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.
Sac Council, 5:00 PM: agenda, item 9 consent Neighborhood Connections Draft Final Plan, staff report, plan (the agenda link was in error, and has been corrected)
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.
06 Commission Log: The SacATC log is a list of topics that the commission has requested from staff a discussion or presentation. The log is a running list, so may contain items of high priority, low priority, or superseded by events. Each item has a commissioner name attached as the requestor. I believe this item will ask for sponsors of items where the commissioner is no longer on the commission, and prioritize items.
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.
Monday 17
Presidents Day: celebrating past presidents who weren’t criminals
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
Transit Equity Day/Rosa Parks Birthday: Transit Equity Day; SacRT; Roseville; unclear whether other transit agencies in the region are recognizing this day or offering free rides
The City of Sacramento has three job openings in the planning section. “Join the Transportation Planning Team! Do you have an interest in advancing City goals for safety, mobility, equity and more? Do you want to be part of a dynamic team of professionals who work collaboratively with other agencies, City leadership, and the community to move these goals forward? If so, check out the job links below!”
SacATC (City of Sacramento Active Transportation Commission) met Thursday, January 16, 2025.
The agenda included:
3. Selection of Chair and Vice Chair for Calendar Year 2025: Arlete Hodel was re-elected as Chair, and Isaac Gonzalez was re-elected as Vice Chair. Juanluis Licea-Cruz joined the commission as seat K youth representative, a high school student at West Campus joined the comission. David Moore was appointed to the Seat J. Ali Doerr-Westbrook has completed her term on the commission.
4. Caltrans American River Bridge Rehabilitation Project: The presentation by Caltrans staff was frustrating. A number of questions about details of the bike path being added as part of the freeway rehabilitation (widening) project went unanswered. Commission concerns were that there are a limited number of connections from the new path to existing bikeways, and that Caltrans has demonstrated an inability to maintain bike paths by the horrible condition of the Causeway path. The Caltrans staff claimed that some other agency would be responsible for maintaining the path, but seemed unclear about what agency. Federal law requires that the host agency is responsible for maintenance of multi-use paths in perpetuity, but Caltrans has rarely complied with that requirement. Completion of the entire project is December 2026, but it is unknown whether the path will be available before then. I hadn’t realized, but this path was part of a lawsuit settlement over widening of the freeway; it was not a project initiated by or desired by Caltrans.
5. Alternative Recommendation: Truxel Bridge Concept and Feasibility Study: See the STAR blog post for this topic, which includes all the agenda document parts. The commission voted for recommendation 3, “reject the Truxel Bridge Concept and Feasibility Study and instead recommend that the City Council direct staff to evaluate and study a Truxel Bridge alternative without personal motor vehicles.’ It was clear from the large number of in-person comments and eComments, as well as commissioner comments, that the city commitment to a multi-modal bridge with private motor vehicles is unacceptable.
My comments added two details: 1) SacRT board has never approved the city concept, though discussions at the staff level indicate that it might. The approved SacRT project is a transit/walking/bicycling only bridge. 2) The light rail to the airport Green Line might never be completed due to very high cost and uncertain ridership. If bus rapid transit (BRT) is implemented instead, the benefits of a direct bridge route are not clear. The current bus Route 11 jogs to the freeway, and is not signficiantly delayed by that. This BRT is not part of the current regional plans because it was assumed that light rail would be implemented, but it is quite possible that it might be added to the high capacity bus network plans.
It is assumed that the city study will proceed until the city council makes a decision on the SacATC recommentation.
6. Streets for People: Neighborhood Connections Draft Final Plan: staff report and Neighborhood Connections Plan: There was strong community and commission support for the plan, and it will be forwarded to council, probably next month. The toolbox part of the plan is outstanding. Nearly all of the 13 treatments in toolbox can be implemented as quick-build projects with low-cost materials, and eventually replaced by hardened infrastructure. Community and commission comments addressed the lack of likely funding for implementation, but it is hoped that the city will allocate some funds to the project, particularly now that the primary resister Howard Chan is no longer city managert.
For ‘not on the agenda’, I commented on the much delayed maintenance (sweeping) of the separated bikeways in the central city. The bikeways became nearly impassible during leaf season, except where they were cleared by landscaping services supplied by adjacent property owners, which is not their responsibility, but is appreciated.
Commissioners requested an update on the staff effort to inform council about what quick-build means. and this topic may also come back to the commission.
Traffic Diverter / Street Closure page from Streets for People Neighborhood Connections
SacATC (City of Sacramento Active Transportation Commission) will meet this Thursday, starting 5:30 PM, in city council chambers at 915 I Street, Sacramento. Comments may be made in person or via eComment ahead of time. Note that there are two commission meetings scheduled at the same time, so it is possible that this meeting will be in another location in city hall.
The agenda includes:
3. Selection of Chair and Vice Chair for Calendar Year 2025
4. Caltrans American River Bridge Rehabilitation Project: This project includes the addition of a shared use path (walking and bicycling) to the State Route 51 (Capitol City Freeway) bridge over the American River.
5. Alternative Recommendation: Truxel Bridge Concept and Feasibility Study: See the STAR blog post for this topic, which includes all the agenda document parts.
The Neighborhood Connections Plan is largely unchanged from the 2024-10 draft. As such, I support it. It is important to remember that this plan only addresses residential and minor collector streets, which are important for encouraging walking and bicycling, but rarely are the location of fatalities and severe injuries. Those occur on major collector and arterial roadways, which are the subject of a separate Streets for People document, coming sometime later this year.
On page 19 the following info from the last round of public outreach is added:
PHASE THREE: PUBLIC DRAFT PLAN
Project Funding and Prioritization: How the plan will be moved forward into implementation, prioritization, and funding was a common theme. Community members requested clarification on the next steps for project implementation.
Speeding Implementation: Some workshop participants called for faster implementation of the recommended network via “quick build” projects.
Equity Considerations: Community members asked how equity would be considered for implementation, particularly where fewer active transportation facilities currently exists.
Youth Safety: School area improvements and other projects focused on addressing youth transportation needs was a theme in the virtual workshops.
The ‘Funding and Ways to Get the Network Built’ (page 123) is unfortunately unchanged. The city still does not identify even the possibility of using general funds for implementing this plan.
Getting Around Sacramento 