Sacramento Slow Streets

The City of Sacramento is implementing a pilot program, called “Slow & Active Streets,” to promote more bicycle and pedestrian use of neighborhood streets by restricting through vehicular travel. The pilot project ends April 30th, 2021 – when it’s barely gotten started.

If you agree that it should continue (and we do!), please send your comment(s) to the City.

Comment now

We hope the success of this slow streets pilot will encourage the City to start “slow streets” in other neighborhoods.

Learn more about it on the City of Sacramento’s website.

There was recently an article in the Sacramento City Express about it. Click here to read the article.

Here is a map.

‘Pure magic’: A street in the Haight closed to traffic becomes the stage for professional cello concerts

May 20, 2020
By Heather Knight
The San Francisco Chronicle

[Shuttering traffic] creates a giant front yard to mingle from 6 feet apart with neighbors who too often go unmet in our busy city. It gives kids, many of whom live in little apartments with no outdoor space, an area near their homes to play. And it creates a stage for whimsical, wonderful things to happen — like live concerts and in-the-street picnics.

Click here to read the full article.

Open Sac Streets for Social Distancing – Presentation May 26

ECOS will be holding our board meeting on Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm virtually. We invite you to join us for the following presentation.

Presentation: Slow Streets Pilot Project, City of Sacramento

Due to the pandemic, we are driving less, and walking and biking more. Many cities have blocked or restricted traffic on streets so walkers and bikers have more room. Also, when restaurants open, they will need to space out patrons – ideally out onto some streets. San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles have embraced “Slow Streets”. How can we get that here?
Speakers: Jennifer Donlon Wyant, City of Sacramento Transportation Planning Manager; and Debra Banks, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, Executive Officer.

Click here to learn more about Slow Streets Sacramento, and for opportunities to take action now: https://www.walksacramento.org/slow-streets-sacramento/

Zoom Meeting ID: 818 6537 7865
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81865377865
Call-in: 1-669-900-6833
No password.

Feel free to share with your networks!

Click here to view the meeting agenda.

ECOS Board Meetings

Join the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) at the ECOS Board of Directors meeting! These meetings are a great place to network with fellow environmentalists and to keep up with the latest local environmental successes and challenges.

ECOS will be holding our board meeting on Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm virtually. We invite you and anyone interested to join us for the following presentation.

Slow Streets Sacramento

May 1, 2020

Over 30 cities around the world have taken action to prioritize streets for pedestrians and bicyclists in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s time for Sacramento to join.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our daily life, including how we move and what transportation we chose to do it with. Our streets and green spaces are more active than ever with residents walking and biking for transportation to essential jobs, groceries, and for physical and mental health. But our sidewalks throughout the City are too narrow to support safe social distancing, and serious infrastructure gaps in sidewalk and bike networks further reduce the ability of residents to walk and bike safely during stay at home orders.

ECOS has joined forces with Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, WALKSacramento and others to call upon the City of Sacramento to partially or fully close streets in order to keep residents safe from COVID-19, create more local public space, and continue providing safe access to essential businesses and services. Click here to read the official letter to the CIty of Sacramento.

We realize this is a challenging time of disruption, and that while everyone is pondering and planning for the “new normal” our hope is to encourage the City to expedite many of the plans it already has in place to create a cleaner, safer Sacramento for all ages and abilities, now and in the future.

Take Action

The time is NOW to stand up for Slow Streets.

Click here for three ways you can help.

Will local officials listen on 2020 transportation measure?

December 10, 2019
By David Mogavero (Former ECOS President)
Sacramento News and Review

What Transportation Measure?

In the next several weeks, our elected officials are writing a measure for the November 2020 ballot to levy a sales tax for transportation funding in Sacramento County.

How You Can Help!

Go to sacta.org/a_board.html, find the name of your elected representative who sits on the board and call, email, text or ask them for a meeting.
Tell them:
– You don’t want more roads, but want more transit and safer streets for bicycling and walking.
– You won’t be fooled by a measure that funds the road project down the street (that your neighbor told the pollsters they like) but sacrifices the quality of our county’s future
– You will only support a transportation measure that moves our community to a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future.
-This is most critical for those who live outside of the city of Sacramento, including in Citrus Heights, Arden Arcade, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove and North Highlands, etc.
– Please contact your representative now and voice your concerns. By February, it may be too late.

Read the full article here.

Photo Courtesy of Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA)

Editor’s note: A bridge to somewhere

By Foon Rhee
May 23, 2019
Sacramento News and Review

The I Street Bridge is 108 years old and rusty, and it rattles when a train passes over it. So, yes, a new span over the Sacramento River is way overdue. But the new bridge is not just another important transportation link between Sacramento and West Sacramento. It’s also an opportunity to make a design statement for the region.

The current I Street Bridge will stay open. The lower deck will continue to be used for passenger and freight trains, while the upper deck will be closed to vehicles and be converted into a pedestrian and bike path. The new bridge is just up river and will connect Railyards Boulevard on the edge of downtown Sacramento, and C Street in the Washington neighborhood in West Sacramento.

Click here to view the full article.