Today, I observed a UPS truck parked in the bus stop red curb zone on Q Street at 11th Street. When I asked the driver why he had parked illegally in a bus stop, he pointed out that police were parked in both the white passenger loading zone and the yellow commercial loading zone in front of 1102 Q Street, SacRT Headquarters. These police vehicles were not ‘on call’, they were still parked there an hour later. Of course there were also SacRT and Sac County Sheriffs vehicles parked illegally in a no parking zone on 12th Street. Again, these were not ‘on call’, they were simply choosing convenience for themselves over safety for the public.
Because the UPS truck was in the bus stop, the SacRT bus (presumably Route 109, though I did not catch the head sign) had to stop in the travel lane on Q Street, and the two waiting passengers had to step off the curb and cross the parking lane to reach the bus. One passenger had a disability and was challenged by stepping off the curb.
So, illegal and arrogant parking by SacRT police ends up endangering SacRT passengers. No surprise on my part.
SacRT police parked illegally in passenger loading zone, 1102 Q StSacRT police parked illegally in commercial loading zone, 1102 Q St
Are the City of Sacramento separated bikeways on 9th St, 10th St, 19th St, 21st St, J St, P St and Q St a failure?
These separated bikeways are mostly but not entirely parking protected, meaning they are between the curb and the parking lane. The city purchased a bikeway sweeper specifically for use on these bikeways. But that sweeper has not been used this year. As documented in SacCity is not sweeping separated bikeways, the bikeways are filling with fallen leaves, which have now turned to leaf slime. Though I have not seen anyone fall on the leaf slime, I’d not be surprised, and I have slipped but not fallen several times. Some of the bikeways have been cleared, but it has been by adjacent property owners, and by City of Sacramento Youth, Parks, and Community Engagement (YPCE, otherwise called parks) on some but not all park-adjacent blocks. City of Sacramento Public Works, whose responsibility it is to sweep these bikeways which are part of the transportation system, have done nothing. Nothing.
A second issue is that the city has done nothing to solve the bikeway blocking that occurs on a daily basis on P Street approaching 16th Street. The bikeway here is blocked by delivery vehicles, people moving in and out of the adjacent residences, and people picking up food from the restaurants. The city is very aware of this problem, as there are frequent reports to 311 of illegally parked vehicles, by myself and many other bicyclists. But nothing has been done to solve the problem. This location needs, at the least, additional vertical delineators to discourage drivers from using the bikeway, and even better, a hard curb to prevent use.
It is worth noting that there is marked loading zone immediately adjacent to the bikeway, see below. Most drivers choose not to use that, or it is routinely blocked by drivers parked for a long period of time, clearly not loading.
loading zone adjacent to bikeway, P St
There are other locations where a separated bikeway is blocked by motor vehicles, but nowhere is it as common as the P St approaching 16 St location.
If the city is not willing to maintain the bikeways, and is not willing to solve issues with the bikeways of which it is very aware, then it can’t claim these as separated bikeways. Maybe they should be removed.
On the plus side, the city’s 311 app finally includes a drop down for ‘blocking bike lane’ under the parking violations menu, about five years after the request being made by myself and many others.
As a person who walks a lot in the central city, and some in other areas, I often see and report illegal parking to the city through the 311 app. I’m not talking about parking too long, or not paying, but about blocking driveways, sidewalks, and crosswalks. 90% of the time, the response that I get was that a parking officer was dispatched and the vehicle was no longer there, so no citation was issued. I provide the license number, vehicle description, and a photo, but the city will not use that information to ticket once a vehicle has moved. But, the real issue it that they often ignore the violation completely.
An example. I reported this illegally parked vehicle at 9:17AM. It was blocking the crosswalk over 13th St, and the ADA ramp. The remaining ramp area was not wide enough to allow a wheelchair to pass. At 11:09AM I received an email reply from the city, stating: “A Parking Enforcement Officer arrived at P ST & 13TH ST, SACRAMENTO, 95814 to find that the vehicle(s) reported were no longer on the scene.” At 7:30PM, the vehicle was still in exactly the same place. The officer was lying. The vehicle was still there. Either the officer never visited the location, or decided not to cite the vehicle.
illegally parked vehicle, 13th St, not cited
This is the sort of attitude the city has toward people who walk, or roll. They are always less important than people who drive.
