At right is the second map of downtown/midtown Sacramento, showing the 1-way streets. This map was created using Google maps and memory, and has not yet been field checked.
These streets total about 32.6 miles.
The map graphic links to the map data in Google Maps, from which you can zoom in on areas and turn on or off satellite view. The reason that this is not a map view graphic is that the online browser version of Google Maps starts paging after about 18 entries, so it is not possible to view all of the segments at the same time. This image is instead from Google Earth, via KML export and import.
The map provides background for an upcoming post about transforming transportation and livability in downtown/midtown.
At right is a map of the 3-lane (or more) streets in the downtown/midtown section of Sacramento. All of these streets are also one-way streets. Many people call this the grid, but others define the grid as a larger area including areas east of Alhambra Blvd and south of Broadway. This map was created using Google maps and memory, and has not yet been field checked.
These streets total about 25.4 miles.
The map graphic links to the map data in Google Maps, from which you can zoom in on areas and turn on or off satellite view.
The map provides background for an upcoming post about transforming transportation and livability in downtown/midtown.
The first weekend in April is shaping up to be great fun for people like me who love themed slow rides.
Friday, April 5th will be the next edition of BikeParty Sacramento, somewhere in the Land Park neighborhood. I participated in the March ride, whose theme was Massive Mural March, and it was a hoot. Many people came with highly decorated bikes, twinkly and sparkly and flashy, with fuzzy stuffed animals and fuzzy wild clothing. The murals scattered through midtown, some of which I’d seen before and many of which I had not, were entertainment enough, but the people themselves and their bikes were even better entertainment. Electroluminescent (EL) wired was common. EL is popular with the Burning Man crowd, and it is so cool, I just have to get some of my own. The photo is an EL rose designed and built freehand by the owner (whose name I’ve forgotten). The event is coordinated by Conrad, who rides and designs crazy art bikes.
Saturday, April 6th will be the Tweed Ride, starting at Fremont Community Garden in midtown. Last year after a successful run, Rick Houston retired from sponsorship of the Sacramento Tweed rides, but Brian and Sarah have taken on the mantle are continuing under Sacramento Tweed Ride 2.0 (Facebook) and Sacramento Tweed (blog). Some people come dressed to the nines in 1920’s fashion, with tweed prominent, some people come with vintage bikes older than almost any of us, some people come with both, and many people come just because it’s fun and they want to find out more about it. For the last ride I went on, I rode my Brompton, which is not truly vintage but has a vintage British flavor, and wore my Victorian clothing, which is quite pre-1920’s, and was accepted in just fine. I hope to have some real tweed by the next ride.
These themed slow rides are a great way to socialize with the non-spandex crowd. They often include stops for coffee or beer or chocolate, and visit interesting places that you might not otherwise know about. Though I have an innate reluctance to ride in groups, as they introduce hazards that don’t exist for individual riders, these rides are so fun and such a positive experience that I’m willing to overcome my reluctance. The pace is such that anyone can keep up, on any kind of bike.
Unfortunately, the first weekend in April I am in the bay area for the Epicenter contra dance weekend in Mill Valley, and so will miss both rides. Hope you don’t miss them!
Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA) posted a question on Facebook, “Where shall we hold one in Sacramento?” about the Sunday Streets event this past Sunday on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. This echoes a conversation Alexis and I had while we were attending. She liked the Embarcadero Sunday Streets because it was a long distance and showed how streets can be used for transportation in a different way than we usually use them. For Sacramento, that would argue for a long distance closure that connects together destinations.
Though I certainly enjoyed this Sunday Street, I really like the two that I’ve been to in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, which close stretches of Valencia St and 24th St. This route is in a neighborhood, there are people living along the streets and in the neighborhood, as well as those who come from other places to enjoy. There are a multitude of locally-owned businesses to appreciate and engage, with nary a chain in sight. The special events such as play areas, climbing walls, hula hoops, dance demonstrations and others feel more concentrated rather than scattered out along a long route. For Sacramento, this argues for a midtown location, which is the only area where there is a sufficient concentration of residents and locally owned businesses. The Mission event is about community, and more like a street fair.
Embarcadero is more about transportation, and Mission is more about community. Sacramento, of course, could do both.
For more information about the flavors and locations of open streets events, see Open Streets Project. Check out the website for background information including “models”, and then go to one! Of course San Francisco is the easiest for us here in the Sacramento region, but Berkeley will also be having one or more this year, and as you’ll see, they are becoming common on the west coast, throughout the United States, and the world.
The next San Francisco event is on April 14, and is in the Mission neighborhood which I’ve referred to above, on Valencia St and 24th St. Don’t miss it! And bring back your thoughts and commitment to making it happen in Sacramento.
Alexis and I volunteered at the event as intersection monitors. Once you’ve been to an event, you can consider volunteering, which provides a different perspective. Though I was initially assigned to an quiet intersection where there was nothing much to do, I got moved to a lively intersection, The Embarcadero and North Point, where the F streetcar line crosses The Embarcadero at an angle, and there was a lot to do, stopping the walking-biking-rolling crowd as the streetcar came through, keeping people out of the dedicated streetcar lane, and talking to people about how to safely cross tracks.
This is the current list of Public Works transportation projects in the City of Sacramento. I know about a few of these projects, but many of them I don’t know anything about. It would be worth exploring all of them to see what the implications are for walkability and bikeability, but where would I find the time? Some projects have their own document or page on the city website, but most of them don’t, at least that I’ve been able to find, so I presume these would require getting in touch with the city to get the documents.
This weekend I was in the east bay. I normally switch over from Amtrak to BART at Richmond, and from BART back to Amtrak at Richmond at the end of my trip, but this weekend I had a much less tight schedule, so decided to pedal my way around. From the station, I headed south to the waterfront, looking for the San Francisco Bay Trail. Many of the streets in Richmond are seriously deteriorated, just as is true in all of the east bay, but some have been renewed. I picked up the trail, which winds for quite some ways along the edge of the bay, sometimes far from the freeway and city and quite pleasant. At Golden Gate Fields, the racing stadium, the trail seemed to disappear, or at least I couldn’t find it. Today I found some good maps online that would have gotten me around this gap, but not having them, I reverted to surface streets. Since this was also the point at which I noticed that the slow tire leak had turned into a fast leak, I pulled out my phone and located a bike shop to get it fixed.
Blue Heron Bikes on Gilman in Berkeley is a Brompton dealer, and turned out to be the perfect place to go. I got the tube replaced, and then decided to get my other tire replaced, as it was two plus years old and had been punctured so many times I could see daylight through it. The work was done with professionalism. Better yet, I had great conversations with shop manager Jeremy and owner Rob, about Bromptons and all kinds of other biking. A couple was also in, waiting patiently for Jeremy to finish with my bike, one a Brompton owner and the other soon-to-be Brompton owner, and it was fun talking to them as well.Read More »
Flood and basketball (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-28); read the long but fascinating 2005 article that is linked from this one!
Los Rios buys Rancho Cordova site for satellite campus (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-03-01; subscriber only article); unlike the mythological Cordova Hills university campus, this one is directly on the SacRT Folsom light rail line
It’s decision time for massive Capital Southeast Connector project (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-03-01; subscriber only article); Editorial: Road work ahead — we hope (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-03-01; subscriber only article); I for one hope this project does not succeed, as it is clearly a sprawl inducer, and was one of the reasons that the sprawl Cordova Hills project was even considered viable
Last night I used my BikeLink membership to store my bike at the Berkeley BikeStation, which is just two blocks from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. I was wandering around downtown in the late afternoon and early evening before going to a concert, and it was more convenient to be without my bike while walking, and then not having to negotiate to bring it inside at the concert. The BikeStation is a self-service setup, so you can put your bike in and get it out again at any time of day. The adjacent staffed BikeStation has weekday hours, but it doesn’t have to be open to use the storage.
BikeLink is a membership system. Storage costs about 3-5 cents per hour, often less at low-use times, so it is a very reasonable deal. To get started, you have to purchase the card for $20, though, and there is a $5 identification charge on first use. At any rate, $20 buys a lot of bike storage time.
I first wanted to use BikeLink one Sunday in San Francisco when I needed air for my tires and couldn’t find an open bike shop in the part of town I was in. I remembered that there was some sort of bike place at Embarcadero BART station, and so went there, but found it required that I have a card ahead of time. So I signed up and was mailed a card. I used it several weeks later to store my bike there at Embarcadero while attending the Climate Forward SF rally.
BikeLink also has storage lockers at a number of BART stations, other transit locations, and bike-heavy places throughout the bay area. I’ve not used these lockers yet.
BikeLink uses the same sort of electronic card as the ClipperCard transit system card which is now in use throughout nearly all of the bay area. Apparently there are discussions about merging the systems, or at least letting BikeLink credit be stored on the ClipperCard, but at the moment, they are separate.
I asked SACOG about whether the new ConnectCard (similar to the ClipperCard), which is being planned for the Sacramento region, would be able to use BikeLink as well. The answer was that the systems are theoretically compatible, but no plans for interoperability are in the works. I’ve heard that just getting all the transportation entities in the Sacramento region to agree on a common card has been a challenge enough.
