Note: General information on the Top 20 intersections, with criteria, list, and map, is available in post 1. Other posts on Top 20 intersections are available at Tag: Top 20 Intersections.

I am looking more closely at the Top 20 intersections identified in the City of Sacramento Vision Zero Action Plan Update. Intersection 14 is Franklin Blvd & Fruitridge Rd.

Design

Lanes: Franklin Blvd is five lanes wide (one through, two left turn, one right turn, and one opposite) to the north of Fruitridge Road, and six lanes wide (two through, one left turn, one right turn) to the south. Fruitridge Road is five lanes wide to the west (two through, one left turn, and two opposite), and seven lanes wide to the east (two through, two left turn, one right turn, and two opposite). Franklin Blvd north of Fruitridge has been reconstructed as part of the Franklin Blvd Complete Street Project, reducing general purpose lanes from seven to five. The right turn lanes from Franklin Blvd are very wide. Lane total is 24.

Medians: Concrete medians are present on all legs of the intersection.

Crosswalks: Crosswalks are present on all intersection legs, apparently upgraded to ladder or zebra design.

Bicycle Facilities: Franklin Blvd to the south of Fruitridge has a Class 2 bike lane, but it ends after one block. Franklin Blvd southbound, north of Fruitridge, has a green Class 2 bike lanes, somewhat separated with concrete curbs. The Franklin bike lanes are skipped green through the intersection, and there are fragments south of the intersection. Fruitridge Road does not have bike facilities.

Speed: Franklin Blvd north of Fruitridge Road is posted 35 mph, and south is posted 40 mph.

The city no longer has a database or map of speed limits, though it has promised an updated database for many years now. I have used an old database, sometimes checked against Google Maps Street View for speed limit signs. The speed limits have not been field checked. The county (and SACOG) have a database, but it does not include the City of Sacramento roadways.

Transit: The intersection area is served by SacRT route 61 Fruitridge. There is no bus service on this section of Franklin.

Crashes

In the 2015 to 2024 period (which is used in the Vision Zero Action Plan Update), there were four severe injuries at this intersection, one involving a pedestrian and three involving motor vehicles. These are mapped below (pdf).

The orange dots are severe injuries (one contains three crashes); the red dots are fatal (none). Together, these are know as KSI = killed or severe injury. ‘Other visible injury’ and ‘complaint of pain’ crashes are not shown on my map, since these are not the focus of Vision Zero, however, there are several of these along Fruitridge Road which you may view in the Crash Dashboard Interactive Map.

Please note that the exact crash locations may not be accurate, as police reports often do not correctly locate crashes. Also note that ‘pedestrian violation’ entry may be false, as police often blame crashes on the person walking when actual responsibility is not clear, or the pedestrian is dead and can’t counter the driver story.

The crash details, available in the Vision Zero Crash Dashboard Interactive Map, are below.