I read that article when it was in the paper. I live and ride in ABQ. While the author said he used to commute, he sounds a like a rider with limited experience and just plain afraid of traffic. I ride the streets he mentioned he would never ride again. I ride them weekly. These are roads with two lanes in each direction and a typical bike lane marked on the side of the road. I find that area to be pretty lightly used by cars. I haven't ridden them at rush hour, but certainly have been on them when late afternoon traffic is otherwise picking up all around the city and maybe I get passed by 6 cars in a half mile stretch. The road goes over I-25 there, but there is no access to I-25 there so I think this is why there really isn't that much traffic on that section of the road. So, I really don't get where he's coming from.
As for cycling in ABQ in general, I think it's pretty good. According to the city's 2020 bicycle map: "The Albuquerque metropolitan area has approximately 180 miles of official non-motorized multi-use trails and the system continues to grow every year." This is paved and unpaved. But there is a lot of paved path miles.
We have a ~17 mile paved path running parallel to the Rio Grande for most of it, north and south. You can ride all but the last mile, of one end, without having to cross a single road. We have another that runs through the center of town. It starts at the far north end, running about 80% the length of the city, not counting a rural zone in the far south. This also is 8 miles of never having to stop for a single intersection. It follows a large drainage channel that only the major roads cross. The path goes under these roads. Is it pretty? Not at all. Mostly the view is the back side of businesses. But I can move along at speed for those miles with never having to deal with a single car.
We have another path on the east side, that is about 10 miles long that parallels a major road (Tramway Blvd.) .It does have intersections about every 1/2 mile.But Tramway itself has a very wide shoulder on both sides that is wide enough for a whole other car lane. Riding this shoulder is popular with the more avid cyclists (like myself). I and many other believe riding the wide shoulder is safer than the parallel MUP due the intersections I mentioned and right-on-red the cars can take.
We have many arroyos (lined with concrete) that run east and west. Essentially all of these have a MUP along side. Many only cross major roads every half mile, though some do cut through residential areas and you have many more roads crossings there. I can do a 50+ mile ride, in town with 2/3 on paved paths.
I can't say how ABQ compares to other cities, but suspect it has way above average amount of MUP miles.
Also, it's very rare that a car doesn't make an effort to give me as much room as possible when passing. I take the lane often to make it impossible for drivers to try to squeeze by me in pinch points. Or simply at stop lights where I'm going straight and I know there are cars that would turn right on red if I weren't in the middle of the lane (I see those tire marks on the curb, I'm not waiting there for the light to change). I've never been honked or yelled at when I do this.
I do my best to make my intentions clear, I do my best to be visible, I choose my routes with some thought.
I didn't even touch on all the MTB trails in the Sandia foothills that the city butts up against. And the many miles of dirt and gravel roads in the valley along all the irrigation ditches. I think it's actually a pretty nice place to live if you like to ride bikes.
Is there room for improvement, of course. Most of the streets have no bike lanes, or some of those really crummy ones that make you wonder why they even bother. But the city is trying and working to improve all the time. I see a lot of other cyclists on the road, so I don't think it's as bad as the author of that article makes it out to be.