- Introduction
Inspired by a 2002 presentation to the City Council by Dan Burden of Walkable Communities on the importance of great streets and how to build them, Sacramento has been moving forward to enhance the city’s pedestrian environment, beautify neighborhoods, and encourage alternate transportation modes. The city recently adopted new Pedestrian Friendly Street Standards for new streets, and has already employed several strategies to make existing streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
- Goal/Problem/Challenge
During the last ten years, the Sacramento region has grown considerably and is projected to add 1.7 million more people between the years 2000 and 2050 (SACOG Base Case, 2000). Much of this development has been automobile oriented; low-density housing, strip malls, parking lots, and office parks connected by wide arterial and collector streets. In many cases, these new areas lack crucial pedestrian amenities that make them unappealing and in some cases dangerous places to walk or bike. In light of worsening air quality, pedestrian safety, and neighborhood livability issues, Sacramento policymakers have begun to redesign the city’s streets and sidewalks so more people can walk, bike, and take transit.
- Approach
Following the 2002 presentation to the City Council by Dan Burden of Walkable Communities, Mayor Heather Fargo asked the city’s public works department to design streets that promote alternate modes of transportation. This request led to a number of programs that aimed to retrofit older streets, and design new streets to be more pedestrian friendly.
At select signalized intersections, the city installed marked crosswalks on all approaches, stop bars to keep cars from stopping in crosswalks, signal lead-time for pedestrians. The city also has required some traffic calming measures in new development areas (traffic circles, roundabouts, pedestrian islands, bulbouts, and high visibility sidewalks). The city plans to convert some of downtown’s three-lane, one-way streets back into two-way streets.
Additionally, the city recently adopted cutting edge street design standards for new streets of all types, from local residential to six-lane arterials. Following these standards, new streets in Sacramento will be narrower to calm traffic and create more walkable neighborhoods and commercial areas. The standards specify 30-foot local residential street widths and reduced travel lane widths on collectors and arterials. All streets are required to have 6 ½ foot planter strips between the curb and sidewalk, creating a buffer between cars and pedestrians. The parkway strips also provide space for trees, upholding Sacramento’s tradition of classic tree-lined streets.
Other features to improve walking and biking conditions include vertical curbs instead of rolled curbs, wider sidewalks and wider bike lanes. Vertical curbs prevent cars from parking on sidewalks and rolling over sidewalks to make turns. The standards increase minimum sidewalk widths on residential streets to five feet, allowing two people to walk comfortably side by side. Bike lanes are required on all collector and arterial streets and are widened to six feet, giving riders more distance from cars and decreasing the likelihood that the lane will be blocked by garbage cans or landscape debris piled at the curb for pick up. The extra margin of safety is especially important on arterial streets where car speeds are increased.
The new street standards brought about several design issues for consideration. A few council members expressed concern that the new standards would hinder infill development if they were too stringent. As a result, the new standards allow for special modifications to be made to allow redevelopment projects to fit into a particular situation. Street width was also a concern both with regard to the movement of large vehicles and to traffic calming. The public works department decided to research the effectiveness of street narrowing on travel speed, and found that street narrowing alone was not enough to limit vehicle speeds. They determined that a combination of narrower streets, terminating vistas (streets that end with a view of another home), and shorter block lengths would be most effective in controlling vehicle speed.
- Progress
While Sacramento’s new street standards were just passed in February 2004, a handful of residential developments and 10-15 commercial projects have already begun implementing them.
- Lessons Learned
During the process of crafting and adopting the new pedestrian friendly street standards, public works officials learned a few valuable lessons. While developers were willing to narrow streets, they were opposed to building larger rights-of-way. Since the new standards include wider bike lanes and planter strips, some of the rights-of-way are larger under the new standards. The local bicycle advocacy group also surprised city officials by advocating for a smaller gutter pan (5’ instead of 6’) to help narrow the right-of-way. Public works officials figured that an extra foot would not do much to slow traffic and would not be as safe as a wider bike lane.
Another lesson had to do with public outreach and education surrounding the new street standards. After initial confusion, the public works department realized the importance of clearly stating who would be responsible for what, and how the new standards would be applied. To help with this, the public works department created implementation recommendations for developers. City officials found it valuable to approach developers for input but made it clear that the new standards were not negotiable.
Finally, the political support of the mayor and city council helped propel the new street standards forward. Their support also helped smooth over many of the concerns from the development community.
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Safer Streets, Sidewalks and Trails
