quick build at SacCity Budget & Audit

Note: Added letters of support from four organizations, below.

The Budget & Audit Committee of the Sacramento City Council meets tomorrow (!) Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 11:00 AM in city hall council chambers. The Budget & Audit Committee members are Roger Dickinson, Chair, District 2; Karina Talamantes, District 3; Caity Maple, District 5; and Eric Guerra, District 6.

On the agenda is item 10 SacATC 2024 Annual Report. The discussion, however, will include more than just the annual report. It will include the city’s proposed quick build program. Quick build, sometimes called tactical urbanism, is a concept related to Vision Zero, that rather than just accepting traffic violence, the city would take action to reduce or prevent future crashes at that location. What makes it unique, and different from the long term roadway redesign that the city undertakes when they can get grant funding, quick build analyzes the issue now, and takes action soon to correct it.

The city is calling this effort TAG Team (tactical action group), and it would be implemented from existing budget and staffing limits with six staff dedicated to the project.

If you can’t make daytime meetings, you can submit an eComment on the city meetings page. The earlier you submit eComments, the more likely committee members are to see them before the meeting.

Three examples of quick builds: the street closure and bikeway improvement at Broadway and 2nd Avenue and 34th Street, with yellow vertical delineators; the corner curb extensions that have been installed at some corners with paint and/or white vertical delineators, and lane channelization delineators on 15th and 16th Streets. Vertical delineators are much less expensive, and also somewhat less effective, than concrete curbs, but they do reduce the likelihood and/or severity of crashes.

Letters of support:


The same day, at the evening Sacramento City Council meeting, the Neighborhood Connections plan, part of the Streets for All Active Transportation Plan, is on the on the consent agenda, item 9 Neighborhood Connections Plan. The plan is full of specific designs that can be implemented in temporary and/or less expensive materials. See earlier posts under categories Active Transportation Plan, Neighborhood Connections, Street Design Standards, and particularly traffic calming measures. The Neighborhood Connections Draft Final Plan (2025-01) is also available, if you have time to read it. Though it is on the consent calendar and unlikely to be controversial, it still deserves support.

SacATC 2024-10-17

The City of Sacramento Active Transportation Commission (SacATC) will meet this Thursday, October 17, 2024, starting at 5:30 PM. The meeting is held at city council chambers, 915 I Street, and can be viewed online via the link available when the meeting starts, on the city’s Upcoming Meetings page. People may comment in person (preferred) or make an eComment on the city’s Upcoming Meetings page. Though all eComments become part of the public record, only those submitted before noon of the meeting date will be seen by the commissioners. The agenda includes three discussion items, below, and is available as pdf.

  1. Fiscal Year (FY) 2025/26 Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant
  2. Assembly Bill (AB) 43 Project (speed limits)
  3. Active Transportation Commission 2024 Draft Annual Report

At the last meeting, the commission decided to reduce the list of recommendations to those directly impacting street safety. In the updated draft annual report, these six are:

  1. Increase Funding for Active Transportation Infrastructure Projects
  2. Expand Speed Management Programs
  3. Create a Sacramento Quick- Build Bikeways Program
  4. Re-Establish Slow & Active Streets
  5. Develop a Citywide Safe Routes to School Program
  6. Finalize the Construction Detour Policy

They are listed in inverse order of funding. with #1 requesting the highest level of funding, $3M per year.

It is important for the community to support the annual report with its focus on priority safety actions, to support the report when it goes to city council, and to support the city prioritizing these funds in the mid-year budget revision and in next year’s budget.

The city reduced speed limits in many school zones several years ago, and recently reduced speed limits on a few streets, and is gradually working to reduce speed limits on more streets, including alleys, business districts, local roads, and senior zones. The graphic below shows the approach. The presentation will bring the commission up to date on the project.

graphic of speed limit setting flow chart

City staff is asking the commission to recommend two grant applications under Caltran’s Sustainable Communities Planning Grants for Transit Needs in Sacramento to meet Climate, Equity and Mobility Goals; and the Walking, Bicycling and Transit Access Wayfinding Project.

The city’s Department of Public Works Transportation Planning Newsletter has more information on these topics and others. I recommend you sign up if you aren’t already getting the email newsletter, which comes out once a month.