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Bicyclists ride down Capitol Mall during the City of Trees Parade on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. Sacramento\u2019s regional transportation planning agency hopes to get more people riding bikes.<\/p>\n
JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS<\/p>\n
jvillegas@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
The Sacramento Area Council of Governments is expected to approve a Highway 50 corridor plan Thursday that includes 299 transportation projects, 63 of which are actual freeway projects and 99 of which are geared toward cyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
Yes, they intentionally made bikes and other human-powered methods of getting around a major part of a plan that\u2019s supposed to help freeway drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about a third of the total projects are bike and pedestrian projects,\u201d said Dustin Foster, SACOG\u2019s project manager for the U.S. 50 Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan. He and other planners ask themselves, \u201cHow do we reduce congestion \u2026 by increasing the availability and quality of non-driving options?\u201d<\/p>\n
Although transportation planners have historically proposed highway-widening as the solution to traffic congestion \u2014 a trend that continues in California to this day, including on Highway 50 \u2014 that particular strategy has been repeatedly shown to backfire. The California State Transportation Agency has acknowledged that \u201cresearch over the past several decades has demonstrated that highway capacity expansion has not resulted in long-term congestion relief<\/a> and in some cases has worsened congestion, particularly in urbanized regions.\u201d<\/p>\n And so, sometimes for the sake of freeway traffic, regional planners at SACOG work with local governments to help realize \u201cactive transportation\u201d projects \u2014 those focused on people outside cars such as cyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n Summer Lopez, who heads up active transportation projects at SACOG, said that with shifting demand away from car-focused infrastructure such as freeways, there is an \u201cencouragement piece to getting people out of their cars and riding their bikes.\u201d People generally need safe and appealing routes, Lopez said, such as the American River Parkway.<\/p>\n For the corridor plan, SACOG also surveyed more than 1,500 residents, and \u201csafety\u201d emerged as a top priority. SACOG planners have attempted to prioritize getting pedestrians and cyclists onto dedicated infrastructure that\u2019s separated from car traffic. Each year, hundreds of people die in traffic crashes in the region, and people outside cars face the highest risks.<\/p>\n SACOG\u2019s corridor plan includes 46 \u201cnear-term\u201d transportation projects that are or will be done with all their planning, engineering and environmental work and may apply for construction grants within the next three grant cycles of the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program<\/a>. That program, which is overseen by the California Transportation Commission, awards money to improve \u201cheavily traveled corridors.\u201d A handful of projects may be submitted to the grant this year.<\/p>\n As a regional transportation planning agency, SACOG works with local partner agencies to apply for those congested corridor grants.<\/p>\n \u201cOne key detail is, the state, through this program, they fund multiple projects through one package along the corridor,\u201d Foster said. \u201cIt\u2019s really about telling a good story.\u201d<\/p>\n However, state grant programs are competitive \u2014 meaning that applicants aren\u2019t guaranteed funding and may languish indefinitely.<\/p>\n Among others, three notable projects within Sacramento city limits may apply for grants in the 2026 cycle: the long-awaited I Street Bridge replacement project, the Two Rivers Trail project providing a connection to Sutter\u2019s Landing and the \u201cEnvision Broadway in Oak Park\u201d extension of street improvements and traffic-calming along Broadway.<\/p>\n
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