuquerque’s busiest streets.

Dan Mayfield said the planned webinar will teach residents what crosswalks are, what a vulnerable road user is, and how to use a HAWK signal and an RRFB. The education effort is meant to complement enforcement, not replace it, as Albuquerque tries to change driver behavior on arterials where pedestrians and cyclists remain exposed. With New Mexico ranked first nationally for pedestrian fatality rates for eight consecutive years, city leaders are betting that clearer rules, and clearer reminders, can prevent the next crash before it happens.