chair staffs reading when you are

good evening welcome to the may 15th 2025 active transportation commission the meeting is now

called to order will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum thank you chair

commissioners please unmute commissioner harris is absent commissioner gibson here

commissioner wadwani is absent commissioner lidecker here vice chair gonzalez

present commissioner hop commissioner hyatt here commissioner moore here commissioner cruz is

absent commissioner binks is absent and chair hoddell here thank you we have a quorum

i would like to remind members of the public in chambers that if you would like to speak on an

agenda item please turn in a speaker slip when the item begins you will have two minutes to speak

once you are called on after the first speaker we will no longer accept speaker slips we will now

proceed with today's agenda please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of sacramento's

indigenous people and tribal lands to the original people of this land the nisanon people the southern

maidu valley and plains miwok patwin winton peoples and the people of the wilton rancheria

sacramento's only federally recognized tribe may we acknowledge and honor the native people who came

before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together

today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for sacramento's indigenous people's history

contributions and lives thank you please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance

allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands

one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all

going to change things up just a little bit tonight the first item tonight will be public comments matters not on the agenda

clerk are there any members of the public who wish to speak on public comments matters not on the agenda

thank you chair i have nine speaker slips our first speaker is flow

good evening active transportation commissioners my name is dr flo cofer i am a former active transportation commissioner and currently a community mother with the just like a mom program at new technology early college high school i'm here this evening with students from the school to share a concern we have about student safety

many students at new tech take the bus using the free rt program in order to access the bus stop

students have to cross four lanes of high-speed traffic on freeport boulevard there is no traffic light

or traffic calming device to help stop the cars and ensure that the students can traverse the intersection safely

and for students with disabilities this intersection presents heightened safety concerns

on more than one occasion students have had near miss collisions the significance of which is not lost on me someone already died at this intersection in 2017

i also happen to live near the intersection where michelle marie

a west campus high school student was hit and killed in 2012

to my understanding michelle and other students at west campus were advocating for a light at the intersection

and it wasn't until after her death that one was installed

simply stated i do not believe that kids should have to die for us to improve our road safety

the good news is that the city is working on this issue

i want to especially thank megan carter and jennifer donlin wyatt

and their colleagues for this groundwork

i'm pleased that this intersection is part of the city's freeport boulevard transportation plan

and that as part of the short-term improvements a traffic signal is in final design

the bad news the work is still too far from finished the city will not seek bids for construction until late fall

which means construction won't begin until summer 2026

allowing another school year to pass without safety improvements

means that we will have kids at risk for the entirety of the next school year

my request tonight is for this commission to put an item on your june meeting agenda

to request that the city council accelerate the implementation timeline

so the light can be installed this summer before students return in august

and if that isn't feasible we ask

thank you for your comment your time is now up

thank you so much

thank you and our next speaker is dylan

hello board

um i uh am a student at new technology high school

i'm a senior and i'm to graduate in june

and i am very concerned about this crosswalk

um since the beginning of my senior year

i've started taking this crosswalk a lot more frequently

and it is very clear that is is a dangerous crosswalk

it is not fun to cross for me or my peers

on many occasions um cars at high speeds have almost hit me and my friends

on one specific occasion i've had people honk at me

when i'm crossing the crosswalk which is

very yeah and um i'd like to address this because it's

it's really dangerous and i'm very scared for these um

um students in the future crossing this crosswalk because

without a traffic safety device there

people are going to get hit it's not a matter of if

it's a matter of when and i'm very worried about that

as that is why i'm here to bring this to your guys's attention

thank you

thank you for your comment our next speaker is israel

hello board my name is israel i'm a senior at new technology high school

and as uh everyone here we want to talk about

the fact that this crosswalk uh personally has been used a lot for me

if i want to go to take the courses move around sacramento i'd use the bus

and every time i go into this uh crosswalk trying to pass the traffic into the

bus stop i'm faced with uh that i have to wait until the cars

uh there's a opportunity for me to cross and there's been multiple times that i've

been caught in the middle uh of the cars passing by and i have to wait

for uh them to stop coming or either they actually want to stop and um they left

there waiting uh until that's the case and it's really

unsafe knowing that there's cars going at high speeds

both directions and i find that to be really unsafe not for me for everyone that's

using the same uh crosswalk asked me because it's a necessity that we have a way of

transportation that we rely on if we want to go to one point to another point

and that's why uh i want to uh bring light to this because it's a really

important matter for me for my friends that hasn't faced uh uh it's very bad

opportunities there so yeah thank you

thank you for your comment our next speaker is hunter

these ones they fed back a lot but hello my name is hunter alan usain i am an outgoing senior at

sacramento new technology high school and like everyone here behind me i do want to bring to the

concern of this crosswalk from a person with disabilities perspective

to be very clear i will never stand again and that is something that will affect me for the rest of

my life and how that also affects me was on this crosswalk i used to take this crosswalk from like

sophomore to the beginning of senior year i actually refuse to take it now because i'm i have been

running to too many close calls regarding getting hit by a vehicle i believe this is a very solvable

issue and i am glad and thrilled it is being solved even after we had to celebrate the lives of two

people what doesn't throw me as someone previously mentioned flow is that it will take another year for

this to be like this new traffic light our solution to be fully implemented what i ask is when you're

considering uh the next agenda you put a stop sign or something that should be cost effective so at

least drivers know to slow down and not continue crossing or where students have to keep waiting

on the sidewalk for our car to stop and then all the other cars to stop thank you that is all i have for

you thank you for your comment our next speaker is miranda

hello board my name is miranda navarro miranda and i'm a senior at new technology high school um i have

to take this crosswalk like at least four or three times a week since um i first started senior year right

and i've i've um i go to this crosswalk actually with my friends so thankfully i'm not walking alone

but um there's been way too many times that me and my friends have almost been hit by speeding vehicles

this is unacceptable children should not be in danger of a very solvable problem um throughout my life

i've been to only sacramento public schools and i've known many children who have been hit and died

from unsafe roads with very solvable issues which is just implementing a little bit more traffic safety

like lights stop signs speed bumps and i believe that today with hearing our voices maybe something

more can be done more can be done i want to recall a time where i was able to cross the crosswalk first

and one of my friends was on crutches and um i had to ask the bus driver to please wait for them

because one friend who was able and another one who was in crutches could not cross the street

because people kept speeding so the one little window that they got i had to see my friend on crutches

attempt to run across the crosswalk which was no one should need to see their friend doing that right

so i come here in front of you guys today to please hear what we are saying and install a traffic light

there thank you thank you for your comment our next speaker is wendy

good evening um i am a teacher at sacramento new tech and now i've lost my notes okay i'm just gonna

wing it um so as mentioned earlier um we've already lost a student on that road um from a distracted driver

speeding driver um this young man was in a car and we all drive on this road and it's um it's very very

dangerous and so you can only imagine how much more dangerous it is for our pedestrians for our young

students who are just trying to get to school who are just trying to get home who are just trying to

go to college who have dreams and aspirations and they're taking a risk every single day walking on that

road we've lost too many lives we don't need to wait for another one i am here today to plead with you

to please um get in a traffic light a stop sign a speed bump so that our students can have a future thank you

thank you for your comment our next speaker is evan

so every tuesday i have to cross freeport and kitchener to get to the bus stop to make it to my

in-person lecture at sac city college because the dual enrollment program and while i have a strategy

for crossing this road every time i do i feel as if even the slightest second of inattention puts me at

risk of serious injury and or maybe death i should not have to feel this every week and i propose

it's it's a bus stop on the side of the other on the side of the street a lot in like a run down

sort of other no crosswalk no safety light no not even a stop sign nothing but two four lanes

of non-slowed cars and a single curb that serves as a checkpoint

and again i am always nervous to cross the road when i do the carpet and the little curb i have

that thin slice of cement is the only thing that it secures me and keeps me safe and i

i need more we need more i don't want people for years for the next years to have to feel at risk

of death just across the road they take to get to the college so i propose like flo said any kind of

traffic slowing device thank you

thank you thank you for your comment our next speaker is jessica

hello members of the active transportation commission my name is jessica martin and i'm

the principal at sacramento new technology early college high school the school is located in the

freeport manor neighborhood in southland park i'm here to share a concern for the safety of my students

who use the rt bus to travel to sac city college and to and from their homes to get to school

we are in dire need of a traffic slowing device at the intersection of freeport and kitchener where

my students have to cross to get to a bus stop i have heard from far too many of my students on how they

have already been struck nearly struck by speeding vehicles that do not stop to allow them to cross and

distracted drivers that aren't paying attention the current painted crosswalk is not enough

without a stop sign flashing beacon or speed hump cars do not reliably slow down

i request that you agendize this issue and help us advocate for the safety of our students

as an early college high school 90 of our students will use this bus more than twice a day traveling not

only to and from the school the high school but also to the college we need a solution now before it's too late

and we're being reactionary after a funeral instead of proactively protecting our youth now thank you

thank you for your comment and our last speaker is michael

good evening uh active transportation commissioners my name is michael barnbaum i am not affiliated with

uh new technology high school but the reason i am here is because i am one of your colleagues over on the

disabilities advisory commission uh which meets the first wednesday in this chamber at 5 30 p.m

uh you heard from the speakers as did we uh earlier this month um the bad news is

you have something known as the brown act and let me explain the bad news uh the bad news on the brown act

is you are uh by law not allowed to take any action or do anything in regards to a matter that is not on

uh a publicized agenda uh in the 72 hour uh rule of posting an agenda but the good news is the brown act

you're like what are you talking about there is a tool in the brown act that you can use

which you can make a motion to get a topic that you heard that was not on the agenda onto your next agenda

and that is what the first speaker uh dr flo cofer mentioned is a motion to get this on the next agenda

to accelerate a traffic light to be at this intersection because we all in this room believe

more is possible for our students and the residents of sacramento sacramento county and this region

we don't want to wake up to local news that matters and hear that there's going to be a celebration of

life ceremony so i second the motion from earlier and ask you to do the same thank you

thank you for your comment and we have one more speaker this is our last speaker tomiko

thank you for allowing me to speak so as a former parent of new tech and a future auntie of new

tech i just wanted to come and say how important this is i used to take my daughter to school every day

and there used to be a memorial bike in that area in that crossing area so i wanted to make sure that you

guys understand the importance of this this measure that we're talking about and as a person whose

family is grieving someone who recently this month in another district was hit and run was killed by a

hit and run driver i just want to make sure that you are understanding the gravity that we are talking

about when we're talking about kids and living their lives and that's all i want to say thank you very much

thank you for your comment chair i have no more speaker slips on this item

thank you um i have one commissioner in the speaker queue that i'm going to call on commissioner helped

thank you chair um first welcome back dr flo let me ask uh ms donlin wyatt is this something that we

can put on our agenda for next month or do we even have a meeting next month for some reason i have it

i believe i have mine scratched uh line through uh first let me check i'm pretty sure we have a meeting

next month i think it's the second thursday instead of the third thursday um because we like to keep

you on your toes okay that explains it is it is on my calendar for the second thursday and so to your

question of whether or not you can agendize it so your purview includes advising on the implementation

criteria and priority of improvements however this is already an improvement and this has to do more so

with the ability for our partners in engineering services who do the design and implementation for

them to finish the design which is not yet done and order the signal which we don't have and signals take

anywhere between six and nine months from when we order them to when they arrive so while you could

adjust it would have to be a commission-led item with a commission staff report where you could conceivably

say we're going to write a letter to staff saying we'd like you to prioritize that and that is your

purview i do also want to share some i think good news is that your advocacy has been heard um and um our

our traffic engineering team which is separate than our engineering team that builds stuff and you know we

just want to confuse you more keep you on your toes between engineering and traffic engineering um our

traffic engineering team with our city traffic engineer megan carter who flo mentioned or dr flo mentioned

um is working on a quick build solution and so her megan carter our city traffic engineer's goal is to

identify some sort of improvement that can be done at this intersection as an interim while our partners

in engineering services finish the design and um and move forward with the full the full build out one of

the other things we're going to do is talk to rt to see if there are any options that they can do to also help

improve the outcome of that so um staff have heard you and using the tools that we have we're going to see what we can

do to make some improvements well thank you you've answered several questions that i had there i try to

be helpful um and i will say this is a particularly scary portion of freeport boulevard um having

frequented freak often and um there definitely needs to be some level of protection there that does not

exist now and there was a bicyclist believed killed there a few years ago in a hit and run accident

and as far as i know i don't believe the driver's ever been caught but it's it's not not a great place

to have to walk or ride a bike so if there's anything we can do to increase increase the priority

of it i'm certainly in favor of that commissioner uh hyatt

thank you chair hodell um first just real quick to the commissioners you received some um papers the

only the letter from flow is related to this specific topic the rest comes for uh later so just

wanted to give you that heads up um and thank you to all of you students for coming out and bringing this

very very important topic to our attention um i stand in full solidarity with you i went to sac city

college myself i'm a car free ride my bike and i uh i hear you and that's what i'm up here trying to

fight for for exactly what you guys are are asking for today so um and if there's any way that we can

possibly try to move things forward um i'm all all for that um i'm happy to hear about this uh potential

quick build that we can get um get going um right away um and uh just thank you all for for coming and

bringing this to uh the attention and engaging with your local government because this is exactly how we can

uh move the levers of government to to work for us so my i tip my cap to you thank you so much

commissioner lidiker thank you chair i also wanted to just thank the speakers for bringing this to our

attention i for one was not aware of this issue and i live very close to this intersection and drive

through there all the time um so thanks a lot i was just wondering if anybody knows the speed limit on

free port at that intersection um sort of seems like a relevant bit of information 40 i'm seeing

yeah okay thanks i'm i won't comment on that but shortly after uh short just south of there

the try the speed limit increases to something like 50 and so people do

uh at least coming north don't necessarily slow down

thank you very much for coming tonight and sharing your thoughts and concerns uh we really

appreciate hearing from you we are now going to proceed with the next item on our agenda which is

the commission staff report staff you may proceed one thing we've neglected to mention that um former

chair and commissioner tomiko haim is in the house she didn't recognize herself as a former

commissioner former chair but i wanted to acknowledge her and her presence we have two former commissioners

speaking on this item a couple in the audience but i just wanted to acknowledge

that um even if you're not on commission anymore you still can contribute to

um active transportation in sacramento so my updates are brief if i can open them because i think i just

closed them hold on ah sorry i i i know right i'm keeping too many people on their shows save the date

who here has signed up for our transportation newsletter who has not if you have not and would like to know

about our transportation newsletter over here jeff jelsma's got a fancy little doohickey with a qr code

you can sign the qr code and sign up for our newsletter and if you got our newsletter you'd

know that every year for may is bike month we host a may is bike month ride with city staff

and so our ride will be on may 28th and if you sign up for the newsletter you'll be notified and you

can sign up for the newsletter sign up for the bike ride we'll do a short ride around the grid we meet

here at city hall and then we end up at some place with food and beverage so please join us on the 28th

and then my only other item is to share with the commission that on tuesday city council approved

the work zone t to our policy that will be effective september 1st we need time to train up our city staff

and teams on how what the policy is and how to implement that so thank you for your advocacy thank you

mr allison thank you mr hopped for keeping us on track and reminding us to continue to move that forward i'm

i'm very pleased that that has been approved and with that chair that is my update thank you thank you

next is approval of the consent calendar clerk are there any members of the public who wish to speak

on the consent calendar thank you chair i have no speaker slips on this item thank you are there any

commissioners who wish to speak on this item if not i could use a motion move to approve the consent agenda

uh let me go to commissioner littiker first sorry i just had a question about procedure so we're right

at the quorum so how many uh yes votes do we need to pass the um consent we have a quorum because the

meeting started right yeah yeah so i mean how many yes votes do we need to pass you need seven to pass

mic mic a majority of the president a majority of the commissioners that are present okay thank you

okay i believe we have a motion from commissioner helped to approve the consent agenda may i have a second

thank you commissioner uh hyatt for your second uh clerk can you please call the roll thank you chair

commissioners please unmute commissioner harris is absent commissioner gibson yes commissioner wadwani is

absent commissioner littiker abstain vice chair gonzalez yes commissioner hopp aye commissioner hyatt yes

commissioner moore yes commissioner cruz is absent commissioner banks yes sorry i'm late

commissioner hodd and chair hodd yes thank you the motion passes we will now proceed to the discussion

calendar item number three is the vision zero school safety project is there a staff presentation

of the commissioners that we will now have to be able to do to do to do to do to do to do to do

the commissioners uh thank you very much for having me this evening my name is luke fusen i'm a senior

engineer in public works i'm here today to present the vision zero school safety project

so quick agenda i'll go through a quick overview of the background of the project and then i'll spend a

little time um on the project this project has seven schools that we're proposing to um um um

build build improvements around safety improvements and i'll discuss the timeline of the project and

then we could have any discussion or questions and answers so i think most of you may be familiar with the

city's vision zero program um if not uh in 2017 the city council adopted the resolution um that the city of

sacramento will work collaboratively in a data-driven effort to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious

injuries by 2027 and then in 2018 city council adopted the vision zero action plan identifying those

roads with the highest number of injuries and fatalities as the city high high injury network

throughout the city out of the vision zero action plan two separate planning documents were prepared

um one of those and what we discussing today was the vision zero school safety study the project i'll be

presenting is um is the result of the vision zero school safety study and it will implement those

recommended improvements in that study at um it actually at seven schools um throughout the throughout

the city we originally had nine schools the nine schools just shown here um since the project since that

study was completed uh improvements are no longer included at two schools they're no longer necessary

at two schools um one of the schools city forces um have implemented those improvements on our own

and then another school oak ridge is actually undergoing a complete reconstruction um which will reconfigure

its parking lots and and build the frontage improvements that would have been built with this project

project this project is funded with what we call the community project funding program which is a

federal a federal funding program it's essentially an earmark from congresswoman doris matsui's office

and we do we do have limited funding on this project with about 2.2 million to spread across seven schools

so this project does kind of focus on more of the near term and relatively inexpensive improvements just due to

due to the limited funding i would add that the city's under undertaking a separate effort to um

build the remaining schools the improvements shown for the remaining schools in that study the study studied

20 schools 20 schools so the remainder of the schools will be be under a separate locally funded project

the way this the way these improvements came about was during the preparation of the vision zero school

safety study um staff and representatives from the city met with went out to each school and met with school

representatives community members um advocacy advocacy groups and and actually walked each school with

the with the representative of the school and the community that um the school serves and that really put the kind of

the boots on the ground to um see what's actually needed so so actually needed by you know people that use it on a day-to-day basis and it wasn't just

kind of us sitting upstairs and and coming up with the ideas ourselves so i'll get into the get into each school

i'll kind of run through these there's seven of them so i'll go through fairly quickly but feel free to ask any questions number one is met

sacramento high school and you can see here um a lot of these schools what we're doing is upgrading some of the signage

the the crosswalks the striping and doing some of the safety upgrades to kind of uh bring these schools

up to a safety bring them to current standards for safety and this school we have as you can see

installing high visibility crosswalks we're relocating a bus stop

um putting in new red curbs and signs new centerline stripes and new yield markings so this is

um kind of a kind of an example some of the schools will we'll have a little bit a little bit more to

show but these are the types of improvements that we're we're implementing at each school

next one is the saint hope public school number seven at this location we are installing a an rrfb

to help safely cross martin luther king jr boulevard at 26th avenue along 26th avenue we'll be installing

speed speed humps for a traffic calming measure again upgrading those crosswalks to high visibility

and refreshing and putting in some of the green conflict striping for for the bike lanes

the next one is west campus high school located at fruit ridge road and 58th street at fruit ridge road

and 58th street again putting in the um high high visibility crosswalks uh putting in a a new kind of

pet pedestrian refuge median um installing new access aps push buttons accessible pedestrian signal push

buttons and those will have all the all the aps features that that i'm sure you've you've heard

before that with with the city standard with the um you know the audible function the vibro tactile um

touch function the ability to wave your hand over over the push button um and and all the kind of all the

um current standard features for aps push buttons um and we're we're we're looking into the to a raised

crosswalk but there are speed lumps on on the roadway um in the current condition

next we'll i'll talk about natomas high school um the improvements along fong ranch road will include

installing a concrete median in the in the center of the lane and making bicycle upgrades in both the

northbound and southbound directions in the in the southbound direction we'll be putting in a parking

protected bike lane and a um and in the southbound direction a a a a bike lane as well um and again

putting in the high visibility cross crosswalks and making making signal upgrades at this location

we'll be removing one there's currently two right turn pockets we'll be removing one of the right turn

pockets to allow room for a bike lane between the right turn lane and the through left lane i know

there's been some questions on this on this intersection um that have that have come my way

about the bike box that's shown at the intersection the current the current plan for this intersection is

um and it's been recent recently decided that that bike box won't be installed at this time rather

um well we'll we're planning to keep the the the bike lane the green bike lane between the through lane

and the right turn pocket and i just wanted to kind of explain the reason for that a little bit

this is a high school sometimes with the bike boxes with the intended user being a high school

high school student and even maybe some younger drivers sometimes the the bike boxes can lead to a

little bit of confusion or people may not be comfortable using them if they're inexperienced

um inexperienced you know on on their bikes if you're if you're a very experienced cyclist and you

ride all the time you kind of understand how to use those but in the school situation like this the current

recommendation from our staff is to just have the green bike lane between the right turn pocket and the and the

through left pocket and i'll be happy to answer any questions on that because i know it's come up

again putting in the aps signal upgrades

smith academy of arts and sciences the city did completed a project to put to upgrade the signal

at hagen avenue and northgate boulevard a few years ago at that time um since since that time the city's

standards for installing the aps signals have have been changed so we're going to go back out and

upgrade upgrade that signal to meet our current current aps push button standards

improvements at father keith b kinney elementary school a pretty significant amount of changes to

address pedestrians and bikes bicyclists at this location putting in the

the um buffered bike lanes with delineators where we can um installing um green conflict striping at

at the bus stops and at school approaching the school also putting in an rrfb along martin luther king

jr boulevard and ninth avenue and installing high visibility crosswalks at martin luther king jr and 11th avenue

and 11th avenue as well as um 12th this yeah they'll have an rrfb at 9th and then installing the new push

aps push buttons at 14th avenue and and martin luther king jr boulevard as well as installing new video

detection um at the signal

and william land elementary again putting in the high visibility crosswalks making upgrades to the um

the curb ramps and throughout the project um the the high visibility crosswalks and the curb ramps are

kind of consistent we're making improvements as they were um at the corners that were recommended in the

study and checking all those for ada compliance a lot of street delineation and signs at this location and

one of the one of the bigger improvements at this location is really enhancing the the loading zone

the pickup pickup drop off area to put in um kind of that white diagonal strap striping and refreshing

refreshing the bus stop for safe drop-offs and pickups

the bus stop for safe drop-offs and the bus stop for safe drop-offs and the bus stop for safe drop-offs

so timeline this project's just around the corner we completed the environmental process in october of 2024 we

are currently in the process of finalizing the plans for this project and we'll be putting this project out to bid

this fall and construction could start as early as spring and into summer of 2026.

so thank you very much i'll be happy to answer any questions thank you very much

uh clerk are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item thank you chair i have

one speaker for this item our speaker is dan allison

good evening commissioners dan allison resident of district four um i support this project very much

i like its focus on lower income schools with existing safety issues their use of relatively

inexpensive measures such as high visibility crosswalks and curb and bike lane paint that's good

concerns i have the diagram should include the posted speed limit for each of those streets because it is critically important

i admit that i was a strong proponent of rrfbs in the past i actually got them installed on a bunch of projects

that i worked on i am no longer a strong component of them because i have observed driver

non-compliance with rrfbs i don't think they're safe over 25 miles an hour and i didn't check the speed

limit on each of these locations but i know at least two of the projects the speed limits are either 30 or 35.

i don't believe that they're safe um secondly accessible pedestrian signals um there are four

of them at campuses um they do not need big buttons it is a misunderstanding of ada and pro-wag

to claim that they have to install beg buttons for aps nothing says that in the law that's a complete

misunderstanding they should not be beg buttons no one whether they need accessible or not should be

required to press a button to cross the street it's a bias against pedestrians in favor of car drivers

lastly i was surprised to not see temporary curb extensions here they're a low-cost item

a permanent extensions are expensive but temporary ones are not expensive i would have expected

to see them they're a good traffic calming measure but i didn't see any of them in the diagrams thank you very much

thank you thank you for your comment chair i have no more speakers on this item

are there uh any commissioners who wish to speak on this item commissioner hyatt

thank you chair hodell and uh

uh and thank you mr fusion for your uh presentation and your staff's work on this um

uh it's great to see vision zero uh moving forward for those of you in the audience or who may be

watching at home vision zero is the city of sacramento's plan that was created back in 2017

to have no traffic fatalities uh in the city um we continue to have traffic fatalities i believe the

number was something like 37 last year and of course we're about a year and a half away from vision

zeros um what what the council set as the goal back in that day so we're way behind um it's good to see

that that we have um we're moving forward on this i think there's a lot of really good stuff in this

um i think there's a little bit of missed opportunity um but there's one specific thing that

um i find that i'd like to ask uh mr fusion about um and you brought it up because i think we spoke on

the phone when this came up to the um the disabilities commission right um and that is the plan at fong

ranch road um which you guys have in front of you uh natomas high school um can i how do i put this up there

um great um and so we have this really wonder this is one of my favorite parts of the plan is that that

bike lane that's uh parking protected buffered and has vertical delineators um and my question is

what was the rationale to send the cyclists directly in into conflict with right hand turning traffic

the the city's current practice is to to place the the the six foot bike lane between the through

lane and and the right and the right turn lane um so i may interject yeah sure sure i like to jump in

and help out yeah please that is the standard in the california manual of uniform traffic

control devices it's a state design standard so we're if we're gonna have a right turn lane we need

to have the people bicycling to the left of the right turn um if i'm hearing you right if we're going to

have a right hand turn lane uh there must be sorry uh yeah sorry um so it the the state design well

national and state design standards if you have a right almost or vehicular turn lane

you need and you have a bicycle lane that is going through and not turning

the the bike lane has to be to the left of the right turn lane okay thank you for that um that

i would have brought a good nice graphic but that's essentially what is here is what are is in the

state standards so there's because of state standards there's no way to extend that bike lane all the way to

the what i would say something that looks like this sorry for the graphic design um i don't have any

fancy stuff but there's no reason that that bike lane can't just go straight and have that bike that right turn lane

um move not next to a right turn lane that creates a very significant conflict between right turning

vehicles and people bicycling through does this um what would be the different like this is this is at

carlson and j street in sacramento so this is actually a right lane it's what a through right lane so it is a lane

that has a primary purpose of vehicles driving forward and if you are turning right and that's like a standard lane this the

california vehicle code says that when you don't have a dedicated right turn lane that

drivers must make a right turn they must merge into the bike lane and make a right turn

um so this is a through right lane not a right turn lane um there is still opportunity for conflict

but that is also part of the state design standards that the city of sacramento follows i would also

point out because i ride through this intersection quite often that um even for the even though it's a through

right it that it is signed as no turn on red as well so that's an added thing they needed to do and at

tomas high school we have a lot of parents picking up and dropping off and the no turn on red even even

then would probably be problematic commissioner hyatt um i i hear you and that's something i think that

is a challenge that we don't have a good set of state or federal design standards to help us address

uh-huh yeah um because it i mean to send cyclists directly into traffic is uh obviously less than

preferable and actually actually dangerous and just really uh to speak to of course the the parents who

are picking up and dropping off i'll just note that um as far as vision zero goes and is included in m dot m dash

one dot two in this um plan here that the city shall prioritize mobility comfort health safety and

convenience for those walking followed by those bicycling and riding transit ahead of design

operations for those driving um and i think that's yeah you guys answered my questions on that

unfortunately it sounds like um your hands are tied um i wish we could find a way to i guess we have to go to

the state and get updated um updated designs we can take this part this part down sorry if that if that's

still um but uh that's just crazy that that standard forces uh vulnerable road users into direct conflict

with actually i don't think it is in direct conflict because in the education part we tell bicyclists to

ride in the rightmost lane that takes you in the direction you want to go so to me that design makes

perfect sense if you're turning right a bicyclist should stay in the right hand turn lane if the

bicyclist is turning left they merge they move to the left hand turn lane so that bike lane is for going

well if they're going straight if they're going straight then they don't get to just go straight they

get they're forced into uh into a lane that's crossing a vehicular lane you understand so like

that bike lane they're in in a really safe space going straight to the intersection in order to get

to the intersection if they were going to go straight not going right they then have to cross over into

that and and that's that so uh i'll we'll leave it there and thank you for answering that um and thank

you jennifer for clarifying um that we've got a big mess on our hands at the state level as well so

thank you so much commissioner gibson

oh i'm sorry commissioner help thank you chair i have a brief question um uh taking off from dan

allison's comment when rrfbs were new i did feel that a lot of people didn't understand them and flew

through them but my impression is that people are starting to understand them and i'm seeing people

more often obeying the rrfbs is there any research that shows that they are getting greater acceptance

by drivers do we know yet the research has always supported that drivers conform conform with the rrfb

however um at the city of sacramento we don't have data we have anecdotal information that drivers are not

following the rules the california vehicle code around them we've heard from this commission

um their their thoughts and their feelings on rrfbs mr vice chair um and we are moving away from rrfbs

however this project received very little funding for these schools um from um our congressperson matsui

and so we don't have funds to do other things um and this project was approved with rfb a number of

years ago you'll see a transition from um projects as they come from our project managers like luke

that as we go through the design process we are moving away from our rrbs and moving to pedestrian signals

but our current our standards do allow for them and this project was designed i think we this was pre-pandemic

when we did our initial work on that and um it's been moving through the process and the funding that

we got when we got it only allows for rr fees mr gibson hi first of all thank you for your efforts on

this project or projects um really important all across the board especially just want to make sure

schools are as safe as possible and we all recognize the limited funds we have for these projects

um first thing kind of just an in general comment um there are a couple areas that look like a raised

crosswalk would probably be a better intervention than just painted crosswalk recognize the small

budget um specifically it looks like um the um oh sorry right for me um the william land elementary school

and i think that could be one and the met sacramento met high school um in my experience so i live

right next to a school um two rivers elementary and the willow creek neighborhood and i see people

drive through the stop signs all the time and i walk my dog and toddler and it's always really hard to

keep my toddler in the stroller or or following me so um and knowing just that is a likely thing to happen

that people just roll through stop signs immediately next to a school um if there was a raised crosswalk you

know at least there'd be a chance to force the vehicles at least slow down or else they got to update their

suspension afterwards so um if if you can incorporate those i think that'd be a way to elevate it

back to the tomas high school so my first job in sacramento was working for in the tomas school

board members so um certainly spent a lot of time around there um one comment i have is fong ranch road

is often considered like a drag race area for residents near that area i heard from two different constituents

last week that they had concerns about drag racing on fong ranch road i recognize the project scale is

limited to just in front of the score right now and we're kind of already a little too far down to

anything else but in the future i really keep in mind out for other improvements along the north side

of the fog ranch road to limit um drag racing and if there's a lot of people coming in from a new

housing development there to increase the traffic safety in the future um and then very sympathetic to

commissioner hyatt's comments about the bike lanes and also recognizing the limits of the law and frankly as a

casual cyclist i would probably use the sidewalk here just to be honest just knowing the craziness of

pick up and drop off you know make sure i'm not running anybody i'd slow down probably get off

but i would use the sidewalk as supposed to be sitting in between two large vehicles

and that's likely to happen i've met with principal baker of natomas high school a couple times on this

project and we've talked about uh we've talked about that exact that exact thing and the bike racks are

actually located on campus just off fong ranch road and most a lot of students will will walk their

bikes from campus to the to the intersection on the sidewalk yeah and um also on the other side of

the project on san juan road was there any consideration for um either vertical delimitators or poured concrete

on that bike lane that would be next to the bus stop sorry which one um on san juan road the other portion of the project where it

currently looks like it's just um added paint is there any consideration for vertical delinears or poured

concrete just give that a little bit more because if we're going to build better bike lanes to encourage

people to bike you know let's just you know do a little bit extra right um for that we initially showed

raised delinears there and again when i talked to the principal of the school he mentioned to me that

parents do use that little stretch for pickup and drop off and he requested that we don't

um well i i see um parents in my neighborhood use the bike lanes for pickup and drop off all the time

so people don't bike yeah it's also it's also a uh street sweeping challenge issue there we don't have

a that was one consideration probably the main consideration i should mention is this is a street

it's a street sweeping challenge we don't have enough width there to fit a street sweeper in with the

existing number of lanes and the width available with okay i thank you overall a lot of improvements i

really appreciate those are things we could just take it to just that next level and make some of

the constituents we heard from today um in other neighborhoods um feel a little bit more safer so

thank you yep commissioner banks good evening thanks so much for the presentation you probably will hear

that um street sweeping and lack of being able to street sweep is a non-starter through a lot of the

active transportation commissioners when i look at this as a person who bikes regularly and would want

more kids to ride their bikes i would push back against the principle and push back against parents

that want to have pickup and drop off in bike lanes because it's completely inappropriate a and b

it will absolutely be a barrier for kids to ride their bikes and what we want is to support more kids

riding their bikes so they become cyclists for the rest of their lives when i looked at all of the

different schools i made a quick note as you're going through your presentation a number of the schools

had some bike improvements but not all of them and i just feel like if there's any way that we can up

bollards or some kind of delimit delimit deliminators d whatever nators um whatever they are um across the

board through all of these different schools and in particular the elementary schools that would be better

especially given that we've got more kids on bike buses with parents and kids riding in mass to

school these days so we want to keep that momentum going and not squash it in any way

commissioner moore echoing the thanks and high praise for everything that you and the city are

doing for this i was surprised to see how many schools and the degree of improvements that are being

made along these i think two of them that i want to touch on one is the natomas high school one

i i would like to see the bike box i i don't think that the expectation that cyclists you know do

indeed have to merge that that traffic lane there that that's their expectation but we we shouldn't

have the expectation that high school students can navigate the painted bike box maybe due to a lack of

exposure which this would help but also just to give that dedicated space i think i would be highly

supportive of i guess maybe returning the painted bike box if that's already been decided just to give

those who maybe do use acknowledging most likely probably will use the sidewalk for high school

users but i do think that just gives that that awareness and that dedicated space the other one

i wanted to touch on was the keith b kenny i just wanted to say thank you for those improvements i live

two blocks from ninth and mlk i go to that little corner store all the time because i have a sugar addiction

uh but i mean i avoid mlk at all like i'll take our neighborhood streets and to see the degree of

improvements and the protections that are provided in that are are amazing um yeah i don't want to

burden it with like can we do traffic calming but traffic calming on that street still would be great

because people do fly through it um but i really appreciate the protections that that are provided in

that that school there thank you thank you vice chair gonzalez

thank you chair thank you luke for the wonderful presentation this evening um appreciate all the

attention that our school sites are getting obviously that's many of the areas where our greatest need

exists my own um introduction to advocacy came from an unfortunate incident in front of a school

site um as we spoke about earlier tonight and that's west campus um in 58th and fruit ridge where michelle

minirgu was killed in in 2012. um and looking back at some of the stories from when michelle passed away

uh in in a crosswalk um it's reminded me of how quickly our opinions about engineering certainties or

standards can evolve over just a short amount of time take for example at the time um i believe it was

linda tucker was working the city and after michelle was killed in that crosswalk she spoke about how

it would probably be safer just to remove the crosswalk and at that time you know when you have

vehicles i'm quoting her now when you have vehicles driving at a high rate of speed and high volume of

vehicles any kind of crosswalk can give a pedestrian a false sense of security so at the time the city's

practice was actually just think about whether or not we should just remove crosswalks altogether

and i believe that happened shortly thereafter on oregon drive and freeport where um a grandmother was

killed while walking with her grandson and her grandson ended up with life-altering injuries and

one of the largest payouts in lawsuits history for the city of sacramento and that was you know 12 years

ago so i'm heartened to hear from jennifer and from staff that our pleas have been heard loud and clear

that our rfbs are phased out i think when they will look at all of the rfbs locations and

realize that it was foolhardy to put something in again that was less than fully adequate in the

name of safety but um i'm heartened to hear that we're moving away from that i'll speak just a moment

selfishly to my strong support for the upgrades again at west campus because my daughter will start

school there this fall so selfishly and it is the area that i've been um appointed to represent by

councilmember gara district six so i'm very sure that the parents and the students and neighbors will

appreciate those um upgrades speaking again though to the marie family mary marie still lives in the

neighborhood and so she has lots of feelings obviously about the stoplight that was erected only because

of the community outreach and work by advocates and the collaborative effort of the city of sacramento

and the school district in the very first instance ever of those two entities partnering to install stop

light so my request to the city would be prior to the construction demolition somebody reach out to

mary and let her know that the stoplight isn't coming out and only being improved and that there will

be a pedestrian island being installed where her daughter died and that it's the continuing effort

of our city to make it even safer all these years after she's gone thank you luke okay thank you

thank you thank you this item is review and comment so no vote is required and we will move on to the next item

item number four is the nomination and appointment of one active transportation commissioner commission

member to the secure bike parking pilot evaluation panel is there a staff presentation hello good evening

there is not a presentation this is simply a request for the commission to nominate one commissioner to the evaluation panel for the secure bike parking pilot

and so just a quick overview there's a timeline in the staff report but proposals will be due this friday

from vendors for the secure bike parking pilot and so we hope to convene the panel shortly thereafter and then

um depending on the number of proposals there would be some time allocated towards review of those and then um

um hopefully we're going to select a vendor by uh mid to end of june so i would i would um suspect it'd be a couple of hours

of of of your time um but no more than that but i'm here for questions thank you uh clerk are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item

item thank you chair i have no speaker slips on this item thank you are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item

commissioner littiker

thank you chair um i just have a operational question is are these meetings going to be

online or in person they will be all virtual thank you

okay

this item is to pass a motion to appoint one atc commissioner to the secure bike parking pilot

evaluation panel is there a commissioner who would like to join this panel

i can hardly thank you commissioner littiker is do we need a motion to or in a second

i'm just trying to see if we're going to have some competition here

if there's not any i'd love to make a motion um that commissioner littiker be our representative

second okay i have a motion by vice chair gonzalez and a second by commissioner gibson

uh to have commissioner littiker participate in the secure bike parking pilot evaluation panel

i'm kind of booked on those weeknights is there going to be a conflict with that particular week

so it's the second week of june i guess we have this

if our meeting our next meeting is the second week of june yes the 12th yes yeah yeah so i have

conflicts at night in that week just to be clear these would be during the day yeah oh these are in

the day yeah okay it would be like maybe an hour of your time for us to talk maybe two uh depending on

the proposals that's easier yeah it'd be all during business hours business hours yes so that time works

for you during the day well i mean there's some meetings that i have to go to here and there

and hopefully we can just work around those we would be working around your your schedule yes

so okay i can that i can do guarantee that okay and so i have a motion by commissioner uh by vice

chair gonzalez and a second by commissioner gibson will the clerk please call the role for the vote

thank you commissioners please unmute commissioner harris is absent commissioner gibson yes

commissioner wadwani is absent commissioner littiger yes vice chair gonzalez yep commissioner hopp aye

commissioner hyatt yes commissioner moore aye commissioner cruz is absent commissioner banks yes

and chair hoddell yes thank you the motion passes thank you the last item is commissioner comments ideas and

questions are there any commissioners who wish to speak vice chair gonzalez thank you chair i have two

items i just want to bring um or upcoming events that i wanted to share with the commissioners and the

public the first is the annual ride of silence and that will occur uh wednesday may 21st at 6 pm at the rose

garden uh here in the capital and we will leave from the rose garden at 7 pm at a route to be determined by the organizers

which will likely take us to a location where a ghost spike will be erected or has been erected

i was able to attend this event last year very somber very moving and very important that we remember those we lost

especially right now during may's bike month when it's all fresh on our minds so hope you will

um consider joining us again next wednesday may 21st 6 pm at the rose garden headed out at 7. and then the

second event which i think will also be of interest to those watching right now or and potentially our

commissioners is the next day uh thursday may 22nd at 6 pm uh the city of sacramento in partnership with the del

paso boulevard uh partnership and paver art are will be hosting a free screening of a documentary called

beyond the alleyways the dixie and story and this is a really incredible short documentary um featuring

a really incredible active transportation project that was executed by our one and only sparky harris

here at the city over the last two years or so in north sacramento uh five residential alleyways were um

were rehabilitated going from unimproved dirt and weeds and also closed to public access by the request of

the neighborhoods through gates um to open again for active transportation use um the installation of

permutable pavers art that was designed by the community um free fences new trees it really was

just an incredible project that um you know in today's world doesn't always get the attention it deserves

the purveyors of the paver art system that was installed shot a documentary um during its installation

and that process and really came up with something that's phenomenal uh and i hope you'll come out

and see it so again thursday may 22nd 6 pm doors open at the rink studios at 1031 del paso boulevard

the film will start promptly at 6 30. it's a short documentary it'll be over in less than half an hour

and then after that we're gonna have a short panel discussion where sparky uh members of the um of the

community artists and the paper art company will share some of their insights and thoughts about

uh this transformative project i would love to see as many of you there in the public or here on the

commission to come see us it's free again we'd love to see you that's all commissioner banks

good evening everybody it is mid may of spike month and a couple of stats we've already had over 19 000

trips taken by people during may of spike month which is fantastic it's really great of course we'd love to

see more and if any of y'all have not yet signed up for may of spike month it is not too late to do so

um we're excited also that we have almost 300 new riders people that have not been riding their bikes

coming and joining us for may of spike month and already all close to 3 000 riders participating in the

um in the campaign i encourage all of you to take a look at the event calendar isaac um we should get

um a flyer up for the dixie and project so we can put it up and get it out on all of the socials so that

we have a broader reach um and get some more people to join you highly highly highly recommend

um you all joining us for something during may and if you haven't signed up and you haven't logged a trip

come on active transportation commissioners get on it thanks commissioner gibson hi i want to first

obviously acknowledge um those whose lives have been lost on the street since our last meeting

there were three and all were hidden runs on may 5th a cyclist was hit on 24th and fruitridge road

um they passed away about a week later on april 26th uh william andrew akins who was 26 was a

pedestrian hit on uh lemon hill avenue and 26th street expressway and on the 24th of april a 50 year

old woman was hit and run on stockton boulevard and reza sadly all these were hidden runs um on a

completely different note i don't know how to do that transition and a positive note i want to thank a

few city staffers um loann hernandez and uh eddie morrison um there was a community event about

traffic safety in district three um and i attended bike there had a fun day um and i mentioned to them

i saw a um teenage boy run across the street in a dangerous manner um a couple months ago on west

el camino and i told them at this intersection i don't think there's a crosswalk and he was probably

running to the catch the bus and so i mentioned this to them and they're like oh i think i know what

you're talking about i'm like okay you know passed a nice word along but then on my bike ride home

i saw them investigating the intersection and they were pointing out the line seeing the crosswalks

and like you know let's do an investigation on this right now on our drive home so um i know a lot of

work from say staff doesn't get acknowledged or seen and they also reminded me to put in a 311 so it

also gets tracked that they can help complete a ticket so um just thank you to city staff there

um didn't expect to be had an action within 30 minutes of mentioning something and just on a

a different note since there was um conversation about rfbs and efficacy locally i also have another

follow-up question that is um for our speed lump program have we done any efficacy studies of um

rates of collisions of before after speed lump installations commissioner gibson no we have not had any

resources to do studies in the city however i'd note that our speed lump program traditionally has been

on what we call our local classified streets as opposed to collector or arterials and the number of

crashes that happen on our local streets are significantly lower than our collectors and our arterial streets

so oftentimes it uh the speed lump program can be used as a tool to improve driving speeds but not

necessarily to reduce crashes and there's just a bit of difference but it creates a the slower the

speed the greater reduction of the severity of the crash or the ability to prevent that crash yeah

thank you very much for the clarification just the grad student me wanted to do another project i've

been out of grad school for five years but some reason i can't stop thinking about wanting to do a study

or a project to research data so thank you i didn't say pay me i just we should hire a few grad students to

say these things commissioner helped um briefly i was so gratified tuesday night to see the council

finally approve our construction detour policy especially after uh proposing it seven years ago

and a speaker got up and uh she gave credit to dan for having proposed the construction detour policy

neither ms donnell and why nor i can remember how it who proposed it in the first place i don't know if

doc i believe dr flo was on the commission then and i don't know if she can remember but unless

somebody else comes forward dan we're giving you the credit for it and thank you very much thank you

very much for having proposed

commissioner banks yeah i forgot to mention something uh last weekend um saba hosted an event for bike for

uh may of spike month that was called bike and seek and what we did was we set out stickers all over

town on infrastructure city infrastructure some of it was good some of it was bad some of it was okay some

of it was dangerous and we sent maps to everybody with dropped pins and some clues and had people go

out and find the infrastructure and then take pictures of it 90 plus people participated which was

awesome and they all came back to east sac uh bike dog and over a beer um a lot of people had a lot to

say about the infrastructure a lot of things that people had never seen before or didn't know about

etc and it was just a really wonderful fun way to get people to interact with the bicycle um infrastructure

around town so just thought i'd let you all know we did that

thank you i see no more speakers um i think we're done

this concludes today's agenda thank you everyone for your participation the meeting is adjourned

in the

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