Sacramento 2040 General Plan Update Virtual Workshop: Interconnected, Accessible City

Interconnected, Accessible City

Do you support these strategies to make Sacramento a more interconnected, accessible city?

Big & Bold Strategy 1: Right-size streets to fit today’s mobility needs to prioritize walking, biking, and transit over automobile use.
Community members have expressed a preference for prioritizing walking, bicycling, and transit over single-occupant vehicles. The City could “right-size” larger roads by taking the extra space and using it for bike lanes, bus-only lanes, and better pedestrian infrastructure such as sidewalks and curb ramps. This strategy would also use existing curb space for transit stops, bike lanes, crosswalks, bike parking, shared-rideable drop-off and pick-up zones, and commercial loading zones. This strategy can help improve transit services, encourage active transportation, and reduce reliance on cars. By reducing single-occupancy vehicle trips, this strategy could reduce GHG emissions, improve community health, address congestion, and improve livability.

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Conceptual rendering of a right-sized street, with dedicated space for transit, bikes, and pedestrians:

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* 1. Would you support this strategy?

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Yes

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Yes

Big & Bold Strategy 2: Emphasize Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies.
This strategy would update and implement the City's Transportation Demand Management ordinance to create a program that shifts travel behavior for new developments. Potential strategies the City could implement to discourage driving alone include: (1) Coordinate with employers to provide incentives to employees for carpooling or telecommuting, (2) Establish paid parking throughout the city, (3) Unbundle parking costs from leases and charge tenants for parking spaces separately, (4) Provide state-of-the-art trip planning tools to help residents make more efficient transportation choices, and (5) Create an active parking management or shared parking program to make more efficient use of parking spaces. Additionally, new development projects that create long commutes could be required to implement programs that help their residents drive alone less. (To learn more about how the City measures vehicle impacts of new developments, click here)

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* 2. Would you support this strategy?

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Yes

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Yes

Big & Bold Strategy 3: Work with transit partners to continue to continue to provide free or more affordable transit passes for low-income residents, youth, and/or senior citizens.
These groups are among the most likely to ride transit, in part because they generally have less access to private automobiles. The RydeFreeRT program offers fare-free transit for youth and students in grades TK-12. The program currently runs through September 30, 2020. Additionally, bus or light rail fares for seniors and those with disabilities is set at half the cost of a regular ticket. Reducing costs for youth, seniors and other groups could have significant benefits, including increasing ridership and improving mobility for those who can’t drive.

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* 3. Would you support this strategy?

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Yes

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Yes

Big & Bold Strategy 4: Eliminate City-mandated parking minimums citywide and introduce parking maximums.
Throughout the United States, zoning ordinances that prescribe minimum ratios of parking spaces have created higher prices and sprawling conditions. By requiring a developer to build parking spaces for each unit of housing or for each square foot of development, the cost of building that parking gets bundled into the cost of renting or selling the building. Removing parking minimums doesn’t mean there won’t be any parking spaces: developers and lenders, who closely follow market demands, can build the parking spaces their future tenants will demand, whether for residential or commercial businesses.

Instituting parking maximums along important transit corridors could help to discourage excess vehicle trips and ensure that valuable land is available for more important uses, like housing and space for local businesses. Additionally, capping the amount of parking a new development could provide could also help Sacramento shift trips away from cars and toward walking, biking, and transit.