The City of West Sacramento is developing a Vision Zero Action Plan. If you live in, work in, or travel in West Sacramento, I encourage you to take a look at the VZ page. The map showing crash locations, nearly all at intersections, indicate that West Capitol Ave is the epicenter for traffic violence, with Sacramento Ave coming in second. That is my own experience in riding and walking on these arterial streets. West Capitol Ave is the route for Yolobus 42A/42B, and several other routes.
Seamless Bay Area and Californians for Electric Rail are hosting a webinar, New State Rail Plan Explained: A vision for an integrated, cohesive California rail network on March 4, 2025, at 12:00 PM. Registration is required, but free.
The Caltrans/California State Transportation Agency 2024 California State Rail Plan (2024-12) is available for review. An earlier draft emphasized hydrogen trains to the exclusion of overhead catenary wire electric trains, but the current version includes catenary, battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric.
From the registration page: “The newly released State Rail Plan lays out strategies that can significantly impact how Californians and visitors get around the state – and can make California a place that’s easier for everyone to get around in an affordable, low-carbon, safe, and accessible way. The plan establishes a long-term vision for an integrated, cohesive statewide rail system that offers passenger and freight service and helps achieve California’s mobility, economic, and climate goals. Tune into this webinar to learn about the plan from California State Transportation Agency staff. Researchers and advocates will give their reaction to the updated plan including cost analysis, the political changes needed to implement reforms, and upcoming funding and reform opportunities.”
Whether or not you can attend this webinar, I encourage you to read the 2024 California State Rail Plan, focusing on the routes or concepts that are most important to you.
The Capitol Corridor, Sacramento/Roseville to San Jose, is called out for electrification, but the source power is not defined. Capitol Corridor is not specifically a single project, but part of several projects including Transbay Crossing, Leveraging Mega-Investments, Sea Level Rise, and Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. In stages, Capitol Corridor service is planned to reach once per hour in the mid-term, and once per 30 minutes in the long term. Current service is one hour at peak times of day, but two to three hours at other times.
Many transportation advocates strongly support catenary electrification of the Capitol Corridor route between Sacramento and San Jose. I have also advanced the idea of state purchase of the rails in heavy passenger rail corridors, which would include Capitol Corridor, either through willing seller or condemnation if necessary. Freight rolling stock would still be owned and operated by the railroads, but passenger trains would now have priority over freight trains, and the freight railroads could not resist catenary electrification.
I hope to provide more detailed analysis of the state plan in the near future.
The SACOG Regional Planning Partnership (RPP) is holding its quarterly meeting tomorrow, February 26, 2025, at 2:00 PM, online via Zoom. Registration is required. The RPP is not part of the SACOG governance structure, but is an advisory group, or forum for transportation and air quality concerns to increase coordination within the region. The agenda is not a traditional one for SACOG with staff reports and presentations, but there are a number of links in the agenda of interest.
Discussion of these items will likely be at an overview level, not the detailed discussion that happens in SACOG committees.
Note: Added letters of support from four organizations, below.
The Budget & Audit Committee of the Sacramento City Council meets tomorrow (!) Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 11:00 AM in city hall council chambers. The Budget & Audit Committee members are Roger Dickinson, Chair, District 2; Karina Talamantes, District 3; Caity Maple, District 5; and Eric Guerra, District 6.
On the agenda is item 10 SacATC 2024 Annual Report. The discussion, however, will include more than just the annual report. It will include the city’s proposed quick build program. Quick build, sometimes called tactical urbanism, is a concept related to Vision Zero, that rather than just accepting traffic violence, the city would take action to reduce or prevent future crashes at that location. What makes it unique, and different from the long term roadway redesign that the city undertakes when they can get grant funding, quick build analyzes the issue now, and takes action soon to correct it.
The city is calling this effort TAG Team (tactical action group), and it would be implemented from existing budget and staffing limits with six staff dedicated to the project.
If you can’t make daytime meetings, you can submit an eComment on the city meetings page. The earlier you submit eComments, the more likely committee members are to see them before the meeting.
Three examples of quick builds: the street closure and bikeway improvement at Broadway and 2nd Avenue and 34th Street, with yellow vertical delineators; the corner curb extensions that have been installed at some corners with paint and/or white vertical delineators, and lane channelization delineators on 15th and 16th Streets. Vertical delineators are much less expensive, and also somewhat less effective, than concrete curbs, but they do reduce the likelihood and/or severity of crashes.
Letters of support:
The same day, at the evening Sacramento City Council meeting, the Neighborhood Connections plan, part of the Streets for All Active Transportation Plan, is on the on the consent agenda, item 9 Neighborhood Connections Plan. The plan is full of specific designs that can be implemented in temporary and/or less expensive materials. See earlier posts under categories Active Transportation Plan, Neighborhood Connections, Street Design Standards, and particularly traffic calming measures. The Neighborhood Connections Draft Final Plan (2025-01) is also available, if you have time to read it. Though it is on the consent calendar and unlikely to be controversial, it still deserves support.
SacMoves Coalition hosts an event calendar at https://sacmoves.org/events/, which is maintained by STAR (Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders) and Getting Around Sacramento. ‘This week’ postings are irregular.
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Once every few months, there are four transportation-related meetings on a single day, and that day is tomorrow, February 20, 2025. Except for retired folks with nothing better to do (me), no one could attend all four meetings. Three of the meetings are during the work day, which are scheduled then for two purposes: 1) because the members don’t want to do anything in the evening, and 2) to ensure that most of the public cannot participate. Nevertheless, I encourage readers to pick one meeting that seems of most interest, and attend in person or watch online. And comment! Though you may not have expertise on the topic being discussed, you have expertise and lived experience as a member of society.
Of the four meetings, one accepts comments online, the SacRT Mobility Advisory Council (MAC). The others do not. To comment, you must either attend in person, or submit comments online ahead of time. Comments submitted at the last moment will be included in the meeting record, but the board/commission/council/committee members will only see those comments submitted well ahead of time, usually three hours, though it varies with meeting. Meeting agendas, and select agenda items are below. I picked some agenda items of interest to me, but your interests may be different, so I suggest you take a look at the entire agenda and documents. You won’t find any presentations, because, well, that is the games agencies play with agenda presentations. Though, as a pleasant surprise, all the CARTA presentations are already available.
9:30 AM, SACOG Board of Directors, Meetings and Agendas page. Comments In-person: Public comment may be made in person at SACOG’s offices, or Written comments: May be submitted via email to the clerk at lespinoza@sacog.org.
12:00 noon, Capitol Area Tolling Authority, Board Meetings page. Comments In-person: Public comment may be made in person at the meeting location, or Written comments: May be submitted via email to the clerk at rtadevich@sacog.org.
2:30 PM, SacRT Mobility Advisory Council (MAC), MAC page. Comments In-person: Public comment may be made in person at the meeting location, or online via Zoom.
5:30 PM, Sacramento Active Transportation Commission (SacATC), Upcoming Meetings page. Comment In-person: Public comment may be made in person at the meeting location, or via eComment on the Upcoming Meetings page. eComment is open when the agenda is posted, and remains open until the beginning of public comment on an agenda item. Commissioners will not see eComments submitted during the meeting, but these will be part of the public record.
For the public meetings I attend or follow, which includes Sacramento City Council, Sacramento Active Transportation Commission, Sacramento Transportation Authority, SACOG Board, SACOG Transportation Committee, Sacramento Regional Transit, and SacRT Mobility Access Council, the slide presentations given at the meetings are rarely available ahead of time. Agendas must be published three days ahead of time, under the Brown Act. Agencies have done better on doing more than three days. There are staff reports, but usually the slide presentation are not available. Yet the slide presentations offer key information that is not available in the staff reports, including charts, data, lists, and photos. Without the slide presentations and their detail, it is difficult for the public to understand what the agenda item is really about, and to develop comments ahead of time. I myself often have to significantly modify my preliminary comments based on the slide presentation.
I realize that there may be occasional instances when the slide presentation is still being worked on right before the meeting, for late breaking changes or to answer questions that board members have asked ahead of time. But that is usually not the case. Usually, the slide presentations are available ahead of time, but are not shared with the public.
SACOG is the worst agency in this respect. Every meeting I attend or follow, I have to send an email to the board clerk to request the slide presentations. They are sent to me, and also added to the agenda items, but this occurs during or after the meeting. I have requested slide presentations beforehand and not received them.
This is the game agencies play to make it difficult for the public to comment on agenda items. Board and council members, and staff, give lip service to transparency, but do not actually provide it.
SacMoves Coalition hosts an event calendar at https://sacmoves.org/events/, which is maintained by STAR (Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders) and Getting Around Sacramento. ‘This week’ postings are irregular.
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Tuesday 18
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Sunday 23
See also Strong SacTown, Tell City Council: Don’t add cars to Truxel Bridge.
SacMoves Coalition hosts an event calendar at https://sacmoves.org/events/, which is maintained by STAR (Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders) and Getting Around Sacramento. This week postings are irregular.
Monday 3
Tuesday 4
Wednesday 5
Thursday 6
Friday 7
Saturday 8
Sunday 9
Getting Around Sacramento 