Clearly New Mexico

You fill in the blank. We all have our own ways of coping (or not coping) with traffic congestion.  I tend to sulk and fume about lost time and crappy MPG.  Maybe I need a better car.  I often think that one reason auto manufacturers have made vehicle interiors so luxurious and accommodating is because Americans spend so much time in traffic or commuting long distances from home to school to work to errands, etc. I see many cars that more closely resemble a home den than a vehicle for transport. Maybe it's a societal self preservation response- if we are stuck driving in uncomfortable cars, road rage would be at epidemic levels.

So, because I'm part of a local nonprofit dedicated to addressing the sustainability of New Mexico's natural and built environments, while I sulk in traffic, my mind also drifts to finding the reasons behind my predicament.

New Mexicans love their cars just as much as any American, perhaps more, and it's killing us- literally. The long decline of many urban areas, including those in New Mexico, continues to be enabled by the dominance of the automobile as the primary travel choice. Literally, hundreds of millions of dollars in the Albuquerque area alone are directed to maintaining and enhancing this infrastructure, often at the expense of friendlier alternatives like walking, biking and transit.

Our very landscape has evolved in the most inhuman ways, where design and land use have been altered away from the human-scale and focused instead around one purpose: move the vehicle from A to B as quickly as possible.

1000 Friends of New Mexico offers solutions to this entanglement. What has poor planning and a bankrupt transportation ideology done to New Mexico's towns and cities? A lot. How do we fix it? 1000 Friends calls on New Mexicans to help envision better approaches to (re)creating our communities.

We examine the compelling dynamic of Climate Change, water availability, fossil fuel addiction, public health, economic vitality/equity, corporate control and community action. In this context we see a unique opportunity to make positive change in the way New Mexico stewards it natural and built environments.

We see where community dialog and action can move the state away from accommodating the automobile and developer special interests and toward new priorities emphasizing people. community and our relationship with the land.

I encourage your involvement. We rely on the community as advocates and to help move better ideas throughout the community consciousness. Come see our blog/website at www.1000friends-nm.org. You can Join Us for as little as $25 per year. Join our e-list and visit our blog to stay up-to-date on the latest issues and activities of 1000 Friends.