Sacramento does not have the best track record for transportation.  A new report on the condition of the Sacramento area’s transportation needs “shows the slowdown in funding and the need for improvements on key projects.”  With this in mind, TRIP (a nonprofit transportation research group) investigated Sacramento’s “critical long-term projects.”

What one TRIP worker, Rocky Moretti has found is that “too many of the transportation projects that are critical to Sacramento’s future have yellow and red lights.”  What does this mean in practice?  That 15 major projects in the area are either completely without funding or have partial funding available by 2020.  For example: carpool lane construction from Richards Boulevard to Interstate 5; new bridge over the lower American River and Sacramento River; riverfront street car system downtown.  According to Keri Howell, Council member of Folsom City, news from the TRIP report was welcomed, given that it “confirmed what we knew here locally, that 42 percent of the roadways in Sacramento County are in poor condition.”  The sentiment was echoed by Jeffrey Spencer, Sacramento Transportation Authority Executive, who pointed out that “of the large cities in California, we’re really lagging.”

In other transportation news in the region, a vote was held to discuss whether there should be a pilot program by West Sacramento and Sacramento cities to “plan out future transit-oriented development along a proposed streetcar line between the two cities.”  Funding for this is $1.1 million but according to Kacey Lizon, Planning manager for SACOG, this will come from a Federal Transit Administration grant. If the proposal is accepted, the streetcar line will link the two cities’ downtowns. Planning for that would involve: figuring out infrastructure needs, working alongside the private sector, taking into account historic resources and dealing with the possibility that residents will be displaced.