Creating a pedestrian-focused landscape is not easy, but one that Sacramento needs | Opinion
Sacramento pays lip service to creating safer streets for pedestrians and more options for transportation users. But elected leaders don’t take pedestrians seriously.
The car rules in Sacramento, to our detriment.
Take for instance a long-term plan for the city, the 2040 General Plan first initiated in 2019. It’s a commitment to prioritizing pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders over personal vehicle users. It also sets a goal to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2027.
In 2023, six years after that plan was created, the total number of pedestrian and cyclist deaths was at 25. That number grew to 32 in 2024. Progress on this plan is not looking good because the council and the city have not led with urgency to make progress. Creating a safer environment for active transportation users takes a huge commitment that the city currently lacks.
On Feb. 18, for example, the Sacramento City Council approved a bridge across the American River that connects South Natomas to downtown. The plan the council approved will include cars and light rail, along with room for pedestrians. It was a 7-1 vote that disregarded many voices in the city calling for a car-free plan for a bridge.
“To put a Truxel Bridge with vehicles down Truxel, history has taught us what that does and it’s basically modern-day redlining,” Councilmember Lisa Kaplan, the lone no vote on the council, said at the meeting. “So now you’re gonna bring more cars here that impact a community that should be able to safely cross the street. How are they gonna do that when more cars are there and you have Natomas High School and Discovery, Jefferson and Fanning Creek who are all within a walk off of Truxel?”
The sentiments Kaplan expressed would are closer to what Sacramento needs right now, a city where the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists are taken far more seriously.
Karina Talamantes, who represents South Natomas where the bridge will be located, voted for it because she wants her community to feel a part of downtown.
“What’s important to me, as a councilmember representing the communities living north of the river, is connectivity to downtown and our Railyards,” Talamantes said. “I feel like my community always feels excluded or they feel like we’re not part of Sacramento. My community deserves to be connected to downtown.”
Talamantes also believes the bridge will help emergency access and bring more job opportunities.
The Truxel Bridge is not the only battle in the fight for a more pedestrian-focused Sacramento, but its defeat signals that the council is comfortable ignoring the request of a city commission for a pedestrian bridge to instead appease drivers who have many ways to get around the city.
There are proponents of the bridge that say that it will reduce traffic. Well, you tell me how much alleviation another bridge will have at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday. Rush hour will still be rush hour and traffic will still be there.
The need for a pedestrian bridge forever
Thirty-eight of the 56 people who made public comments during the February 18 council meeting wanted the city to consider a car-free option for a bridge. Most argued that it would be cheaper to build. If you look at some of the pedestrian bridges that have been built, they aren’t entirely wrong.
One main example is the Guy West Bridge in East Sacramento. Cost about $636,000 to build in 1967, which is equivalent to about $5,810,000 in today’s dollars. Granted that building Guy West today may cost more than that, but any Truxel pedestrian crossing will cost far less than the $500 million projected to build the Truxel Bridge.
Sacramentans need safe passage on bikes and foot. This would make going into the Railyards much more inviting because it will be a lot safer.
“Drivers in Natomas and the central city already have an adjacent way to cross the river and back,” Z, a member of the Sunrise movement said on Tuesday, “walkers and bikers do not.”
Outside of this, the city made a concerted effort, a pledge to Sacramentans to create a safer city for all modes of transportation and so far it hasn’t been kept.
City needs to make good on their plan
Drivers are the kings in Sacramento’s layout. They are the ones who are calling the shots. A bridge that gives pedestrians and bicyclists a much safer way to travel may seem like a lot but in reality, it’s crumbs.
Creating a landscape for active transportation users is vital to the safety and well being for everyone. It will take more than a bridge.
It is great to see that on Tuesday the city’s Budget and Audit Committee approved a new road safety program that can hopefully reduce deaths on our most dangerous roads.
Quite frankly, with a Truxel car bridge costing in the half-billion-dollar range and the new Trump Administration zeroing in on California, don’t expect federal funding for this any time soon, if ever. What this is about is holding the council and city responsible.
To honor the 2040 general plan that has more and more Sacramentans out of their cars.
