Sacramento is about to launch a way-cool way to pay for parking at the downtown train depot.
Starting next week, you can pay just by calling a number on your cell phone as you run to the train.
You won't have to stop at the pay kiosk for the time- consuming task of digging out coins or cards to stick in.
Instead, you dial an automated system, tell it which stall your car's in and how much time you want to pay for. It even will send you a text message later, warning you when your time is about to expire. You can call and buy more time.
If this actually works, just think: Maybe it could spread so that someday downtown Sacramento might be rid of parking meters and pay-and-display machines.
Old Sac parking experiment
For now, however, the city is adding one pay-and- display machine on a block of K Street in Old Sacramento.
If it works out, officials say, they may rip out Old Sac's 200-plus gray parking meters, which, they agree, are unsightly in the quasi- historic Gold Rush district.
Decking Interstate 5
For more than decade, the city has talked about building a deck over the sunken section of I-5 near Old Sac. Planners have conceptual drawings of parks and office buildings on a slab over the freeway.
Lately, they've backed off. A deck, they say, would be costly and awkward. But they're still determined to connect downtown better to the riverfront.
It starts this summer, when they will turn the old curving R Street railroad bridge into a pedestrian and bike crossing.
And they say they are just weeks from unveiling a new plan that may involve widening Capitol Mall and O Street over the freeway for pedestrians, and possibly extending N Street over the freeway.
Cars on K Street
Downtown officials haven't given up on cars, either. They're debating how best to bring traffic back to K Street, once upon a time Sacramento's main street.
The belief is that cars will bring more people and more life to the faded pedestrian mall. The questions now: Which blocks are suitable for cars? Should it be two lanes or more? One-way traffic or two? Should parking be allowed?
Finding that freeway ramp
You know how, as you approach some freeways, you're not sure which side of the street the on ramp is on – whether it's a looping ramp from the right lane or a straight ramp heading left from a left turn lane?
So, you try the middle lane, and pray you can squeeze right or left in traffic at the last minute when you see where the ramp is.
Caltrans feels your confusion. They want you to call them to help them put directional arrows in more intuitive spots on their signs.
If you live in the Sacramento region, dial (530) 741-5474 where Caltrans' Eric Alvarez is ready for your calls.
Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.
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