Part of an ongoing series of posts to support better streets in the City of Sacramento during their 2023 update of Street Design Standards. New standards must be innovative, safe, and equitable, and it will take strong citizen involvement and advocacy to make them so.

After much thought, and feedback from other transportation advocates, I am finally ready to propose street classifications for the revision of the street design standards. I have written about street classification before: how to classify streets?; NACTO yield street; NACTO neighborhood main street; NACTO downtown streets.

I am offering only three street classifications. I know most classification systems use more, but I’m for simplicity. A key part of this classification scheme is that streets with more than two lanes per direction are NOT streets, and should be called roads instead. Of course they are stroads, but the city is unlikely to use that term. A road is for traveling, and therefore should have few to no driveways and few to no turning movements. Every driveway and ever turning movement is an invitation to conflict and crashes. The arterial roadways in the city fit into the stroad category. We don’t need them, and we should never construct another.

Street classification (see below for diagrams):

• local or yield: narrow lane (unmarked), parking, up to 20 mph; for local travel
• neighborhood: two lanes, regular bike lanes, up to 30 mph; for local and through travel
• corridor: two to four lanes, bus lanes, separated bikeways, up to 40 mph; for local and through travel
• traditional functional classification system (arterial, collector, local) will not be used; classification into residential, commercial, etc will not be used since all areas may be mixed use
• new or reconstructed streets will not be designed for more than two lanes per direction

Policies

• All one-way multiple lane streets should be considered for conversion to two-way streets
• One-way single lane streets will be considered for narrow right-of-ways widths or where right-of-way is needed for other purposes
• Streets which are repaved and re-striped (reallocated) but not reconstructed will include striping that increases safety and reduces speeds
• Reconstructed streets will be designed for the level of VMT (vehicle miles traveled) or  ADT (average daily traffic) that is desired for safety, livability and economic vitality; the design or posted speed limit prior to reconstruction will not control in any way the new design
• Design for reconstructed streets will consider the reduction or consolidation of driveways, and particularly of driveways that are too close to intersections
• Driveway width for single family residences will be no more than 10 foot width; driveways for multi-family and commercial areas will be the minimum required by fire agency
• Center turn lanes will be used only where frequent turning movements into or out of driveways are expected and accepted; they will not be used to fill excess roadway width
• Speed humps or tables on a street generally indicates a failure to design for the desired speed, and will not be used on new or reconstructed streets, and only as a temporary solution on other streets
• When streets are re-striped after repaving, but are not reconstructed, the excess lane width will be devoted to other uses or marked off as invalid travel areas
• Designs will not include dedicated right hand turn lanes, and will not include multiple left hand turn lanes
• Rough pavement surfaces such as brick, cobblestone, or stamped concrete will be considered whenever reduced speeds are desired; however, crosswalks and bike facilities will be smooth
• Rolled curbs will not be used on new or reconstructed streets  
• Streets which are repaved will implement, to the degree possible, the same design as reconstructed streets via right-of-way reallocation and striping

Design diagrams:

• NACTO-like diagrams which show the overall design of each street type
• One-lane, one-way streets
• Woonerfs (shared streets) without curbs and with design elements to ensure speeds of 10 mph or less
• Bioswales for management of storm water

The remaining post in this series will be about intersection of neighborhood streets, and corridor streets. Stay tuned!

Part of an ongoing series of posts to support better streets in the City of Sacramento during their 2023 update of Street Design Standards. New standards must be innovative, safe, and equitable, and it will take strong citizen involvement and advocacy to make them so.

• Street design will recognize that on-street parking may have a traffic calming effect, however, this effect will not preclude the use of existing parking for other purposes, including but not limited to wider sidewalks, bicycle facilities, parklets, street dining, bicycle and shared mobility parking, planting strips or parking lane trees, and transit lanes
• Where current streets with parallel parking have excess width that encourages speeding, one or both sides of the street should be converted to diagonal parking; new diagonal parking will be back-in
• Parking design will offer dedicated loading and delivery zones as needed; and will include time-limited green curb as needed by businesses
• Parking spaces will be sized for normal passenger vehicles; oversized width or length vehicles may be restricted to certain spots or areas which are designed for them
• Parking areas of streets need not be maintained to the same level as travel lanes

Parking Management

• Parking will be managed and priced so as to create about 15% open parking on every block
• Free parking will be eliminated throughout the city; where metered parking is not practical, parking permit fees will be set at a level that recovers the complete expense of parking space installation, maintenance and management

▾ Design diagrams:

• Parallel marked and unmarked spaces
• Diagonal parking (back-in)
• Curb and pavement markings for prohibition (red), loading (white), delivery (yellow), and time limited (green) parking

Part of an ongoing series of posts to support better streets in the City of Sacramento during their 2023 update of Street Design Standards. New standards must be innovative, safe, and equitable, and it will take strong citizen involvement and advocacy to make them so.

When two local streets intersect, the priority should be for people walking. I’ve created a diagram of what such an intersection might look like, and measure. Notice that the travelway, the area used by moving motor vehicles, is much narrower than is true on most existing streets. This is intentional. Drivers are slowed by their perception that there is a limited space to pass other motor vehicles, or bicyclists for that matter, and limited shy distance from parked cars. Not only does this make the street safer, it also makes it more pleasant for everyone. Drivers traveling any distance will leave these streets in favor of wider/faster streets. Bicyclists can mix with other traffic due to the slow speeds, and do not need a dedicated area. Design and posted speed (if posting is even needed) would be a maximum of 20 mph, and might be less.

Parking is present and welcome, both because it is probably needed, and because it slows motor vehicle traffic. Every corner has a curb extension to shorten the crossing distance for people walking, to increase visibility between walkers and drivers, and to further calm traffic.

Sidewalks of at least six feet, and sidewalk buffers of at least eight feet are included.

Most significantly, sidewalks are raised and extended, with concrete, across the intersection. This enforces the perception that this is a place for walkers, where drivers and motor vehicles are guests. And it is a place where kids could play in the street, as used to be the right of every kid before we let cars dominate our streets. There is still significant pavement for motor vehicles (and bicyclists), but it no longer dominates the neighborhood.

I will address what kinds of streets these are in the future, but what I envision for now is a street with about 80% or more residential, multi-family and single-family. Small businesses on single parcels would be allowed, particularly on corners, but there would be no large commercial or retail, and there would be no surface parking lots.

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