Sacramento streets aren’t safe for people of color. It’s not an accident
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Sacramento’s Dangerous Streets
Black pedestrians die at a disproportionate rate in Sacramento County traffic accidents — and the number of victims is growing, according to the latest state and federal data.
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Sacramento streets aren’t safe for people of color. It’s not an accident
Being Black in Sacramento means you’re more likely to suffer from asthma, die in child birth and be killed by simply walking down the street.
“Equity” is paraded on company websites and it’s at the tip of everyone’s tongue, but we still have a very long way to go. Lack of health equity in the built environment continues to disproportionately harm communities of color and Black people specifically. At the end of the day, skin color determines where you live; it determines access to jobs and education and, ultimately, it determines your ability to live a long, healthy life.
As a Black woman and the executive director of WALKSacramento, a nonprofit dedicated to improving quality of life and health equity through policy changes in land use, transportation and community development, I’m acutely aware that the design of our neighborhoods, streets and public spaces are not safe for people who look like me.
I’m not just talking about police brutality and violence. It’s also about the racism that has been embedded in every aspect of our lives, from our systems and institutions to the built environment and design practices.
We know that distracted drivers, larger vehicles and high speeds pose a significant threat to pedestrians everywhere. We also know that quality infrastructure isn’t equitably distributed in Sacramento, as fatal traffic injuries happen most in our disadvantaged communities — where there is typically less access to vehicles, greater reliance on active transportation and generations of under-investment in quality infrastructure.
In 2018, the city of Sacramento’s Vision Zero Action Plan identified that a disproportionate number of the most severe crashes occur in the city’s disadvantaged communities, and that 35% of corridors with the highest levels of fatal and serious crashes were within these same communities.
The city also assessed the top five most dangerous corridors, including Marysville Boulevard, El Camino Avenue, Broadway/Stockton Boulevard, South Stockton Boulevard, and Florin Road — all of which are located in communities that have higher populations of Black people, Latinos and other marginalized groups.
This disparity is not just specific to Sacramento. A damning report recently published by Smart Growth America highlighted that Black pedestrians were struck by drivers at rates 82% higher than whites, and that disparity for Indigenous residents jumped up to more than 220%. This is not a coincidence or an accident — it’s by design.
This is the result of redlining, racist decisions in land use, white supremacist culture, and the notion that the lives and livelihood of Black people do not matter. It is the system working exactly as it was intended to and, yet again, it comes at the expense of communities of color.
Sacramento County has declared racism a public health crisis. While we are making progress, we still have much to reckon with.
We need policies, practices and planning processes that intentionally and respectfully address past and current harms to communities of color. We need to start addressing root causes instead of simply tending to the symptoms. We need to reckon with the fact that our roads are designed to prioritize vehicular movement at the expense of human life, specifically the lives of Black residents and other ethnic and racial groups.
WALKSacramento will continue to advocate for these necessary changes and work closely with community members to ensure that the region’s efforts not only address pressing safety issues, but support equity, health and sustainability so that we can co-create neighborhoods where everyone — regardless of identity, income or ability — can safely get where they need to go.