Sacramento County Transportation Digest

The Greater Sacramento Economic Council submitted an application for the Economic Development Administration Tech Hub program that aims to establish a Zero Emission Vehicle innovation asset on the campus of Sacramento State.

Hundreds of driverless cars have been roaming San Francisco streets over the past couple of years. Now the California Public Utilities Commission has voted to let self-driving car companies expand their programs and start charging passengers like taxis.

A transportation startup is planning to open a huge charging depot off Interstate 5 near the Sacramento International Airport in 2025 that will be geared toward commercial trucks driving through the I-5 corridor.

About 925 alcohol-involved car wrecks occurred in Sacramento County last year, and about 975 occurred in 2021. About 60 people died in crashes during each of the last two years, up from an average of around 50 the eight years before.

The awards to the Sacramento Regional Transit District include $25 million from the Solutions for Congested Corridor program to support the relocation of the light rail station and tracks at the Sacramento Valley Station to a north/south alignment.

The city of Sacramento has hired Dokken Engineering to analyze the size and location of a planned bridge connecting Truxel Road in South Natomas with the River District. The bridge would likely accommodate vehicles, light rail trains, pedestrians and cyclists.

Caltrans broke ground on the first phase of a project designed to improve traffic on Interstate 5 through Natomas. The $39 million project will include construction of new auxiliary lanes.

Elk Grove will soon get a second seat on Sacramento Regional Transit’s governing board after a new California bill was signed into law. Assembly Bill 354 is expected to give the city a greater say in the transit system, said the Elk Grove lawmaker who carried the bill.

Cyclists in Sacramento may have noticed some changes to bike lanes along 19th and 21st streets. That’s likely thanks to Sacramento’s Central City Mobility Project, which recently began construction on additional protected bike lanes.

Joyce Adams-Watkins started driving buses for the Sacramento Regional Transit District in 1980. More than four decades later at age 74, she still gets behind the wheel and is the longest-tenured employee at the agency.

Sacramento’s epidemic of fatal hit-and-run crashes is not exclusively the result of reckless behavior. In some ways, the tragedies also are made possible by decades of poor planning decisions on some of the county’s most traveled roads.

The overcrossings at Eighth Avenue, 27th Avenue and 35th Street will be shut down from June 19 to July 30. The bridges that connect 44th and 43rd avenues and Turnbridge Drive and Maynard Way will close from July 24 to Aug. 31.

Officials are still working to connect Sacramento and West Sacramento through the Downtown Riverfront Streetcar Project. Construction was approved back in August 2022 through a vote by the Sacramento Regional Transit Board of Directors.

California's public transit agencies are seeking $5 billion over five years to keep buses and trains running, but time is running out in the budget process at the state Capitol. To address criticism, they submitted a new accountability plan.

SacRT is celebrating 50 years of operation while announcing that $350 million has been secured for a light rail upgrade, which includes the purchase of 16 new light rail vehicles.

The city of Folsom is reaching out to the public this month, seeking feedback regarding four potential Folsom Boulevard overcrossing locations.

As the industry invests $40 billion in new US electric car plants, the rapid transformation raises labor and supply chain issues. Automaker Ford says, “we’re all in.”

Elk Grove will be upgrading over 100 traffic signals throughout the city as part of a traffic signal improvement project. All upgrades should be complete by spring 2025.

New state funding could triple the number of Capitol Corridor trips leaving from Roseville each day, making journeys to Sacramento and San Francisco more convenient. The changes could come as soon as 2028.

Asphalt pavement formulated with recycled plastic has successfully survived heavy truck traffic and the atmospheric rivers of the winter of 2022-23 after a section of California State Route 99 flooded in January.

A bipartisan congressional group from Nevada and California is asking the Biden administration to fast-track federal funds for a private company to build a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area.

In celebration of Earth Day, Sacramento Regional Transit is offering free rides on April 22. The free rides include bus, light rail and SacRT GO paratransit services during regular operating hours.

The American Jazz, a riverboat that docked for years in San Francisco, is now more local. Citing a dispute in docking fees, the cruise will now start and stop in Sacramento. Previously, Sacramento was the final stop on the week-long cruise before heading back to the Bay Area.

Politicians must contend with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, but they also face demands from leaders of vital health care and transit services for more money to solve their fiscal woes.

Up to 60% of 2030 models and two-thirds of 2032 models sold nationwide would be zero-emissions—less aggressive than California’s mandate.

With the intent of reducing congestion and increasing safety, the city of Elk Grove is starting a $12.6 million project that will upgrade and enhance traffic signals. The improvements are expected to be complete by 2025.

Transit agencies in California are struggling to avoid a “fiscal cliff”—and to persuade riders to return after the COVID pandemic. Advocates and legislators are seeking more state aid, but there are no simple solutions.

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved California rules to phase out diesel-burning trucks, which experts say will kick off the transition to electric trucks in other states. California needed the waiver because its rules are more ambitious than EPA requirements.

The City of Folsom is holding a feasibility study in an effort to consider an overpass that will increase safety on Folsom Boulevard.

Communities with high concentrations of electric cars are affluent, college-educated and at least 75% white and Asian—revealing a barrier to electrifying the state’s entire fleet.

A court ruling that upheld much of a 2020 gig-worker initiative also struck down a part that labor advocates say could lead to legislation for driver unionization.

The latest report from the California High-Speed Rail Authority projects costs for the initial segment at $35 billion, which exceeds secured funding by $10 billion. Other segments are likely to see higher projected costs.