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May 29, 2019

In This Issue

Safer Roads Don't Have to be Bigger Roads
What's Missing From Your Transit Parking Lot? Housing, Jobs, and Life
A Month of Pedal Power
How JUMP Changed My Life
Resources for our Members
What We're Reading
SACOG Updates

Quotable

“If you have a bad cold Friday night, by the time you see a medical professional three or four days later, you’re looking at possible hospital admission. In a rural community, the lack of transportation can literally be a death sentence.”

Valerie Lefler,
Executive Director and founder of the nonprofit Feonix: Mobility Rising

Safer Roads Don't Have to be Bigger Roads

Quick safety fixes coming for SR 70 between Marysville and Oroville

Caltrans is undertaking six near-term safety projects along SR 70 between Marysville and Oroville, which has long had a reputation as a dangerous road. There have been 42 fatalities on the 27 miles between the two cities in the last decade, making it 3.8 times deadlier than the average California highway.

Some local leaders and stakeholders have been pushing for the road to become a continuous four-lane facility between Marysville and Oroville but the project faces a funding gap. In the meantime, fatalities keep coming: there have been 20 since the start of 2017. READ MORE

What's Missing From Your Transit Parking Lot? Housing, Jobs, and Life

Expert panel delivers transit-oriented development recommendations

Train stations and the communities that surround them are interdependent so when the land uses around a train stop change, it can spell trouble for commuter rail.

That is what happened at Florin and Meadowview stations in South Sacramento, which were the final two stops on the line before SacRT’s light rail Blue Line was extended 4.3 miles south in 2015. That meant their large parking lots, which had been popular park-and-ride sites for light rail riders who lived south of the line, lost half of their passengers to the new southern-most stations of Cosumnes River College and Franklin. READ MORE

A Month of Pedal Power

As May is Bike Month spins down, we review the highlights

For all the fun, festivals, and miles pedaled during the 15th annual May is Bike Month, the first event of the month stands out for making the biggest impact on bike riding.

That event was the City of West Sacramento opening an extension to the Sycamore Trail. Connecting Michigan Boulevard to West Capitol Avenue, the trail provides a safe route for students in the neighborhood attending Westfield Elementary School. It served as a reminder that you can encourage people onto bikes all you like, but the best way to get people to bike is to make it easier and safer for them to do so. READ MORE

How JUMP Changed My Life

After a year, JUMP shows e-bikes are a “viable alternative to car trips”

Up until a year ago, Matthew Hargrove commuted to his downtown Sacramento job in his Ford F150 truck. It took him 25 minutes to travel from his West Sacramento home to work, including finding a parking spot and paying for it. Now “my commute on a JUMP Bike takes about 20 minutes and I don’t have to hassle with parking, get a little blood moving, and feel happy as I ride through my town.”

Convenience, health, and happiness. Those are compelling reasons to get out of a traffic jam and onto a bike and that’s even before you consider reasons civic leaders tend to endorse biking, such as reducing congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.

On the first anniversary of JUMP bikes being launched in Sacramento, West Sacramento, and Davis, we asked users of the bikeshare service how it had changed how they get around. READ MORE

City Innovate is inviting government agencies to join Startup in Residence (STIR), a network of local governments that help address civic challenges through emerging technologies.
The application deadline is June 30.