Sacramento City Council considers creating team to make quick fixes for improved road safety
SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento City Council is considering creating a transportation safety team after the number of traffic-related deaths continues to climb throughout the city.
The city said that instead of spending half a million dollars on roundabouts, the transportation safety team would be able to spend closer to $50,000 on quick fix projects.
These types of quick fixes would include installing more green traffic posts that separate bike lanes or pedestrians from cars, adding more road signs, marking crosswalks and railroad crossings or repaving green bike lanes.
Carol Turner does not have a car and walks the streets daily. She told CBS13 that she constantly sees drivers speeding and even sometimes getting mad at the pedestrians they almost hit.
"There was no reason for you to get that close," Turner said about the close calls with cars she has had.
Data from the group Slow Down Sacramento shows that 32 people died in traffic-related deaths in the city in 2024. It had a memorial to honor those lives in January.
"None of these had to happen," said Isaac Gonzalez, the founder of Slow Down Sacramento. "These were all preventable deaths."
Gonzalez wishes that people did not need to get killed for change to happen.
"Make safety a priority on our roads, instead of speed," said Gonzalez.
City Councilor Lisa Kaplan has been implementing road safety improvements in north Natomas.
"I can't get in that car with you. I can't make people slow down," said Kaplan. "I can ask you, 'Let's care about each other more instead of trying to get somewhere faster.' "
Kaplan is hopeful the rest of her team sees the need for the changes across Sacramento, not just in her district.
"You can see ticks in the street that are permanently in the street so then we can start gathering data so that cars have to go around them," said Kaplan.
The city has a
Vision Zero
goal of zero traffic-related deaths by 2027 and these quick fixes could be another step in achieving that goal.
If approved by council, the implementation of projects would happen within months. The city is still working on an updated list of high-priority dangerous roadways across the city.
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