The Village of Los Lunas enforces a medium use ordinance

LOS LUNAS, NM – Standing on certain medians in a New Mexico location is now against the law.

The Village of Los Lunas is enforcing a safety ordinance passed in October. It prohibits people from standing or using 19 different medians in Los Lunas.

All main roads within the village are state roads and therefore designed for quick and efficient movement.

In November, the village passed a median safety ordinance that means people can no longer stand on certain medians — except to walk over them. This includes medians less than four feet in diameter at high-volume intersections where cars pass in excess of 30 miles per hour.

No matter what the reason, village officials like Erin Callahan say it just isn’t safe.

“Whether it’s recruiting a car wash, participants or some other type of group, or we have pan handling here, but for a variety of reasons, these are just not safe means to stand on,” said Erin Callahan, the Deputy Village Manager of the Village of Los Lunas.

New Mexico has been one of the states with the worst pedestrian fatalities for several years. According to Callahan, they hope this ordinance will help with those statistics. She also acknowledges that the regulation may raise other concerns.

“We understand that there are challenges when those intersect with the concerns where they are very narrowly focused on harassing and restricting a person’s freedom of speech, and they may be in the middle ground,” Callahan said.

Callahan added that people standing in the median would receive a warning the first time. If they then repeatedly stand in the median, they face fines of up to $100.