North 12th Street Complete Street Project

2014/11/072024/01/21 Dan Allison4 Comments

The City of Sacramento is soliciting input on the North 12th Street Complete Street Project, the most significant portion of which would install a two-way cycletrack on the west side of 12th Street between the Hwy 160 bridge over the American River near Richards Blvd, and as far south as F Street.

The project should be compatible with and benefit from the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Twin Rivers project which would revitalize the Twin Rivers Community Housing and the surrounding area. The January 2014 Final Transformation Plan is available from SHRA. Though the plan does not go into great detail on streets and transportation, page 78 does provide a good overview of the changes and the relationship to 12th Street and other efforts in the River District and Railyards. In particular:

Richards Blvd would be realigned and extended east of 12th St
several streets intersecting 12th St would be reconfigured, particularly Bannon St
a potential SacRT light rail station near the redevelopment and Richards Blvd

There is also a City of Sacramento project to add sidewalks to the east side of 12th St between B St and Richards Blvd.

ESC workshop, and initial reading

2013/12/192013/12/19 Dan Allison1 Comment

The Workshop

The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Entertainment and Sports Complex (ESC, or arena) was released a few days ago, and this evening there was a public workshop on the DEIR. About 70 people were in attendance, perhaps 1/4 of them city and consultant staff, and about 1/4 were wearing Kings supporter T-shirts or other Kings clothing. I recognized a few faces from the active transportation world, but many I did not know. A speaker gave a quick run-through of the DEIR, sort of executive summary of the summary section of the DEIR.

Following the introduction, people went to the stations on the topics covered in the DEIR to ask questions (and of course make comments, though that was not the purpose of the workshop). At least half the people gravitated to the transportation section, as it seemed to be their area of most interest. Probably parking is the issue most on the minds of Kings fans, but for many, the issues of pedestrian, bicyclist, and transit access to events, and the potential impact on these, are of great interest.
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Lights at Arden-Del Paso, not

2013/12/06 Dan AllisonLeave a comment

I was at the Arden – Del Paso light rail station this evening after seeing a play at Big Idea Theatre, waiting for the last Blue line train back downtown, and in walking around noticed a big problem with lights. Of the lights at the station, 40% were out. But there is a thicket of video cameras, more than ten. It seems strange to me that RT spent a considerably amount of money on video cameras, presumably to enhance security, but doesn’t spend money on replacing light bulbs, which would have a far more beneficial affect on security. Or, if the light standards need repair, then repairing them.

The Arden – Del Paso station is quite busy during the day, serving as a secondary transit hub with five bus routes as well as light rail. But it does not have the schedule messaging boards that many less busy stations have. With 40% of the lights out, none of the schedule boards can be read at night, so not only is there no indication of the time, there is no information available about the length of wait for the next train.

Transit projects in Sacramento region

2013/01/232013/01/23 Dan AllisonLeave a comment

Reconnecting America, a transportation advocacy organization, just published Transit Space Race 2013. To see the Sacramento area projects, click on the < 3 million tab, and then sort by state. The eleven projects will be at the top of the list. The transit agency link in the right-most column links back to a page or website about the project.

Though the south corridor extension is shown as engineering in the status column, construction is underway on parts of the extension, the two bridges, and will start soon on other parts, with the help of a recent federal grant as well as regional funds. The airport extension and streetcar projects also have their own webpages.

Most of the other projects link to the Sacramento TransitAction Plan, which show all possible projects in Scenario C (map at right, more detail in the plan starting on page 50). This plan does not give much detail on each project, but the name of the project gives you an idea.

Bike capacity on light rail

2013/01/212013/01/22 Dan Allison2 Comments

The other item I want to talk about at the Unmet Transit Needs meeting today is bicycle capacity on SacRT’s light rail system. I’ve written about bikes on light rail previously, and won’t repeat that detailed post here, except to say again that SacRT is not meeting the needs of transit users with bicycles on the light rail system.

Sportworks makes two types of transit bicycle racks that could be used on SacRT light rail, the SwingLock and the Interlock. The SwingLock is basically an improvement to the bike rack hooks installed on the 200 series light rail cars, while the Interlock is a more complicated, more expensive, and more effective rack. I spoke to a Sportworks employee at ProWalk/ProBike last year, and he said they also design custom racks for transit systems where off-the-shelf solutions won’t work. I have family in Las Vegas, and when I’m visiting, I use the RTC-Southern Nevada transit system which has the Interlock installed in many of its newer articulated buses. The racks work great!

SACOG Unmet Transit Needs Hearing

2013/01/172015/08/09 Dan AllisonLeave a comment

I attended the SACOG final hearing on unmet transit needs. Apparently the process is repeated every year, so this is just the last one for this fiscal year. I spoke, as planned, on the unmet needs of bicyclists on light rail and level boarding with low floor light rail cars. Board member Steve Cohn welcomed me to attend the regular SacRT board meeting to talk about these concerns. He said that SacRT is working on these very issues, but since they haven’t publicized anything yet, I’m not sure what they are thinking and where in the process they are.

Only one other person spoke, mostly about disability access and connectivity between the many transit systems in the region.

I’m not sure whether the lack of testimony indicates that people think all the issues were addressed in the earlier hearings, or whether people didn’t know of the opportunity, or if there is a lack of interest. Though SacRT has clearly improved since the low point of 2010 when the system and service were decimated, there is a long ways to go to get back to base level and then to improve on it.

Level boarding with low floor light rail cars

2013/01/172013/01/17 Dan Allison3 Comments

SacRT light rail steep steps for bicyclist

Today in Sacramento will be the last of SACOG’s Unmet Transit Needs meetings. It will start at 9:30AM in the SACOG board room at 1415 L St, Ste 300, in downtown Sacramento, near the northeast corner of Capitol Park. In preparation for that meeting, I’m thinking about the things I’d like to talk about, particularly issues that I’m not sure that others will bring up. Those two are bicycles on light rail, and level boarding for light rail. I’ve said a bit about level boarding in my Portland post, but there is plenty more to say.

The SacRT light rail system has high floor cars. Both the older 100 series cars by Siemens Transportation Systems and the newer 200 series cars by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) have high floors. People must navigate steep stairs from the ground to the car. Disabled people are accommodated by a high boarding platform, but with only one platform at each station (and none for southbound blue line at 12th & I station), those needing level boarding are restricted to one end of the lead car, and all other doors and cars exclude them. Many people who use the train don’t consider themselves disabled enough to use the high boarding platforms, yet struggle with getting up and down the steps. Many bicyclists also struggle with these steps. The handrails which are provided in the middle of the stairs to assist people with the steep steps are themselves part of the problem, as they block people who are carrying items such as strollers, groceries, luggage and bicycles.Read More »

Transit Score

2012/04/282012/04/28 Dan Allison2 Comments

I previously wrote about Walk Score and its use in Sacramento, and now the Walk Score company has released Transit Score. Sacramento ranks 22 out of 25 cities, with a Transit Score of 32 (of 100), in the category of “some transit.” The categories are rider’s paradise, excellent transit, good transit, some transit, and minimal transit. It is worth noting that if all the major cities had provided their transit information, Sacramento would probably have not been on the list at all, because with a population of just under a half million, it is not in the usual top 25 but would show up in a top 50.

Walk Score notes “The Transit Score algorithm calculates a score for a specific point by summing the relative ‘usefulness’ of nearby routes. We define usefulness as the distance to the nearest stop on the route, the frequency of the route, and type of route.” As pointed out in the recent Streetsblog post, it does not including information about where you can go once you’ve gotten onto the transit, which also of course affects the usefulness of the transit.Read More »

Co-op relocation

2012/04/022023/03/19 Dan AllisonLeave a comment

The Sacramento Natural Foods Coop is considering relocation to 28th and R streets. As a coop member, I’m interested in how the new location addresses transportation. Though plans are preliminary and vague, here is my reaction to what is available so far on the website at http://www.sacfoodcoop.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1726:store-relocation-update. Given the stated mission of the co-op, “…consumer-owned […]

Getting Around Sacramento

by foot, bicycle, and public transit (car-free!)

Tag: light rail