The City of Sacramento Active Transportation Commission (SacATC) will meet today, May 16, 2024, 5:30PM in city council chambers, 915 I Street.

The main agenda items are:

3. Folsom Boulevard Safety Improvements Project
4. Envision Broadway in Oak Park Project
5. Broadway Vision Zero Project
6. Draft Sacramento Urban Forest Plan Public Release

These are all discussion and feedback items, not for decisions.

The first item looks like a good project. For each segment, option 2, with buffered bike lanes, is the best option. Wider bike lanes have an advantage in that they accommodate more kinds of bicycles, but most bicyclists appreciate the visual if not actual protection of buffers and vertical delineators.

This project is the result of community pressure on the city to respond to the fatality that occurred at Phoebe Hearst Elementary, and the generally hazardous and hostile environment for walkers and bicyclists.

For all three complete street projects, I feel that center turn lanes are given way too much prominence, while in many segments they are unneeded because there are few driveways and few turning movements too/from cross streets. As always, the problem with with planning streets from the inside out, whereby motor vehicle space is set aside before anything else. Planning from outside in ensures that sidewalks and bicycle facilities are taken care of and of high quality, and then driving and parking needs are taken care of secondarily.

You can comment via eComment at the city’s meeting page, http://sacramento.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=21, before the meeting starts, or in person. Of course in-person is more powerful, but eComments are valuable and the only method many people can use.