Locally Preferred Alternative

The draft Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) was released in September 2013 and is shown in the map to the right. It is a combination of Alternatives 2 and 3; Alternatives 1 and 4 were not recommended for advancement. All four alternatives can be viewed below in "How was the draft LPA identified?"

Most of this route would include Bus Rapid Transit features such as bus-only lanes to bypass traffic congestion and improve travel times.
The proposed route runs primarily down University Boulevard from Menaul to Avenuenida Cesar Chavez, where it would zig east to Yale and south to the Sunport.
The route would also take a brief detour to the UNM Main Campus via Lomas, Las Lomas, and Redondo.
Several park-and-rides would be incorporated into this system, including the existing UNM remote parking lots that are currently served by UNM shuttles, as well as a new public park-and-ride north of Menaul.

Future Phases

After the LPA is finalized, it will be further refined through future engineering and planning phases.

Ridership

Preliminary projections estimate that over 17,000 people per day would use the system, more than all three Rapid Rides combined and equivalent to 38% of ABQ Ride’s total ridership. 40% of the ridership would come from UNM remote parking lots, with the rest coming primarily from UNM and CNM students, staff, and faculty, as well as local residents.
Traveling east on Avenuenida Cesar Chavez would allow buses to serve the UNM South Lot. Any recommended alignment should serve the South Lot, which would generate more ridership than the rest of UNM’s remote lots combined - about 7,000 trips per day. However, if the South Lot could be relocated to University Boulevard near The Pit, the proposed route would follow University all the way to Gibson and then over to Yale, as shown by the dashed lines. This alignment would provide better service to UNM South Campus and more economic development opportunities, particularly with Lobo Development’s planned 50-acre commercial development south of The Pit.