Santa Fe, NM Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

17, adopted by Ordinance No. 2011-23 Section 3, prohibits any driver from operating a motor vehicle on or across a marked bicycle lane or path within Santa Fe city limits. 11, pulling into a parking space, or leaving one. Even inside those exceptions, the driver may not cross until every bicyclist already in the lane has been given the right-of-way; the statute is written as a yield rule, not a simple lookout requirement. 11 reinforces this by requiring any motorist turning across a bike lane to maintain a proper lookout for cyclists and yield the right-of-way to any bicyclist traveling in the lane or path.

7(F), separately requires a driver overtaking a bicyclist on the roadway to keep at least five feet of clearance and to slow down if five feet is not available, showing that bicycle right-of-way in and around a bike lane is treated as a safety mandate rather than a courtesy. Enforcement runs through the Santa Fe Police Department and Municipal Court under the city's Uniform Traffic Ordinance, Chapter XXIV, Article VI; the burden falls on the driver, not the cyclist, to show the lane was clear before crossing it.