Dangerous roads in Sacramento could see fast safety improvements after unanimous council vote
The Sacramento City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to staff a team that will rapidly improve infrastructure on targeted sections of dangerous roads — a move that could represent a turning point in the effort to end fatal crashes.
With the council’s approval, the Department of Public Works will begin recruiting and hiring almost immediately for the $4.6 million “quick-build” infrastructure program called the Vision Zero Transportation Safety Team. The new six-person crew will design and implement targeted, low-cost and safety-enhancing features within months. Reporting by The Sacramento Bee has shown that residents often wait years — even decades — for road safety improvements due to the city’s reliance on grant funding.
The team would be “innovative” and “responsive,” Department of Public Works Director Matt Eierman told the council. “We are focused on moving from planning to action.”
The unusually full bike racks outside City Hall preceded an energetic public meeting. The audience applauded after Megan Carter, the city’s traffic engineer, presented her slideshow, and all 25 speakers during public comment expressed support for the plan. Mayor Kevin McCarty said from the dais that he had never seen a standing ovation for a staff presentation in chambers.
Alyssa Lee, an organizer with Strong SacTown, told the council, “Quick-builds can and should be our No. 1 priority to address the fatality crisis on our roads in a cheap, quick way, and really listen and act with the urgency the crisis demands.”
The Transportation Safety Team will use existing non-grant transportation funds for the projects. This funding model, along with the emphasis on quick and relatively low-cost improvements, will allow the Department of Public Works to address safety concerns on some roads in a timely manner. Carter said she expects the new team would bring each project through the planning, design and implementation phases in three to six months.
The team “will address the need to change our approach to transportation safety and scale up our efforts to respond to traffic fatalities,” Carter said.
Most serious crashes are preventable through road design that slows vehicle speeds. The city committed to a Vision Zero pledge in 2017, promising to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2027. Since then, more than 300 people have died on city streets. Until now, Sacramento had no established mechanism for making rapid infrastructure changes to dangerous roads, even after people have died.
In 2024, The Bee documented 32 people who died in collisions and the city’s limited response. So far this year, The Bee has reported on the deaths of five people on city streets: Najah Islam, 30, who is survived by her toddler; Jonathon T. Slaugh, 62; Adrienne Keyana Johnson, 33; Cornelius Jesse, 59; and a male pedestrian whose name has not yet been released by the coroner. The fifth person died Tuesday morning along Northgate Boulevard, hours before the council vote.
Public Works stated the Vision Zero team is being launched “in response to concerns about traffic safety.”
In sharing their approval of the plan before the vote, several members of the council said the county also needed a new transportation measure on the 2026 ballot to fund road safety improvements, and Councilmember Caity Maple, who championed the quick-build program, emphasized that this was a first step. She and others called for more funding.
“I want to celebrate,” Councilmember Mai Vang said. But, she added, “If active transportation is a public safety issue that we talk a big game about, then we have to make sure that we actually allocate our general funding for that.”
How will the program fix Sacramento’s dangerous roads?
The new program will work toward the city’s Vision Zero goals, but will not replace the many large-scale plans already adopted by officials.
One to three of the Transportation Safety Team’s projects each year will dovetail with larger Vision Zero projects, creating a cheaper, less durable interim version of planned permanent improvements.
The city has previously tested similar stopgap measures. One example is the installation of lane reductions and plastic barriers at Broadway and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard following multiple crashes into the senior apartments on the southeast corner. That project cost about $60,000, a department engineer said.
Public Works will hire six people for the quick-build team: a full-time supervising engineer, three engineers to work under that person, as well as a traffic investigator and an administrative analyst. The team will receive $2 million of existing non-grant transportation funds and utilize $2.6 million from the existing state gas tax and Measure A county transportation funds. The department did not ask for any new funds amid the city’s ongoing budget deficit.
To accelerate construction, the council agreed to exempt the team from the standard competitive bidding process. Instead, the city will pre-approve contractors by service type and call on them as needed. Any contract over $250,000 will still require council approval.
Before the vote, the council received a separate funding request from the Active Transportation Commission, which advises on pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. The group asked for $8.1 million in the next city budget to fund its safety priorities. The request, submitted via the consent calendar, did not require discussion.
Isaac Gonzalez, the founder of Slow Down Sacramento and the vice chair of the city commission, asked the council directly to prioritize funding it, even amid the $44.1 million shortfall.
“Investments in active transportation are not optional — they are foundational,” he said. “We cannot afford to delay.”
