Sacramento holds public workshops to improve Howe Avenue safety
SACRAMENTO — Last year, Sacramento had 55 traffic fatalities, which was an all-time high for the city. Now, the city is launching new traffic safety efforts to try and get that number down to zero.
Howe Avenue runs through the city between Fair Oaks Boulevard to the north and Folsom Boulevard to the south. Community members met with city officials to try and come up with ideas to make this street safer.
Howe Avenue is one of the deadliest streets in Sacramento. Up to 30,000 vehicles drive down it each day. It's a major corridor for cars trying to get across the American River from Highway 50.
The corner of Howe and Fair Oaks is one of the biggest in the city of Sacramento, with 20 lanes of traffic converging at the intersection.
Now, Sacramento officials are holding a series of public workshops and an online survey asking the community what kind of safety improvements they would like to see.
"We want to hear from them. What are the challenges they'd like us to look at? How do they use the corridor?" said Jennifer Donlon Wyant, Sacramento's transportation manager.
Improvements could include wider sidewalks, more bike lanes, and lower speed limits. The city is also looking at past car crash data to spot any concerning trends.
"We look at where it's happening and what are the factors involved," Donlon Wyant said. "Most typically, what we see is that people are driving at unsafe speeds."
Sacramento City Councilor Eric Guerra said the city wants to "take every opportunity to fix that area."
However, those fixes won't be cheap, and Sacramento already has a $5 billion backlog in needed roadway improvements.
"Transportation improvements can cost up to $20 million a mile," Donlon Wyant said.
City officials say they will compile the community ideas over the next year and have an improvement plan in place by next winter.
Funding for this improvement plan comes from a $500,000 Caltrans grant.