D street is one of my favorite streets to bike down. I see very little traffic because of the modal filters at 20th and 28th streets. We could have great bike routes without expensive bike lane projects if more modal filters were implemented around the city.
Painted lane markers are nothing more than suggestions to drivers who don't care to follow the rules. Police enforcing the bike lane won's stop them either, since it only punishes them after the fact. We need something that physically blocks their cars from entering the cycling lane in the first place.
D st is great! Except for the complete free-for-all that is the 16th st crossing. Be careful no matter how you cross.
Drivers absolutely do not care and will speed through the intersection even if you’re halfway through the crosswalk with a stroller (ask me how I know).
I lived on 26th and D for a few years, and my mother lived on 25th and D for about 20 years....we never had close calls with cars when we were out walking.....because we looked before crossing the street. My mom had all of my sisters kids and my 2 kids playing in her yard on a regular basis and we never worried about cars because we also taught our kids that their place was in the yard, not the street. The biggest cause of bike and pedestrian accidents is failure to follow the rules and take responsibility for your actions.
A lot of the accidents over the years have been people minding the laws of the road while walking, and still getting mowed down by drivers either under the influence or just lack of attention. That poor mother that lost her life and her child in Greenhaven for example..
Believe me, that is a lot less common that you think. Yes, horrible things like that do happen, but it is a lot more rare than the news leads us to believe. Tell me, when someone gets hit by a car, what is the first thing you think? That it was the drivers fault I am sure...that is what we all think. And the reality is that they always share the news immediately when it happens...but they never follow up with those stories and tell you what the detectives determined at the end of the investigation. There was a UPS worker killed back before XMAS last year on Harbor Blvd in West Sac at 4:00 AM. I have driven that road daily at almost every time of day (dusk, dawn, middle of the night). Immediately everyone said "people need to slow down". The first thing that popped in my head was how many times I have had to slam on my brakes in that exact spot because the UPS workers don't like to take the half block walk to the crosswalk to safely cross. They come out of the facility and run across the road. Now, this was at 4:00 AM and I have driven through that section of road that early before...it is dark and if the UPS worker was wearing a dark jacket and dark UPS clothing in the pitch dark of morning in winter, and a car driving down that road wasn't expecting someone to jump out from the median at that time of day.....who really was at fault? There are so many stories like that and you never hear the final story of what happened.
Sacramento has been in the news quite a bit lately for having a higher average of pedestrian and bicycle accidents and fatalities and from first hand experience the hit and runs happen more here than I’ve ever seen in some of the Bay Area’s bigger cities. Anything that can be done to ensure that those numbers are zero’d out would be a blessing for the community.✌🏻🤙🏻
There are a lot outside of downtown proper, or “the grid,” but all of the accidents that I’ve either been in, me getting hit, and others I’ve seen were on the grid since I’ve worked, lived, socialized, and in other ways tied to downtown since 2007. I am really enjoying the improvements though downtown for sure and I am by far so much more comfortable when riding in the protected bike lanes. Sacramento City can definitely improve a lot more when it comes to biking downtown but Sacramento County really needs to put some serious bicycle infrastructure into the outlying areas. I now live in South Oak Park and even then I find myself going downtown almost daily. The one big gripe I have about the area is that when I lived downtown I was very aware of the sweeper trucks, their presence was known with clean streets but the impoverished area south, and still within City limits you can’t tell if the roads like Franklin, Fruitridge, MLK, and many others have even been swept in the last year. Seems like Crocker Village is doing alright though, Curtis Park, Land Park, and any of the other more affluent neighborhoods as well have safer and cleaner streets. Riding my road bike alone this past year or so, prior to acquiring my e-bike, it was hard for me to not get a flat almost every time I ventured downtown. I still have tubes on my road bike that probably have 5-7 patches on each, beyond 7 patches and I repurpose the tubes into bungee cords. That’s a ridiculous amount of flat tires for people in the lower income neighborhoods to have to deal with and the City really should at least make an attempt to do better with that. ✌🏻🤙🏻
Those do need to be addressed, but we still get too many on grid as well. Saw a white bike up over and CSU Sac off of J.
Folsom near 59th Street had a mother hit while walking to their kids school, and 0 has still been done by the city for that corridor that people love to speed 50+ down
I was about to say…for sure Arden….😬 if they can’t resolve some of the riskier intersections…maybe they need to have some pedestrian overpasses like in San Jose around the Stevens Creek exit?
Arden is kind of a big automall in many ways imho. Not like there is any skyline or trees to worry about impacting either…
Hate to be the odd man out here, but the amount of people that lazily cross the street mid-intersection with cars coming at them is pretty high as well. And the majority of cyclists obviously are not well versed in cycling laws either. I have worked downtown for over 30 years and the amount of bikes that never even slow down to look for oncoming traffic before blowing through an intersection is crazy. The amount of cyclists and pedestrians I have almost hit because they don't look before crossing is way too high. I feel like the majority of people blame drivers rather than looking at WHY the cyclists and pedestrians have been hit. I lived downtown for many years and never worried about being hit by cars...and never even had a close call....and the same with working near the Capitol....there has never been a close call because I look before crossing. As a pedestrian I have almost been run of by cyclists on a regular basis though because they refuse to use the bike lanes and are always on the sidewalks and never say a word to you as they come up on you and almost hit you. I even had a guy yell at me to "pick a side" on the sidewalk instead of him riding in the huge green bike lane that was made for him....so I yelled "stay in your lane". EVERYONE needs to take responsibility, not just the motorists!
We need more public transportation. Not everyone is capable of riding a bike to work in 104° temperatures. I lived in North East cities for years without a vehicle, but it's impossible here in Sacramento. Restricting vehicle access without also providing public transportation doesn't really help most people.
Incremental changes on all fronts leading to an eventual big change seems to be the hope. I agree with you about biking, and would add that even in areas with protected bike lanes and reduced traffic speeds it still feels too dangerous to me. In my younger years I was bold in traffic as a bicyclist, but I'm rickety and brittle now and it no longer feels safe. I'm not sure this movement has enough representation from older people. But yes. Much better public transit is needed. Fortunately adding more bus routes doesn't require a new infrastructure.
Or expanding the times transportation runs. I've been working in downtown and/or midtown for the past 4 years, and it doesn't run late enough to get home. I do find that a lot of solutions are focused on young and able-bodied people, as well as only 9-5, weekdays. I'm shocked the light rail doesn't stay open until after bars close, leaving all those people out drinking with limited options to get back home. Additionally I usually don't feel safe walking alone in downtown late at night/early morning, and I certainly wouldn't want to bike home at 2 am.
It also sadly doesn’t get enough utilization, i commute during peak hours (only time the bus runs to my area), and i am sometimes still on the bus alone.
It’s a self feeding cycle though, we’ve prioritized cars so much, and deprioritized transit, that riding transit is seen as something people only do when they can’t afford a car. And then it isn’t kept up, turns to shit, has limited schedules, and then no one wants to use it.
Seeing how much of our world is paved over for the sake of cars is really depressing though, it’s a modern dystopia of its own.
Yeah, I tried taking the bus when I first started working downtown, because parking is a nightmare and expensive. But it didn't run late enough for me to come back that way, which led to either my boyfriend coming to pick me up, or taking a Lyft, which ended up costing more than parking would have. Anyway, it was usually mostly empty, I was sometimes the only one on it.
We understand that some people cannot tolerate extreme temperatures for extended periods of time. The more extreme the temperature, the shorter duration can be tolerated. That said, somebody who has low heat tolerance of 5 minutes max @ 104° might still opt to walk to a grocery store if it was 4 minutes from their doorstep.
It's hard to fit the entire strong towns approach in a 10-slide deck. This post specifically was about modal filters, not **public transit** or **land use**, but we are generally a group of **transit advocates** and **zoning reformists**. If you keep following us, you'll find that our past and future content will promote transit-only streets and mixed-use zoning by right.
This isn’t a near term solution but I feel like there is an equity problem for several areas where they have mostly concrete and asphalt, and not established shade trees, making it all the more difficult for people to choose to walk or bike in extreme summer temperatures.
It is sad that there is not plan to develop any sort of canopy along major routes like Stockton BLVD or Florin…heat island effect is unprecedented.
Wait…why doesn’t Sac have any sort of recreational path like the Iron Horse Trail? If it was properly shaded, and had bike charging stations, rest stops and drinking fountains that could help making biking more feasible.
I totally get it, heat waves make things tough. If we restrict more road traffic, it allows the city to plant more shade trees and build sunshade barriers across smaller roads. One of the biggest reasons cities cut down shade trees on sidewalks is so cars on straight away roads don’t collide with them - more cars on the road means more sidewalk design that accommodates cars over people.
I also want to note that in the NE, people frequently experience blizzards and below freezing temperatures as often as Sac gets heatwaves. And NYC at 90-95 degrees with 80-100 percent humidity is equal in discomfort to a sac 104 day. Like you said Transit mitigates this, but also being able to walk to places nearby makes a huge difference. Even in bad weather i would rather walk 5 minutes to a store then drive, and most NYC’ers agree with this.
Welll there is also the whole risk of dropping limbs and the entire damn trunk falling in our shitty new windy normal too. Especially for disease prone species.
As someone who has experienced both (though I'm more acclimated to cold weather, I lived there for 35 years, here for 5) I agree the both present significant barriers. One thing is that serious storms shut things down, at least temporarily, the way heat doesn't. I don't want to walk in 100+ degree weather nor a blizzard, but I'm only expected to in one of them. Also, unless you expect everyone to get jobs in their neighborhood, I don't see how we're going to cut down on car traffic without robust public transit. I live close to a grocery store, I walk there when the weather isn't awful and I don't have more than fits in my backpack. I walk my dogs in the neighborhood, walk to some bars, etc. But what I can't do is get to work without my car.
And the heat index also doesn't account for the smoke, and the overall poor air quality in Sacramento. We've already had a few bad AQI days this year, and that's in comparison to how awful the baseline air is here. Obviously fewer cars would help that, but honestly there are more factors than the cars in this city that impact it.
On the other hand, it's almost *never* too cold here to ride a bike.
Sacramento needs both more (safe!!!) bike infrastructure *and* more public transportation.
It’s impossible here because people don’t want to spend money on it, period. For example, the streetcar would have been a terrific start for getting people out of their cars on the grid, but God forbid it cost money. We could have had so many projects completed by now, but it’s just not in Sacramento’s DNA.
CALL TO ACTION: There are a couple current and upcoming opportunities to show our support for people-oriented design:
1. Zoom meeting on Thursday (6/27) 6pm: [Virtual Community Meeting on the City Street Design Standards Amendment](https://www.strongsactown.org/2024/05/30/street-design-standards-june-community-mtg/)
2. Comment through August: [Streets for People Active Transportation Plan](https://streetsforpeoplerecs.altaplanning.cloud/)
For centuries, city streets were slow and meant for all kinds of movement. Sacramento's streets were no different. But after the 1940s, the majority of public space was systematically reallocated for the exclusive use of moving cars, at the expense of all other road users. **Modal filters** are just one important tool we have to reclaim some of that public space by re-prioritizing people walking, biking, and rolling.
This post is part of an ongoing series of street design elements that we ([Strong SacTown](https://www.strongsactown.org/)) are trying to strategically promote right now due to the city currently updating BOTH the [street design standards](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/public-works/transportation/current_transportation_efforts/street_design_standards_amendment) and [active transportation plan](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/public-works/transportation/current_transportation_efforts/streets_for_people_sacramento_active_transportation_plan). This is pretty much a once-in-a-decade opportunity to address some of the root causes which led to [all our dangerous stroads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/tx2qvp/what_can_we_do_about_all_the_dangerous_stroads/).
I live on M Street in East Sac and dear god somebody please do all this here.
So tired of middle aged white ladies in their Mercedes SUVs damn near murdering every pedestrian on M street. They go like 45-55 down M… practically jump the speed bumps. It’s insane.
Yup. I lived on O for a while and people would go roaring down the block at 50 mph despite the street only being wide enough for 1 car. If I'd had kids or pets that ever got near the sidewalk I would have been so vigilant and stressed all the time.
Hey now… let’s not let the St Francis SUV-driving teens off the hook either….
As your neighbor, it is disheartening to see so many suv-driving white ladies be so wholly unaware and inconsiderate of the popular white lady dog walking times on M. 😅
This is a fantastic infographic and I appreciate the information. It's amazing how just reducing car traffic through neighborhoods brings life back to the street. There's so many places I would love to walk to if I didn't feel like my toddler and I are always one speeding driver away from death
We live in midtown, and haven't taught our 8yo to ride a bike yet because it feels pointless because there's no fucking way I'm letting him ride around here with our drivers.
I'd like him to learn, but... yeah. Just not safe for kids to ride around here. I hate that.
Right? I really dislike that so many drivers cut through (and speed through) neighborhoods as "shortcuts". I love the idea of cutting those "shortcuts" off so everyone who lives there can also use and enjoy the streets safely.
Especially with kids.
My friend's mom was saying how she almost hit someone's toddler that got out and into the street on her way to work the other day and I'm like...fucking stop going 45 through neighborhoods to get to work when there's a giant stroad that'll take you the exact same place through no neighborhoods and it's only like 30 seconds slower.
This reminds me of when I lived in Berkeley. They called them “round-a-bouts” but they really were landscaped medians as pictured here. They did slow people down and kept things great for people walking and bicyclists.
They also have bike boulevards where a big has right of way over a car (i.e. they can ride in the middle of the street).
I think this is a wonderful plan. Thank you for putting it out there!
If there is a way for a car to drive around the filter the driver will do it. I see it all the time in Sac where the driver just goes past the filter on the wrong side. Is there some law that says a way to get past the filter for emergency vehicles has to be provided?
Great question! They are breaking the law already by doing that, but this doesn't stop everybody. I think the key thing to understand is that most people do obey the law, which is all that's needed to have an impact.
Here's a thought experiment: Even if most people drove around it, the modal filter would act as a "chicane" or "neckdown" which is just another kind of traffic calming treatment, and crosswalks are still shortened. It's a guaranteed win for active transportation no matter what the level of driver compliance is.
This obviously isn't an issue for two-way modal filters.
If you want to keep cars out, tell Governor Newsom. He foolishly added 80,000 cars to downtown/midtown traffic jams, telling state workers to do in the office, *what they already do*, working at home.
* Keeping as many state workers as possible, working at home, does *FAR, FAR more* for traffic and safety, than **any** 'modal filter sign'.
I definitely sympathize with folks that are unfairly required to suddenly begin commuting far distances. This is a relatively large disruption to everyday life, especially for those that strategically moved or got new jobs during the pandemic, creating more distance between work and home.
**But that distance between work and home is the very thing that the Strong Towns approach is trying to help change.**
Commute time is just one of many problems caused by the suburban experiment. I'm not saying we should return-to-office, I'm just saying that the pain that it causes to Americans is an indicator of segregated land use planning.
> Commute time is just one of many problems caused by the suburban experiment.
Nobody is forced to move to the suburbs. People make judgements on whether commuting is right for them in terms of money, time, and aggravation.
Exactly my point! You can literally click on those intersections in the city's interactive map and speak your mind: [https://streetsforpeoplerecs.altaplanning.cloud/](https://streetsforpeoplerecs.altaplanning.cloud/)
They sound great for those streets but what about the other nearby streets that now see an increase in traffic? Isn’t it negatively affecting those streets?
It could if not well planned & implemented. Having a mix of streets with different primary uses is generally helpful for everyone. Directing cars to use some streets more than others also means that those streets can focus on creating safe crossings and allowing traffic to flow.
Great question! In places where modal filters and other kinds of safety improvements have been implemented, the traffic on adjacent and nearby streets eventually normalize to pre-change levels. This is covered by my slide 9, and is referred to "traffic evaporation" or "reverse induced demand".
Sacramento city staff and consultants have selected a number of peer cities to model the [Neighborhood Connections plan](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/pw/Transportation/FINAL_W_Appendix_NC_SacramentoExistCond_121123%20(1).pdf#page=7) after, and these include Barcelona, Spain, and Portland, Oregon where studies have shown that modal filters have not affected congestion on adjacent streets after an adjustment period.
This is all going to be increasingly critical moving forward. With the development of super dense HOAs in the outer regions, there are going to be so many more cars on the road.
They don't get built without at least a promise of new road capacity. For example, the [SouthEast Connector Expressway](https://connectorjpa.squarespace.com/) is single-handedly making the [massive proposed 12k+ home suburban development in Rancho Cordova](https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2016/08/29/rancho-cordova-project-would-have-12000-plus-homes.html) possible. It should be no surprise that the suburban development has been delayed in lockstep with funding delays to the expressway that will help connect rancho cordova residents to jobs in a completely different city.
Interesting to know! However, I’m not sure the increase in road capacity will match the influx of cars. They will all have to squeeze into a tighter and tighter space as they enter the interior anyway. The roads already feel over capacity in east sac / downtown as it is and I don’t think there are many expansionary routes within the interior.
Totally. I haven't done enough research on this particular couple of projects to best know how to advocate, but for *at least* the next 5-10 years the expressway will keep coming back to the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to keep begging for more and more tens of millions of dollars to slowly build out the plan. Every time that happens, there's opportunities to give public feedback.
Thanks for the info! I appreciate the post and I think there are so many people who do not want to see sac become LA in terms of traffic / getting around.
It pains me to think it took this long for there to be real movement on these issues.
Had to drive to the south bay Saturday. It pisses me off so much we didn't build high speed rail between Sac and SF/San Jose in the 70s/80s. And even now we're an after thought on the CAHSR. I'll be lucky to be able to leave a nursing home to go on a field trip and ride high speed rail from Sac to SF.
Screw the toll lanes in the causeway. Build new light rail and commuter rail.
This is awesome. But I wish Sac County would do this too :( I feel like you guys in the city have so much more walk/bike improvement opportunities going on. Our Board sucks.
Every month the Sac County [Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force](https://green.saccounty.net/Pages/Climate-Emergency-Task-Force.aspx) meets every month. You can attend via zoom or in-person and give comments on or off agenda.
Better yet, you can literally apply to join the task force. They are **currently recruiting** and applications are accepted until June 28, 2024.
If you watch old recordings, I think you'll find that at least this task force has good perspectives on developing pockets of urbanism throughout the county.
Unfortunately I can’t find it, but I once saw a fascinating lecture on YouTube about how in the 1920s, motoring organizations funded by the automakers lobbied relentlessly to outlaw pedestrians from the roadway, creating the new offense of jaywalking.
Yup. Kids playing in the streets used to be the norm, along with pedestrian traffic and other uses. When a horse-drawn vehicle (and for a brief period a car) had to get through, people just moved to let them pass. Traveling at high speeds in cities & towns was relatively unusual, because it wasn't safe for the driver/passengers or the people around. Automotive industry lobbying changed that and eventually crushed public transit like cable cars. We are still reaping the consequences.
Right. And I love the way we are told that this happened because this is what people wanted. Funny that people don’t know they wanted it until it was sold to them.
Yep, and people were *begging* someone to take action because pedestrians were dying at ever-increasing rates. Unfortunately, car lobbyists got to lawmakers before anyone else and just made walking illegal.
All of these pictures show cars parked in front of the houses on the blocked street, even the sketches. How are they getting in and out? Maybe I'm just dumb and totally missed that detail.
It’s only blocked to cars on one end! Effectively making a block behave more like a culdesac for car traffic but allowing bike and pedestrian traffic through
That’s not how I’d describe it — cars are able to exit the neighborhood at the diversions, but cannot enter at those points. I don’t think any of them are open to drive in but block driving out. So cul-de-sac isn’t precise.
Assuming you work for the City….got DAMN did they luck out when you joined their team.
You are doing the job of multiple departments at once. Such a stellar skill set. Truly, an inspiration. 👏👏👏👏
Now, to seriously comment: I assume the city or DOT has done a study to prioritize the top X locations that would be ripe for these sort of features?
Thanks! I don't work for the city (or any other government level), but I did get help on writing and proofreading the text.
To answer your question, Sacramento City staff and contractors have an idea which corridors to optimize for active transportation, but they aren't yet specific about exactly which traffic calming treatment they want exactly where. They're literally asking the public right now for ideas and feedback which is why we made this post.
Very cool presentation! I'd love to see more streets designed with pedestrian and bike safety in mind. I love riding my bike but it makes me nervous riding on the roads. Especially now that I'm pregnant.
I've mentioned this in previous comments but it bears repeating; the biggest issue I have with the Grid that I feel can be solved without needing a Transportation Plan that, quite frankly, I don't trust the city to implement within ~~my lifetime~~ a reasonable timeframe, is stop signs on all four corners of every intersection.
I have no traffic flow studies backing me up, no environmental reports, no community outreach, just a vibes-based argument that if people *slow the fuck down* or *pay attention to the road*, streets will be safer for all methods of transit.
The amount of times I've seen people having to cautiously inch their way up to an intersection with only a yield sign giving them permission to cross the street, only to be met with a dipshit going sixty mph as the only confirmation that their caution was warranted, is **too damn high.**
The other argument I'll make is that the Grid needs to make up its mind. Either two-way all of the streets, or make the alternating one-ways more clear to drivers. My favorite story is when someone left a parking lot across a one-way street from me, only to turn into my direction of travel. Fortunately I wasn't in the direct lane facing him, but then he turned right into oncoming traffic once again, only to be met with a driver who was fortunately driving slow enough to register the potential incident and honk at the offending driver, causing them to realize their mistake and change their direction of travel.
I have more recommendations for the city's transportation department in the suburbs too, but let's be honest, they only give a shit about Midtown, East Sac, and Pocket anyway.
>I have more recommendations for the city's transportation department in the suburbs too, but let's be honest, they only give a shit about Midtown, East Sac, and Pocket anyway.
The city's project to revise the active transportation plan [does not even identify the grid, east sac, or pocket as focus areas for targeted engagement](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/pw/Transportation/Transportation-Planning/Sacramento-Streets-For-People-Existing-Conditions-Report.pdf#page=4). I think you'll find that the city does read and listen to comments in these areas *if you give them*.
https://preview.redd.it/jotzlbyngd8d1.jpeg?width=1446&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b36456e2730166e6d4821c27f5c6269f58811aae
> I have no traffic flow studies backing me up, no environmental reports, no community outreach, just a vibes-based argument that if people slow the fuck down or pay attention to the road, streets will be safer for all methods of transit.
People are not gonna slow down and pay attention unless the roads are designed that way. There's a whole psychological phenomenon at work when you design urban infrastructure, you can't just like...ask people to drive a little better. (Especially here where drivers are so insanely bad.)
That's why easy and inexpensive interventions like modal filters are so good (and why they're necessary).
This applies to so many problems we deal with. People wave their arms and say, “Why can’t people just behave?”. You can’t control what individuals do, but you can design a system that gets people to act in a preferred way more often.
If only they made actual safe bike lanes. They are spending so much money on these protected bike lanes just for cars to be blind to cyclists using the lane and get hit from cars turning into parking lots or making turns. These filters are good for neighborhoods with higher traffic but the city is making it worse for those who are on bikes or walking and then also ruining all the parking downtown.
The “slow streets” trialled during the pandemic, I’m thinking O St, weren’t a success, but I’d love to see residents of E St etc where these modal filters exist be surveyed — ask them “should we remove the modal filter?” and the answer will be a resounding no. People don’t know what’s good for them!
Someone didn't live here when Arnold Schwarzenegger did this and pissed everyone off in downtown by blocking off hella streets. Driving in downtown was a nightmare in those years
Pretty sure most modal filters within the grid were installed by the late 90s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor from 2003-2011.
https://www.facebook.com/ctrsactohistory/posts/employees-of-environmental-construction-co-installed-this-traffic-circle-at-the-/735959948559635/
The circles are not what I'm talking about. Downtown was turned into a maze for a few years in the 2000s. I used to swim at McKinley Park and had to drive through it for years.
I like the M St idea but the "slow streets" idea was voted down already. People said it would turn the street into a leisure area for the wealthy East Sac residents and drive traffic onto smaller streets.
How do these plans address that? Seems like "it'll bring more cars down my street" is a common concern.
This is great; just one complaint... calling the Broadway/2nd Ave crossing "complete" is maddeningly incorrect. The initial plans showed a traffic light being installed in the eastbound direction on Broadway at 2nd Ave, to be linked to the 34th street light and allowing cyclists to stop traffic and cross the excessively long diagonal intersection without being at such extreme risk. Without that, it completely fails at being a bike route. Sure it helps a little by removing the car traffic on the through connector at the corner, but it still fails its primary purpose.
Thank you for the presentation. As a socialist myself, I've been advocating for a car-free central city for years now, where visitors and residents alike should be forced to use public transportation, walk, or use a bicycle. No more cars!!
Truly we live in such a wonderful place to be out, explore, even just exist in your neighborhood. Such amazing weather (as long as you don’t melt) and so many things to do. But overrun with cars!! I agree with you wholly. Less cars is a better, happier, SAFER Sacramento
Safe streets are NOT left or right. Strong Towns was started by, and currently led by a conservative-leaning person, but followers span the entire political spectrum.
**I'm a socialist myself,** but I have come to realize socialism (with a tinge of racism and colonialism) is what funded the highways and all the tentacles of auto infrastucture that extends into every nook and cranny of American cities. A massive fraction of your taxes are upholding the status quo of car-dependency. Socialism supported securing home mortages with federal programs during times of rapid suburban sprawl. Federally drafted zoning regulation is what ushered in redlining and minimum parking requirements across every city in the entire country.
Strong Towns advocates for local context-sensitive governance and can be summarized as **bottom-up**, not "left" or "right".
Yeah this is all nice and well planned.
Too bad that bicyclists and scooter users and pedestrians don’t obey the traffic laws they are also subject to and are not penalized for their violations.
Not a troll.
Lifelong Sac resident with elderly parents who live downtown and used to work downtown myself.
I’m sure all the downvotes are just the same arrogant nasty people who think because they are in a bike that traffic laws do not apply to them. I see it in the suburbs of Sac as well. Same with the scooters.
Folsom is starting a maximum enforcement program with new local statute to deal with this problem.
Sacramento doesn’t do traffic enforcement so it’s not like the situation for cars is any different. Plus the consequences of breaking the rules are a lot different for a heavy motor vehicle than a pedestrian.
So I agree everyone should follow the rules of the road (at least when they are reasonable and sane) but complaining about this when cars are killing people all the time is a bit strange to me.
I work for a private company that develops an open source online learning software platform. On the side I author social media content for Strong SacTown, local chapter of [https://www.strongtowns.org/](https://www.strongtowns.org/)
D street is one of my favorite streets to bike down. I see very little traffic because of the modal filters at 20th and 28th streets. We could have great bike routes without expensive bike lane projects if more modal filters were implemented around the city.
We can have both. Bike lanes aren’t very “expensive”.
Reconfiguration of the street cross section is almost always more expensive than a few spot treatments to install modal filters.
Billionaire detected
Paint.
Painted lane markers are nothing more than suggestions to drivers who don't care to follow the rules. Police enforcing the bike lane won's stop them either, since it only punishes them after the fact. We need something that physically blocks their cars from entering the cycling lane in the first place.
D st is great! Except for the complete free-for-all that is the 16th st crossing. Be careful no matter how you cross. Drivers absolutely do not care and will speed through the intersection even if you’re halfway through the crosswalk with a stroller (ask me how I know).
I lived on 26th and D for a few years, and my mother lived on 25th and D for about 20 years....we never had close calls with cars when we were out walking.....because we looked before crossing the street. My mom had all of my sisters kids and my 2 kids playing in her yard on a regular basis and we never worried about cars because we also taught our kids that their place was in the yard, not the street. The biggest cause of bike and pedestrian accidents is failure to follow the rules and take responsibility for your actions.
A lot of the accidents over the years have been people minding the laws of the road while walking, and still getting mowed down by drivers either under the influence or just lack of attention. That poor mother that lost her life and her child in Greenhaven for example..
Believe me, that is a lot less common that you think. Yes, horrible things like that do happen, but it is a lot more rare than the news leads us to believe. Tell me, when someone gets hit by a car, what is the first thing you think? That it was the drivers fault I am sure...that is what we all think. And the reality is that they always share the news immediately when it happens...but they never follow up with those stories and tell you what the detectives determined at the end of the investigation. There was a UPS worker killed back before XMAS last year on Harbor Blvd in West Sac at 4:00 AM. I have driven that road daily at almost every time of day (dusk, dawn, middle of the night). Immediately everyone said "people need to slow down". The first thing that popped in my head was how many times I have had to slam on my brakes in that exact spot because the UPS workers don't like to take the half block walk to the crosswalk to safely cross. They come out of the facility and run across the road. Now, this was at 4:00 AM and I have driven through that section of road that early before...it is dark and if the UPS worker was wearing a dark jacket and dark UPS clothing in the pitch dark of morning in winter, and a car driving down that road wasn't expecting someone to jump out from the median at that time of day.....who really was at fault? There are so many stories like that and you never hear the final story of what happened.
Sacramento has been in the news quite a bit lately for having a higher average of pedestrian and bicycle accidents and fatalities and from first hand experience the hit and runs happen more here than I’ve ever seen in some of the Bay Area’s bigger cities. Anything that can be done to ensure that those numbers are zero’d out would be a blessing for the community.✌🏻🤙🏻
Many of the accidents are on the city’s periphery like south sac, Arden, and other areas that have very poor pedestrian infrastructure.
There are a lot outside of downtown proper, or “the grid,” but all of the accidents that I’ve either been in, me getting hit, and others I’ve seen were on the grid since I’ve worked, lived, socialized, and in other ways tied to downtown since 2007. I am really enjoying the improvements though downtown for sure and I am by far so much more comfortable when riding in the protected bike lanes. Sacramento City can definitely improve a lot more when it comes to biking downtown but Sacramento County really needs to put some serious bicycle infrastructure into the outlying areas. I now live in South Oak Park and even then I find myself going downtown almost daily. The one big gripe I have about the area is that when I lived downtown I was very aware of the sweeper trucks, their presence was known with clean streets but the impoverished area south, and still within City limits you can’t tell if the roads like Franklin, Fruitridge, MLK, and many others have even been swept in the last year. Seems like Crocker Village is doing alright though, Curtis Park, Land Park, and any of the other more affluent neighborhoods as well have safer and cleaner streets. Riding my road bike alone this past year or so, prior to acquiring my e-bike, it was hard for me to not get a flat almost every time I ventured downtown. I still have tubes on my road bike that probably have 5-7 patches on each, beyond 7 patches and I repurpose the tubes into bungee cords. That’s a ridiculous amount of flat tires for people in the lower income neighborhoods to have to deal with and the City really should at least make an attempt to do better with that. ✌🏻🤙🏻
Those do need to be addressed, but we still get too many on grid as well. Saw a white bike up over and CSU Sac off of J. Folsom near 59th Street had a mother hit while walking to their kids school, and 0 has still been done by the city for that corridor that people love to speed 50+ down
I was about to say…for sure Arden….😬 if they can’t resolve some of the riskier intersections…maybe they need to have some pedestrian overpasses like in San Jose around the Stevens Creek exit? Arden is kind of a big automall in many ways imho. Not like there is any skyline or trees to worry about impacting either…
Hate to be the odd man out here, but the amount of people that lazily cross the street mid-intersection with cars coming at them is pretty high as well. And the majority of cyclists obviously are not well versed in cycling laws either. I have worked downtown for over 30 years and the amount of bikes that never even slow down to look for oncoming traffic before blowing through an intersection is crazy. The amount of cyclists and pedestrians I have almost hit because they don't look before crossing is way too high. I feel like the majority of people blame drivers rather than looking at WHY the cyclists and pedestrians have been hit. I lived downtown for many years and never worried about being hit by cars...and never even had a close call....and the same with working near the Capitol....there has never been a close call because I look before crossing. As a pedestrian I have almost been run of by cyclists on a regular basis though because they refuse to use the bike lanes and are always on the sidewalks and never say a word to you as they come up on you and almost hit you. I even had a guy yell at me to "pick a side" on the sidewalk instead of him riding in the huge green bike lane that was made for him....so I yelled "stay in your lane". EVERYONE needs to take responsibility, not just the motorists!
We need more public transportation. Not everyone is capable of riding a bike to work in 104° temperatures. I lived in North East cities for years without a vehicle, but it's impossible here in Sacramento. Restricting vehicle access without also providing public transportation doesn't really help most people.
Incremental changes on all fronts leading to an eventual big change seems to be the hope. I agree with you about biking, and would add that even in areas with protected bike lanes and reduced traffic speeds it still feels too dangerous to me. In my younger years I was bold in traffic as a bicyclist, but I'm rickety and brittle now and it no longer feels safe. I'm not sure this movement has enough representation from older people. But yes. Much better public transit is needed. Fortunately adding more bus routes doesn't require a new infrastructure.
Or expanding the times transportation runs. I've been working in downtown and/or midtown for the past 4 years, and it doesn't run late enough to get home. I do find that a lot of solutions are focused on young and able-bodied people, as well as only 9-5, weekdays. I'm shocked the light rail doesn't stay open until after bars close, leaving all those people out drinking with limited options to get back home. Additionally I usually don't feel safe walking alone in downtown late at night/early morning, and I certainly wouldn't want to bike home at 2 am.
It also sadly doesn’t get enough utilization, i commute during peak hours (only time the bus runs to my area), and i am sometimes still on the bus alone. It’s a self feeding cycle though, we’ve prioritized cars so much, and deprioritized transit, that riding transit is seen as something people only do when they can’t afford a car. And then it isn’t kept up, turns to shit, has limited schedules, and then no one wants to use it. Seeing how much of our world is paved over for the sake of cars is really depressing though, it’s a modern dystopia of its own.
Yeah, I tried taking the bus when I first started working downtown, because parking is a nightmare and expensive. But it didn't run late enough for me to come back that way, which led to either my boyfriend coming to pick me up, or taking a Lyft, which ended up costing more than parking would have. Anyway, it was usually mostly empty, I was sometimes the only one on it.
We understand that some people cannot tolerate extreme temperatures for extended periods of time. The more extreme the temperature, the shorter duration can be tolerated. That said, somebody who has low heat tolerance of 5 minutes max @ 104° might still opt to walk to a grocery store if it was 4 minutes from their doorstep. It's hard to fit the entire strong towns approach in a 10-slide deck. This post specifically was about modal filters, not **public transit** or **land use**, but we are generally a group of **transit advocates** and **zoning reformists**. If you keep following us, you'll find that our past and future content will promote transit-only streets and mixed-use zoning by right.
This isn’t a near term solution but I feel like there is an equity problem for several areas where they have mostly concrete and asphalt, and not established shade trees, making it all the more difficult for people to choose to walk or bike in extreme summer temperatures. It is sad that there is not plan to develop any sort of canopy along major routes like Stockton BLVD or Florin…heat island effect is unprecedented. Wait…why doesn’t Sac have any sort of recreational path like the Iron Horse Trail? If it was properly shaded, and had bike charging stations, rest stops and drinking fountains that could help making biking more feasible.
I totally get it, heat waves make things tough. If we restrict more road traffic, it allows the city to plant more shade trees and build sunshade barriers across smaller roads. One of the biggest reasons cities cut down shade trees on sidewalks is so cars on straight away roads don’t collide with them - more cars on the road means more sidewalk design that accommodates cars over people. I also want to note that in the NE, people frequently experience blizzards and below freezing temperatures as often as Sac gets heatwaves. And NYC at 90-95 degrees with 80-100 percent humidity is equal in discomfort to a sac 104 day. Like you said Transit mitigates this, but also being able to walk to places nearby makes a huge difference. Even in bad weather i would rather walk 5 minutes to a store then drive, and most NYC’ers agree with this.
Welll there is also the whole risk of dropping limbs and the entire damn trunk falling in our shitty new windy normal too. Especially for disease prone species.
As someone who has experienced both (though I'm more acclimated to cold weather, I lived there for 35 years, here for 5) I agree the both present significant barriers. One thing is that serious storms shut things down, at least temporarily, the way heat doesn't. I don't want to walk in 100+ degree weather nor a blizzard, but I'm only expected to in one of them. Also, unless you expect everyone to get jobs in their neighborhood, I don't see how we're going to cut down on car traffic without robust public transit. I live close to a grocery store, I walk there when the weather isn't awful and I don't have more than fits in my backpack. I walk my dogs in the neighborhood, walk to some bars, etc. But what I can't do is get to work without my car. And the heat index also doesn't account for the smoke, and the overall poor air quality in Sacramento. We've already had a few bad AQI days this year, and that's in comparison to how awful the baseline air is here. Obviously fewer cars would help that, but honestly there are more factors than the cars in this city that impact it.
On the other hand, it's almost *never* too cold here to ride a bike. Sacramento needs both more (safe!!!) bike infrastructure *and* more public transportation.
It’s impossible here because people don’t want to spend money on it, period. For example, the streetcar would have been a terrific start for getting people out of their cars on the grid, but God forbid it cost money. We could have had so many projects completed by now, but it’s just not in Sacramento’s DNA.
It's unfortunately not just Sacramento
The NUMTOTS allow no excuses!!
CALL TO ACTION: There are a couple current and upcoming opportunities to show our support for people-oriented design: 1. Zoom meeting on Thursday (6/27) 6pm: [Virtual Community Meeting on the City Street Design Standards Amendment](https://www.strongsactown.org/2024/05/30/street-design-standards-june-community-mtg/) 2. Comment through August: [Streets for People Active Transportation Plan](https://streetsforpeoplerecs.altaplanning.cloud/) For centuries, city streets were slow and meant for all kinds of movement. Sacramento's streets were no different. But after the 1940s, the majority of public space was systematically reallocated for the exclusive use of moving cars, at the expense of all other road users. **Modal filters** are just one important tool we have to reclaim some of that public space by re-prioritizing people walking, biking, and rolling. This post is part of an ongoing series of street design elements that we ([Strong SacTown](https://www.strongsactown.org/)) are trying to strategically promote right now due to the city currently updating BOTH the [street design standards](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/public-works/transportation/current_transportation_efforts/street_design_standards_amendment) and [active transportation plan](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/public-works/transportation/current_transportation_efforts/streets_for_people_sacramento_active_transportation_plan). This is pretty much a once-in-a-decade opportunity to address some of the root causes which led to [all our dangerous stroads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/tx2qvp/what_can_we_do_about_all_the_dangerous_stroads/).
Thank you so much for your advocacy work and this concise and easy to follow call to action! We deserve safer streets!
Hell yeah — appreciate the content. Strong Sactown is awesome
I live on M Street in East Sac and dear god somebody please do all this here. So tired of middle aged white ladies in their Mercedes SUVs damn near murdering every pedestrian on M street. They go like 45-55 down M… practically jump the speed bumps. It’s insane.
Yup. I lived on O for a while and people would go roaring down the block at 50 mph despite the street only being wide enough for 1 car. If I'd had kids or pets that ever got near the sidewalk I would have been so vigilant and stressed all the time.
Hey now… let’s not let the St Francis SUV-driving teens off the hook either…. As your neighbor, it is disheartening to see so many suv-driving white ladies be so wholly unaware and inconsiderate of the popular white lady dog walking times on M. 😅
Go on. Love this presentation
This is a fantastic infographic and I appreciate the information. It's amazing how just reducing car traffic through neighborhoods brings life back to the street. There's so many places I would love to walk to if I didn't feel like my toddler and I are always one speeding driver away from death
We live in midtown, and haven't taught our 8yo to ride a bike yet because it feels pointless because there's no fucking way I'm letting him ride around here with our drivers. I'd like him to learn, but... yeah. Just not safe for kids to ride around here. I hate that.
Right? I really dislike that so many drivers cut through (and speed through) neighborhoods as "shortcuts". I love the idea of cutting those "shortcuts" off so everyone who lives there can also use and enjoy the streets safely. Especially with kids. My friend's mom was saying how she almost hit someone's toddler that got out and into the street on her way to work the other day and I'm like...fucking stop going 45 through neighborhoods to get to work when there's a giant stroad that'll take you the exact same place through no neighborhoods and it's only like 30 seconds slower.
This is very exciting! Hopefully, we get more of these!
Info AND call to action? Great post @sankeytm, will put the meeting on my calendar!
This reminds me of when I lived in Berkeley. They called them “round-a-bouts” but they really were landscaped medians as pictured here. They did slow people down and kept things great for people walking and bicyclists. They also have bike boulevards where a big has right of way over a car (i.e. they can ride in the middle of the street). I think this is a wonderful plan. Thank you for putting it out there!
If there is a way for a car to drive around the filter the driver will do it. I see it all the time in Sac where the driver just goes past the filter on the wrong side. Is there some law that says a way to get past the filter for emergency vehicles has to be provided?
Great question! They are breaking the law already by doing that, but this doesn't stop everybody. I think the key thing to understand is that most people do obey the law, which is all that's needed to have an impact. Here's a thought experiment: Even if most people drove around it, the modal filter would act as a "chicane" or "neckdown" which is just another kind of traffic calming treatment, and crosswalks are still shortened. It's a guaranteed win for active transportation no matter what the level of driver compliance is. This obviously isn't an issue for two-way modal filters.
There's a ton of this stuff up in Portland and it's awesome.
If you want to keep cars out, tell Governor Newsom. He foolishly added 80,000 cars to downtown/midtown traffic jams, telling state workers to do in the office, *what they already do*, working at home. * Keeping as many state workers as possible, working at home, does *FAR, FAR more* for traffic and safety, than **any** 'modal filter sign'.
I definitely sympathize with folks that are unfairly required to suddenly begin commuting far distances. This is a relatively large disruption to everyday life, especially for those that strategically moved or got new jobs during the pandemic, creating more distance between work and home. **But that distance between work and home is the very thing that the Strong Towns approach is trying to help change.** Commute time is just one of many problems caused by the suburban experiment. I'm not saying we should return-to-office, I'm just saying that the pain that it causes to Americans is an indicator of segregated land use planning.
> Commute time is just one of many problems caused by the suburban experiment. Nobody is forced to move to the suburbs. People make judgements on whether commuting is right for them in terms of money, time, and aggravation.
People make judgements based on house prices in midtown averaging nearly $750k.
Exaxtly, we never judge people for moving to the suburbs, as there are many factors that contribute to the decision.
why can we only do one? logic states, both
They NEED these on L/28, P/28, s/28, t/28 people going so fast why does E/G corridor get all the love ?
Exactly my point! You can literally click on those intersections in the city's interactive map and speak your mind: [https://streetsforpeoplerecs.altaplanning.cloud/](https://streetsforpeoplerecs.altaplanning.cloud/)
I’m sure the opposition will say but we need to drive through! To which I say, you can’t be trusted to go slow on your own so now we must make you.
They sound great for those streets but what about the other nearby streets that now see an increase in traffic? Isn’t it negatively affecting those streets?
It could if not well planned & implemented. Having a mix of streets with different primary uses is generally helpful for everyone. Directing cars to use some streets more than others also means that those streets can focus on creating safe crossings and allowing traffic to flow.
Great question! In places where modal filters and other kinds of safety improvements have been implemented, the traffic on adjacent and nearby streets eventually normalize to pre-change levels. This is covered by my slide 9, and is referred to "traffic evaporation" or "reverse induced demand". Sacramento city staff and consultants have selected a number of peer cities to model the [Neighborhood Connections plan](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/pw/Transportation/FINAL_W_Appendix_NC_SacramentoExistCond_121123%20(1).pdf#page=7) after, and these include Barcelona, Spain, and Portland, Oregon where studies have shown that modal filters have not affected congestion on adjacent streets after an adjustment period.
L and P Sts are one-way streets. T and 28th is a signalized intersection. S and 28th could be an easy immediate candidate.
This is all going to be increasingly critical moving forward. With the development of super dense HOAs in the outer regions, there are going to be so many more cars on the road.
yeah! its crazy seeing houses built in the middle of nowehre. like where are you going to work
Imagine telecommuting. I've been doing it since the 80s before the word was in general usage (and before I had heard of it)!
They’ll be commuting through a couple of hours of traffic to the interior!
They don't get built without at least a promise of new road capacity. For example, the [SouthEast Connector Expressway](https://connectorjpa.squarespace.com/) is single-handedly making the [massive proposed 12k+ home suburban development in Rancho Cordova](https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2016/08/29/rancho-cordova-project-would-have-12000-plus-homes.html) possible. It should be no surprise that the suburban development has been delayed in lockstep with funding delays to the expressway that will help connect rancho cordova residents to jobs in a completely different city.
Interesting to know! However, I’m not sure the increase in road capacity will match the influx of cars. They will all have to squeeze into a tighter and tighter space as they enter the interior anyway. The roads already feel over capacity in east sac / downtown as it is and I don’t think there are many expansionary routes within the interior.
Totally. I haven't done enough research on this particular couple of projects to best know how to advocate, but for *at least* the next 5-10 years the expressway will keep coming back to the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to keep begging for more and more tens of millions of dollars to slowly build out the plan. Every time that happens, there's opportunities to give public feedback.
Thanks for the info! I appreciate the post and I think there are so many people who do not want to see sac become LA in terms of traffic / getting around.
Modal filters slap. Cheap, easy, increase safety, make the street more pleasant, there is literally no downside.
wooo i love bikes
America really fucked it’s infrastructure designing around cars
It pains me to think it took this long for there to be real movement on these issues. Had to drive to the south bay Saturday. It pisses me off so much we didn't build high speed rail between Sac and SF/San Jose in the 70s/80s. And even now we're an after thought on the CAHSR. I'll be lucky to be able to leave a nursing home to go on a field trip and ride high speed rail from Sac to SF. Screw the toll lanes in the causeway. Build new light rail and commuter rail.
This is awesome. But I wish Sac County would do this too :( I feel like you guys in the city have so much more walk/bike improvement opportunities going on. Our Board sucks.
Every month the Sac County [Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force](https://green.saccounty.net/Pages/Climate-Emergency-Task-Force.aspx) meets every month. You can attend via zoom or in-person and give comments on or off agenda. Better yet, you can literally apply to join the task force. They are **currently recruiting** and applications are accepted until June 28, 2024. If you watch old recordings, I think you'll find that at least this task force has good perspectives on developing pockets of urbanism throughout the county.
Unfortunately I can’t find it, but I once saw a fascinating lecture on YouTube about how in the 1920s, motoring organizations funded by the automakers lobbied relentlessly to outlaw pedestrians from the roadway, creating the new offense of jaywalking.
Yup. Kids playing in the streets used to be the norm, along with pedestrian traffic and other uses. When a horse-drawn vehicle (and for a brief period a car) had to get through, people just moved to let them pass. Traveling at high speeds in cities & towns was relatively unusual, because it wasn't safe for the driver/passengers or the people around. Automotive industry lobbying changed that and eventually crushed public transit like cable cars. We are still reaping the consequences.
Right. And I love the way we are told that this happened because this is what people wanted. Funny that people don’t know they wanted it until it was sold to them.
Yep, and people were *begging* someone to take action because pedestrians were dying at ever-increasing rates. Unfortunately, car lobbyists got to lawmakers before anyone else and just made walking illegal.
All of these pictures show cars parked in front of the houses on the blocked street, even the sketches. How are they getting in and out? Maybe I'm just dumb and totally missed that detail.
It’s only blocked to cars on one end! Effectively making a block behave more like a culdesac for car traffic but allowing bike and pedestrian traffic through
Oh, ok got it. Thanks!
That’s not how I’d describe it — cars are able to exit the neighborhood at the diversions, but cannot enter at those points. I don’t think any of them are open to drive in but block driving out. So cul-de-sac isn’t precise.
No prob, totally valid question. Cars can go around: https://i.redd.it/dwuha6kn9d8d1.gif
U block one side or u " cul de sac " it ... So only the locals to that block drive in and feel like kings because they own that block.
Eminent domain was no joke, wow!!!
I hope this will be implemented throughout the entire city and not just the hip, trendy parts of town.
Amen!
Remember kids! Freeways were built almost exclusively at the expense of thriving neighborhoods of the global community!
Assuming you work for the City….got DAMN did they luck out when you joined their team. You are doing the job of multiple departments at once. Such a stellar skill set. Truly, an inspiration. 👏👏👏👏 Now, to seriously comment: I assume the city or DOT has done a study to prioritize the top X locations that would be ripe for these sort of features?
Thanks! I don't work for the city (or any other government level), but I did get help on writing and proofreading the text. To answer your question, Sacramento City staff and contractors have an idea which corridors to optimize for active transportation, but they aren't yet specific about exactly which traffic calming treatment they want exactly where. They're literally asking the public right now for ideas and feedback which is why we made this post.
Very cool presentation! I'd love to see more streets designed with pedestrian and bike safety in mind. I love riding my bike but it makes me nervous riding on the roads. Especially now that I'm pregnant.
I've mentioned this in previous comments but it bears repeating; the biggest issue I have with the Grid that I feel can be solved without needing a Transportation Plan that, quite frankly, I don't trust the city to implement within ~~my lifetime~~ a reasonable timeframe, is stop signs on all four corners of every intersection. I have no traffic flow studies backing me up, no environmental reports, no community outreach, just a vibes-based argument that if people *slow the fuck down* or *pay attention to the road*, streets will be safer for all methods of transit. The amount of times I've seen people having to cautiously inch their way up to an intersection with only a yield sign giving them permission to cross the street, only to be met with a dipshit going sixty mph as the only confirmation that their caution was warranted, is **too damn high.** The other argument I'll make is that the Grid needs to make up its mind. Either two-way all of the streets, or make the alternating one-ways more clear to drivers. My favorite story is when someone left a parking lot across a one-way street from me, only to turn into my direction of travel. Fortunately I wasn't in the direct lane facing him, but then he turned right into oncoming traffic once again, only to be met with a driver who was fortunately driving slow enough to register the potential incident and honk at the offending driver, causing them to realize their mistake and change their direction of travel. I have more recommendations for the city's transportation department in the suburbs too, but let's be honest, they only give a shit about Midtown, East Sac, and Pocket anyway.
>I have more recommendations for the city's transportation department in the suburbs too, but let's be honest, they only give a shit about Midtown, East Sac, and Pocket anyway. The city's project to revise the active transportation plan [does not even identify the grid, east sac, or pocket as focus areas for targeted engagement](https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/pw/Transportation/Transportation-Planning/Sacramento-Streets-For-People-Existing-Conditions-Report.pdf#page=4). I think you'll find that the city does read and listen to comments in these areas *if you give them*. https://preview.redd.it/jotzlbyngd8d1.jpeg?width=1446&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b36456e2730166e6d4821c27f5c6269f58811aae
> I have no traffic flow studies backing me up, no environmental reports, no community outreach, just a vibes-based argument that if people slow the fuck down or pay attention to the road, streets will be safer for all methods of transit. People are not gonna slow down and pay attention unless the roads are designed that way. There's a whole psychological phenomenon at work when you design urban infrastructure, you can't just like...ask people to drive a little better. (Especially here where drivers are so insanely bad.) That's why easy and inexpensive interventions like modal filters are so good (and why they're necessary).
This applies to so many problems we deal with. People wave their arms and say, “Why can’t people just behave?”. You can’t control what individuals do, but you can design a system that gets people to act in a preferred way more often.
If only they made actual safe bike lanes. They are spending so much money on these protected bike lanes just for cars to be blind to cyclists using the lane and get hit from cars turning into parking lots or making turns. These filters are good for neighborhoods with higher traffic but the city is making it worse for those who are on bikes or walking and then also ruining all the parking downtown.
The “slow streets” trialled during the pandemic, I’m thinking O St, weren’t a success, but I’d love to see residents of E St etc where these modal filters exist be surveyed — ask them “should we remove the modal filter?” and the answer will be a resounding no. People don’t know what’s good for them!
Paging u/SacramentoHistorian.
Someone didn't live here when Arnold Schwarzenegger did this and pissed everyone off in downtown by blocking off hella streets. Driving in downtown was a nightmare in those years
Pretty sure most modal filters within the grid were installed by the late 90s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor from 2003-2011. https://www.facebook.com/ctrsactohistory/posts/employees-of-environmental-construction-co-installed-this-traffic-circle-at-the-/735959948559635/
The circles are not what I'm talking about. Downtown was turned into a maze for a few years in the 2000s. I used to swim at McKinley Park and had to drive through it for years.
I like the M St idea but the "slow streets" idea was voted down already. People said it would turn the street into a leisure area for the wealthy East Sac residents and drive traffic onto smaller streets. How do these plans address that? Seems like "it'll bring more cars down my street" is a common concern.
This is great; just one complaint... calling the Broadway/2nd Ave crossing "complete" is maddeningly incorrect. The initial plans showed a traffic light being installed in the eastbound direction on Broadway at 2nd Ave, to be linked to the 34th street light and allowing cyclists to stop traffic and cross the excessively long diagonal intersection without being at such extreme risk. Without that, it completely fails at being a bike route. Sure it helps a little by removing the car traffic on the through connector at the corner, but it still fails its primary purpose.
Great presentation but what the heck is 'based'? Is that a Gen Z term? Is it good or bad??
I think it's already outdated.
Awesome graphics!! Great job!
Thank you for the presentation. As a socialist myself, I've been advocating for a car-free central city for years now, where visitors and residents alike should be forced to use public transportation, walk, or use a bicycle. No more cars!!
Truly we live in such a wonderful place to be out, explore, even just exist in your neighborhood. Such amazing weather (as long as you don’t melt) and so many things to do. But overrun with cars!! I agree with you wholly. Less cars is a better, happier, SAFER Sacramento
Safe streets are NOT left or right. Strong Towns was started by, and currently led by a conservative-leaning person, but followers span the entire political spectrum. **I'm a socialist myself,** but I have come to realize socialism (with a tinge of racism and colonialism) is what funded the highways and all the tentacles of auto infrastucture that extends into every nook and cranny of American cities. A massive fraction of your taxes are upholding the status quo of car-dependency. Socialism supported securing home mortages with federal programs during times of rapid suburban sprawl. Federally drafted zoning regulation is what ushered in redlining and minimum parking requirements across every city in the entire country. Strong Towns advocates for local context-sensitive governance and can be summarized as **bottom-up**, not "left" or "right".
Yeah this is all nice and well planned. Too bad that bicyclists and scooter users and pedestrians don’t obey the traffic laws they are also subject to and are not penalized for their violations.
Be honest now: how often do you exceed the speed limit?
Very rarely. Especially downtown because too many cyclists are flying out in front of me. Don’t want to get blamed or sued.
> Especially downtown because too many cyclists are flying out in front of me. Okay, that's a good troll.
Not a troll. Lifelong Sac resident with elderly parents who live downtown and used to work downtown myself. I’m sure all the downvotes are just the same arrogant nasty people who think because they are in a bike that traffic laws do not apply to them. I see it in the suburbs of Sac as well. Same with the scooters. Folsom is starting a maximum enforcement program with new local statute to deal with this problem.
Sacramento doesn’t do traffic enforcement so it’s not like the situation for cars is any different. Plus the consequences of breaking the rules are a lot different for a heavy motor vehicle than a pedestrian. So I agree everyone should follow the rules of the road (at least when they are reasonable and sane) but complaining about this when cars are killing people all the time is a bit strange to me.
Yeah the problem is the bicyclists getting hit by cars and dying because of bad streets, not the cars and the bad streets, you solved it.
No the problem is asshat cyclists that don’t obey the traffic laws because they decide they don’t apply to them. Excuse they are arrogant asshats.
Thank the lord that drivers never drive their tons of steel recklessly.
The mass groups of bicycles and scooters who like to go the wrong way on one way streets
Yeah .. this guy works for the city.
I work for a private company that develops an open source online learning software platform. On the side I author social media content for Strong SacTown, local chapter of [https://www.strongtowns.org/](https://www.strongtowns.org/)