dangerous bike signal on Broadway

Dan Allison1 Comment

Additional posts on Broadway Complete Streets are available at category ‘Broadway Complete Streets‘.

On Broadway eastbound at Land Park Drive, there is a bicycle signal face, shown below. The signal is permanently red, it never changes to green. The presence or absence of bicyclists makes no difference; it does not change from red. This is confusing both motor vehicle drivers and bicyclists. Bicyclists wait for it to change, and it never does. Drivers wonder why bicyclists are proceeded along Broadway with the green ‘car’ light when the signal clearly says that they should not be proceeding. I have seen drivers yelling at bicyclists for going when it is not their turn, and this has been reported to me by a number of people.

This issue has been reported to the city, twice by myself, and multiple times by other people. It has been this way for at least two weeks, perhaps longer. The city has decided to ignore these reports and to not fix the issue. The city is endangering bicyclists, and is in fact legally liable for knowing that a safety hazard exists and doing nothing to respond. This is criminal behavior on the part of the city. Sorry to be so blunt, but when city employees, or contractors acting on behalf of the city, ignore a known and easily solvable safety problem, that is criminal behavior. Period.

This would be so easy for the city to temporarily solve, by covering the bicycle signal face so that it is not visible. The pedestrian crossing sign over Broadway at the east side of the intersection is covered, due to the construction on the corner closing the crosswalk. Beyond a temporary fix, the city needs to determine why the bicycle signal face is not working, and make it work.

complete streets and intelligent speed assist

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This week at the legislature, the Assembly Transportation Committee is hearing SB 960 (Wiener) Transportation: planning: complete streets facilities: transit priority projects, Monday, July 1, 2:00 PM in Room 1100 at 1021 O Street in Sacramento (StreetsblogCA: Complete Streets Bill Hearing Next Week). This bill would force Caltrans to follow its own policy on Complete Streets, which is seldom does, and could have a beneficial impact on all street redesign in California as many transportation agencies look to Caltran for guideance.

The Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee is hearing SB 961 Vehicles: safety equipment (Wiener), Tuesday, July 2, 1:30 PM, in Room 126, State Capitol. The bill would implement Intelligent Speed Assistance for all vehicles except emergency vehicles. Though considerably weakened from the original version, with passive rather than active control, it is still a valuable step forward, and would encourage NHTSA to speed up their policy process, which they have been slow walking (to preserve fast driving).

If you live in Sacramento and can attend, please do. All you can do at legislative hearings is ‘support’ or ‘oppose’, but since most speakers are paid lobbyists, hearing from actual citizens can be powerful.

CalBike What are complete streets? graphic
CalBike What are complete streets? graphic

make streets rough again!

Dan Allison3 Comments

This is a follow-on to my 2016 post back to the old ways? Since that time I have watched several streets in downtown being torn up for utilities. Under the asphalt pavement on several of them are cobblestone and brick streets, covered over by asphalt to provide a smooth and fast ride for car drivers, and a less safe street for everyone. There are also a number of streetcar tracks that have similarly been buried beneath asphalt. Car drivers have won the battle for our streets, so far, but the trend is starting to reverse, even in Sacramento. The City of Sacramento, in its new general plan, has decided that walkers are more important than drivers!

The Strong SacTown street design standards team has identified four roadway typologies, Local Streets, Active Streets, Transit Streets, and Roads. Every redesign of Local Streets should consider installing rougher pavement to slow motor vehicles. Of course if a street is used by bicyclists, the pavement can be only moderately rough, not like the cobblestone pavement on Front Street in Old Sacramento Waterfront. Sidewalk level bike lanes, separated from the roadway and smooth, solve this for some kinds of streets, but local streets usually will not have bicycle facilities because they are low speed and low volume safer streets.

Rough pavement slows drivers, not just where there are traffic calming features such as curb extensions and chicanes, but for the entire block. Rough cobblestones like Front Street limit motor vehicle speeds to 10-15 mph, but a moderately rough street can enforce 20 mph or less, which is the goal for all local streets.

Brick streets do cost more to install than asphalt (the cheapest, in both senses of the word) and concrete streets. But they last much longer, according to The Planning Lady: It Pays to Save Your Brick Streets. “A concrete street will be replaced 3 times and asphalt 6 times over that time period.” Brick laying machines, originally invented in the Netherlands (of course), but now available from many companies, reduce the cost of creating brick streets considerably. I don’t know the range of brick roughness that can be laid by machine, but it should be sufficient for moderately rough streets. The roughness of historical cobblestone like Front Street might not be affordable today, with the material harder to source and labor more expensive, but many cities are using cobblestone for slow streets and gateway treatments.

Photos below of Clay Street in San Francisco cobblestone, Front Street in Sacramento cobblestone, and Liestal Alley in Sacramento brick.

San Francisco, Clay St, cobblestone pavement
San Francisco, Clay St, cobblestone pavement
Sacramento, Front St, cobblestone pavement
Sacramento, Front St, cobblestone pavement
Sacramento, Liestal Alley, brick pavement
Sacramento, Liestal Alley, brick pavement

Strong SacTown Street Design: Street Typologies Overview

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The fourth post by Strong SacTown to improve and promote the City of Sacramento update to its Street Design Standards. Other posts at tag: street design standards.

To help support the design or redesign of stroads into either streets or roads, and to enhance the comfort and safety for all road users, we recommend a new, simplified street typology:

In lieu of Sacramento’s current seven typologies, ours comprises only four: Local Street, Active Street, Transit Street, and Road.

  1. Local streets are the core of our street network, serving a built environment with multiple uses where most of the home, work, commercial and social needs of people are within walking or short bicycling distance. Motor vehicles are guests, safety is primary, and economic and social vibrancy are promoted. Some local streets may have no private motor vehicles traffic at all, or such use be limited to certain times of day. A majority of roadways in the city should be local streets. Local streets will have a maximum design speed of 20 mph.
  2. Active streets have features that allow bicyclists and mobility device users to travel at somewhat higher speeds over somewhat longer distances. However, the local street function is not compromised. Active streets will have a maximum design speed of 20 mph.
  3. Transit Streets have features that allow effective transit use including higher frequency buses, streetcars and possibly light rail. However, the local street function is not compromised. Transit streets will have a maximum design speed of 20mph for streets with transit priority and 30 mph for exclusively transit.
  4. Roads are designed to allow longer distance travel at somewhat higher speeds, by transit and private motor vehicles. The safety of all users is still paramount. Roads should be a minor component of the transportation network, occurring at intervals of one to two miles. Roads will have a maximum design speed of 30 mph.
Street Typologies Overview

Streets for People Interactive Map visual gallery – pedestrian

Dan Allison1 Comment

Streets for People Active Transportation Plan has posted an interactive map on which people may make comments on proposed projects, or add their own points or lines. There are visual galleries for pedestrian infrastructure and bicycle classes, but they overlay the map so can’t be viewed while viewing the map. The visual galleries have been captured and made available here. This post is the pedestrian infrastructure gallery, next will be the bicycle classes gallery.

These elements are not exhaustive. There are several elements in the Streets for People Neighborhood Connections storymap traffic calming tab which can be used on the interactive map as well. And you may add your own.

Note: Photos are not from Sacramento. These galleries and the elements they contain are re-used from projects in other cities.

Visual Glossary of Pedestrian Infrastructure

Note: Also available as a pdf.

Sidewalks

Provide an area for people walking to travel separated from vehicle traffic. Typically constructed out of concrete and separated from the roadway by a curb or gutter and sometimes a landscaped buffer. 

Read More »

Streets for People Interactive Map visual gallery – bikeway classes

Dan Allison2 Comments

Streets for People Active Transportation Plan has posted an interactive map on which people may make comments on proposed projects, or add their own points or lines. There are visual galleries for pedestrian infrastructure and bicycle classes, but they overlay the map so can’t be viewed while viewing the map. The visual galleries have been captured and made available here. This post is the classes of bikeways gallery.

These elements are not exhaustive. There are several elements in the Streets for People Neighborhood Connections storymap traffic calming tab which can be used on the interactive map as well. And you may add your own.

Note: Photos are not from Sacramento. These galleries and the elements they contain are re-used from projects in other cities.

Visual Glossary of Classes of Bikeways

Also available as a pdf.

Shared-Use Paths 

Paths shared by people walking and biking completely separated from motor vehicle traffic. These facilities tend to be comfortable for people of all ages and abilities. 

Read More »

People for Bike City Ratings for Sacramento

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You won’t be surprised, but City of Sacramento achieved a score of 34 out of 100 on the People for Bikes annual City Ratings. The scores are simplistic, using road width and bike lane mileage, but are still indicative of the relative ranking of cities and of the progress being made. Progress in the case of Sacramento is very slow.

I believe Sacramento’s poor ranking is due largely to the city’s policy of building bicycling infrastructure almost entirely with grant funding, and not with city budget. When you are competing nationally, statewide, or regionally for grants, funds will be limited and progress very slow. The city must spend more of its general fund on shifting our transportation system away from unsafe car dominated streets to streets that work for all users.

Streetsblog: Has Your City Passed the ‘Bikeability Tipping Point’? (2024-06-25)

Broadway Complete Streets update

Dan Allison2 Comments

This is the eighth post (I think) on the Broadway Complete Streets project. Additional posts on Broadway Complete Streets are available at category ‘Broadway Complete Streets‘.

The long-line striping on Broadway is essentially complete, with the addition of yellow lines for center dividers and the center turn lane. There is still no green paint for bicycle facilities, and the shared transit/bike areas. None of the crosswalks have been installed. This lack of attention to crosswalks is typical of the entire project, motor vehicles first, sidewalks last and walkers crossing last.

Broadway at 3rd St striping
Broadway at 3rd St striping

The short curb-separated bikeway eastbound between 15th Street and 16th Street was closed yesterday, though I had used it a few days earlier. I noticed a bicycle signal on Broadway at 16th Street / Land Park Drive, which may have not been there before or may not have been activated and so I didn’t notice it. In a short while of observing, it did not change to green, so perhaps it is awaiting completion of the curb-separated bikeway.

Broadway at 16th St / Land Park Dr, eastbound, bicycle signal
Broadway at 16th St / Land Park Dr, eastbound, bicycle signal

I continue to have concerns about the RRFBs (rectangular rapid flashing beacon) used for several crosswalks along Broadway. The one in the photo below seemed to be stuck on, for unknown reasons. The rate of driver yielding to people crossing is very low. An observer pointed out that because RRFBs are not common in Sacramento, drivers may not know how to deal with them, and that this would be a perfect time for a city educational effort to bring drivers up to speed (so to speak). The particular location shown below, Broadway at 22nd, has a median island in the center, preventing drivers from passing stopped motor vehicles by using the center turn lane. Other locations do not have this protection, and I observed at least one instance of a driver passing a stopped vehicle by using the center turn lane at Broadway and 18th Street. Reduced general purpose lanes, from two per direction to one per direction, do significantly reduce the multi-lane threat, where one vehicle stops and others do not, but the center turn lane allows drivers to continue to threaten walkers, and to violate the law.

Broadway at 22nd Str, RRFB and walker
Broadway at 22nd Str, RRFB and walker

As recently as the Broadway Fact Sheet in 2019, conversion of 16th Street between Broadway and X Street from one-way to two-way was part of the project. I’ve seen no evidence of work on that part, so it may have been delayed or may have been dropped. Also, work on Broadway between 19th Street and 21st Street has been delayed to another phase due to prolonged negotiation with Union Pacific over whether there will be one or two traffic lanes per direction approaching the railroad tracks between 19th Street and 20th Street.

I’ll post again when green paint has been installed, and the crosswalks completed.

Streets for People traffic calming

Dan Allison6 Comments

The city yesterday added the Neighborhood Connections Story Board to the Streets for People Active Transportation Plan webpage. I encourage you to look at the entire storymap, but the traffic calming slides are worth sharing independently. The slideshow below has the 13 traffic calming features, with photos, brief descriptions, and relative costs. These traffic calming features are meant for local and minor collector streets, not for major collector and arterials streets. Note that the city is still using the outmoded classification system (local, collector, arterial) that focuses on motor vehicle throughput. This typology approach must change.

Broadway Complete Streets update

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Additional posts on Broadway Complete Streets are available at category ‘Broadway Complete Streets‘.

Striping is finally occurring on Broadway, more than two weeks after marking for the striping was completed. Crosswalks have not been striped, though if I were in charge, they would be the first thing striped. Striping is incomplete from 3rd Street to 11th Street, and there is minor striping east of there. There is no green paint yet.

photo of partial striping on Broadway at 3rd St
partial striping on Broadway at 3rd St

RRFBs (rectangular rapid flashing beacon) signals have been installed at three locations. These are mounted on poles and mast arms. Some observation has indicated they are being widely ignored by drivers. A person who has watched the RRFB at 18th Street says that only about 5% of the drivers were yielding to walkers who had triggered the lights. I will do more observation and talk to more people about their observations, but so far, the concerns I expressed in RRFBs are being ignored are true on Broadway.