What are the busiest streets in Sacramento County? Some have freeway-level traffic
Arden Arcade, Fair Oaks and Carmichael have some of the most traveled roads in unincorporated Sacramento County, records in Sacramento County’s Open Data Portal show — and freeway-level traffic on surface streets concentrates around designated highways.
Watt Avenue at the American River Bridge, which spans from Arden Arcade to the city of Sacramento’s College/Glen neighborhood, had the highest vehicle counts. On March 3, 2023 — a Friday — the county clocked 94,946 passing through in a 24-hour period. The bridge is just north of the Highway 50 ramps and is the conduit between other major thoroughfares like Fair Oaks Boulevard and Folsom Boulevard.
Sunrise Boulevard, Greenback Lane, Florin Road and Hazel Avenue were also among the most-traveled roads, according to the data published by the county.
Caltrans, which built and maintains the state’s express lanes, had intended to build three freeways through the unincorporated communities east of Sacramento. What’s now unsigned Highway 244 — a freeway stub that ends abruptly at Auburn Boulevard — was intended to link Interstate 80, the Capital City Freeway and Watt Avenue with Highway 50.
The freeways would have sliced generally east through Arden Arcade, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Gold River and Orangevale, linking Roseville and Highway 65 from the north with Highway 50 in the south. The third would have created a link between that and what eventually became of Interstate 80.
However, as The Sacramento Bee reported, in the 1970s, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan declined to raise the gas tax, which undermined road construction funding. At the same time, many residents, especially in Carmichael, strongly objected to the highways.
By 1976, the plans were scuttled.
Yet community development remained car-dependent. In the absence of those highways, traffic surges up and down gargantuan surface streets. Seven of the 10 busiest intersections on the busiest roads lie on north-south thoroughfares leading to and from Interstate 80 or Highway 50.
Which 10 roads had the most traffic?
The county generally measured traffic levels over 24-hour periods at multiple locations along each road that was studied. These are the 10 locations with the highest measured traffic on these thoroughfares:
Watt Avenue at the American River Bridge, which flows to Highway 50: 94,946 vehicles
Sunrise Boulevard at the American River Bridge, which flows to Highway 50: 77,864 vehicles
Greenback Lane at Garfield Avenue, which flows to Interstate 80: 72,463 vehicles
Florin Road at Highway 99: 66,625 vehicles
Hazel Avenue at the American River Bridge, which flows to Highway 50: 57,674 vehicles
Bradshaw Road and Highway 50: 55,748 vehicles
Elkhorn Boulevard and Diablo Drive, which flows to Interstate 80: 55,636 vehicles
South Watt Avenue and Folsom Boulevard, which flows to Highway 50: 52,866 vehicles
Madison Avenue at Manzanita Avenue, which flows to Interstate 80: 51,513 vehicles
Stockton Boulevard at Elsie Avenue, immediately next to Highway 99: 47,147 vehicles
The high traffic levels also correspond with some of the county’s most dangerous roads. Watt Avenue is especially treacherous for pedestrians: Data from UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System shows in a decade through 2023, more than 80 drivers struck pedestrians on Watt and severely injured or killed them.
On Madison Avenue, the Transportation Injury Mapping System shows more than 40 crashes that severely injured or killed pedestrians over the same 10 years.
Additionally, Sacramento Regional Transit light rail stations let out passengers onto some of the most high-traffic roads in the county. Four light rail stations are within two miles of the top 10 highest-traffic locations in unincorporated areas. South Watt Avenue’s light rail station is right at the busiest intersection on that street. Stations on Hazel, Florin and Sunrise are between two-thirds of a mile and two miles from the top 10 areas for traffic volume.
Sacramento County’s Department of Transportation maintains about 4,700 miles of road in unincorporated areas.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
