Sacramento residents and neighborhood advocates are pushing a November ballot measure that would raise an estimated $70 million a year for street safety improvements and expanded public transit service.
The proposed “Safe Streets and Affordable Transit Measure,” filed Feb. 20 with the Sacramento City Clerk’s Office, would impose a half-cent sales tax within the city to fund road maintenance, pedestrian and bicycle safety projects and transit operations.
The organizers estimate the measure’s increase — which would bring the city’s sales tax to 9.25% — could raise as much as $70 million a year.
Under the proposal, 48% of the revenue would go toward street maintenance and safety projects, including improvements for people walking and biking, and another 48% would fund transit operations and service expansions.
Three percent would support infrastructure tied to workforce housing near Regional Transit light rail corridors, and 1% would cover administration and oversight, including annual audits.
To qualify for the ballot, proponents must collect about 30,000 voter signatures by mid-June.
The measure focuses on pedestrians and cyclists because those groups account for the largest share of deaths on city streets. Last year, at least 32 people died in Sacramento crashes, and 22 of them were pedestrians or cyclists.
“We desperately need to address street safety,” said Sam Rice, a transportation advocate who grew up in Sacramento. He said multiple polls have shown that residents in the city want safer streets. “So we decided, ‘Hey, why don’t we make an effort? Why doesn’t a citizens group step up?’”
In December, Rice became a founding co-chair of SafeSacPAC.
Several transportation sales tax measures have failed in recent years, but each differed substantially from the safe streets proposal.
Voters reapproved a Sacramento County transportation sales tax, Measure A, in 2004. More recently, the Sacramento Transportation Authority planned an update to Measure A in 2020 but ultimately abandoned the effort. Then, in 2022, another Measure A update withered at the polls, with 56% of the votes against it; that measure, which was also citizen-led, needed a simple majority to pass. But, as CapRadio reported at the time, that measure directed substantial funding to expanding a local expressway to Sacramento County suburbs. An analysis by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments said the 2022 measure, if it passed, could jeopardize the region’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Rice said that because the 2026 proposal differs significantly from the Measure A attempts — particularly because it applies only within the city of Sacramento and directs nearly all funding to road safety and public transit — he remained optimistic about its chances. The City Council made a “Vision Zero” pledge in 2017 to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2027 but has not significantly changed its funding strategy for the Department of Public Works, which implements road safety projects. As a result, Public Works relies largely on competitive grants to pay for changes to street infrastructure, which in turn can lead to years-long delays in safety improvements.
In some cases, multiple people have died at the same intersections. A two-car crash killed Amritpal Singh, 61, and Ryan Jacob Murphy, 38, at Rio Linda Boulevard and South Avenue in 2021; almost exactly two years later, Juan Ramon Flores, 78, was fatally struck while walking through the same intersection. In 2024, the city installed made some improvements at the intersection of Club Center Drive and Banfield Drive in Natomas after the death of Muhammad Saddique, 64. Saddique was the second grandfather to die at the intersection that year; Sau Voong, 84, was killed while biking at the same crossroads a few months earlier.
“There really needs to be a solution to the problem of transportation funding,” Rice said. “This is a really urgent problem that needs to be addressed.”
Rice said the measure, if it qualifies for the ballot and wins a majority of votes, could help Sacramento win more money from the state or federal government by giving the Department of Public Works a larger pool of local matching funds for projects.
City officials have begun discussing how the measure might affect safety funding. At the Budget and Audit Committee meeting Tuesday, Councilmember Caity Maple — who spearheaded an effort to direct $4.6 million to a new “quick-build” safety program last year — said she was interested in learning more about how the initiative might affect the city budget, which has a $66 million gap.
The campaign for the safety measure will host a kickoff event at 1 p.m. Sunday at New Helvetia Brewing Co., 1730 Broadway.
The Bee’s Ishani Desai contributed reporting.
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 8:16 AM.
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Ariane Lange reports on regional transportation for The Sacramento Bee. She was a USC Center for Health Journalism 2023 California Health Equity Fellow. Previously, she worked at BuzzFeed News, where she covered gender-based violence and sexual harassment.