Freeport Boulevard can be a great place to shop and dine. There are plenty of small businesses, and plenty of potential customers within an easy walk or ride of the corridor. Unfortunately, this proposal does not go far enough to improve the street, and I believe it will leave ALL users unsatisfied. As a driver, I object to the new traffic signals, yet as a bicyclist or pedestrian I see few meaningful improvements to pleasantness (trees, buffering from traffic) or safety. There are too many driveways and intersections as it is, for all users. More radical changes should be considered, such as:
- Close some side streets to car access, and/or removing left turn access to/from them.
- Reduce the number of lanes (at least between Sutterville south and Fruitridge), allowing roadside trees and more space for street parking, bicycles, and
- Consolidate access to some blocks on frontage/parking roads (like a true boulevard). Perhaps some of the strip mall property owners would be willing to trade some private parking for a healthy amount of street parking and a substantially enhanced streetscape.
Reducing traffic speed, but increasing the smoothness, should be an acceptable tradeoff to drivers, and benefit all other road users and property owners as well.
There's a common phrase in Appendix A - "The Community approved this". I have been a close observer and contributor for this plan, yet I am not certain when the Community approved these changes. Workshop #3 and the Community Open House were held when most neighborhood associations in the area were preparing and holding their fall festival activities, and could neither participate nor encourage other people to participate. Holding the Open House on the Saturday before Halloween definitely limited the participation of Freeport Blvd. neighborhoods because many area residents were at holiday events planned and funded months before the City announced the Freeport Transportation Plan Open House. I don't support the addition of three new lights along this stretch of road - this will cause congestion at rush hours for all auto and bicycle travelers alike. I don't see that these changes will make it any safer to be a bicyclist on Freeport Blvd. Yes - there is a need for far more trees and greenery in the plan area. As a commercial corridor, it is good to keep two lanes of travel in both directions because public buses and trucks must use Freeport Blvd. or the businesses will die. Many public comments on this plan do not take the health of the businesses of Freeport Blvd. into consideration - it's spoken of as if it's a 'fly-over zone' between Fruitridge Rd. and downtown. Given the one-sidedness of many comments, I am concerned that efforts to please everyone using this important narrow corridor for safe auto, public bus, safe bicycle, and safe pedestrian travel will fail. Is this a commercial corridor to take area residents to and from downtown by car and bus, or is this to be a business center for immediate residents to access by foot and bicycle and not a major thoroughfare into downtown- this is the question we needed to resolve with this improvement plan. Instead we are trying to squeeze the transportation needs that should take 6-8 lanes with limited, very controlled driveways into four lanes with far too many driveways, and in the end achieve a congested mess that will not please anyone.
This plan as written does not include any lane reductions which will not meaningfully reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMTs), and as a result will not meaningfully impact greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other unhealthy air pollutants that we are forced to breath all winter long. We urgently need to transition away from a car-dependent lifestyle, and Freeport Blvd represents one of Sacramento's most significant "stroads". We must not rush to condemn this critical corridor into another several decades of a polluting, unhealthy, and unpleasant experience for all residents.
Furthermore, please consider that implementing this plan, with the excessive number of self-deteriorating auto travel lanes and complex electronic signalling, will result in a needlessly expensive maintenance liability to the city at a time when it already spends the largest slice of its budget on transportation infrastructure instead of other, more directly meaningful amenities and services.
I'd like to echo previous comments that note there is not enough consideration for incorporating trees and reducing traffic speeds. I only use these streets as a cyclist and would not feel much safer with the proposed plan.
I am opposed to adoption of the Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan Final Draft. While a lot of laudable work has been done so far for which staff and the city deserve credit, the draft under consideration falls short in a number of significant ways. This plan, and its potential to dramatically improve one of the most critical connections in our city, is too important to rush through before it is truly ready. I recommend sending the plan to staff for consideration of the following minimum modifications:
1. Provide additional landscape spaces to improve the tree canopy and pedestrian experience
2. Reduce dangerous conflict points between cyclists and automobiles
3. Provide better, safer access to Land Park for Carleton Tract residents
4. Provide strategies for reducing vehicle speeds
5. Provide justification and data for the number of automobile lanes. Reduce the lanes to the minimum amount possible.
Thank you for your consideration of this comment and all the hard work to date by staff and stakeholders to deliver a Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan of which we can all be justifiably proud.
Why is there more than 2 car lanes? Why do the buses have to go into the bike lanes to pick people up? Why is there no buldge outs? Why are there intersections without crosswalks on all for sides? And why do three way stops lack cross walks? This plan is one of many examples that make me question if the city actually cares about vision zero or hitting their climate goals.
I am opposed to the adoption of the Freeport Blvd Transportation Plan. While I am generally supportive of the city's transportation planning efforts, this plan is a failure for two major reasons: 1) the plan largely ignored public input to the plan, which voices strong support for significant traffic calming and more street trees, and 2) the plan accepts and guarantees the Freeport Blvd will remain a motor vehicle dominated corridor, for at least 30 years. The city has a climate emergency, and this plans is inconsistent with that emergency.
We should be thinking boldly about how to address our City's climate and transportation needs. The Freeport Blvd Plan tinkers around the edges and is an underwhelming attempt to address major deficiencies on this corridor.
I encourage the City Council to send this plan back to staff and request a plan that aligns with Vision Zero, one that would make Freeport safe and accessible for all.
Specifically, the revised plan should include the following:
1. Provide additional landscape spaces to improve the tree canopy and pedestrian experience
2. Reduce dangerous conflict points between cyclists and automobiles
3. Provide better, safer access to Land Park for Carleton Tract residents
4. Provide strategies for reducing vehicle speeds
5. Provide justification and data for the number of automobile lanes. Reduce the lanes to the minimum amount possible.
Attached is my comment letter which was submitted to the active transportation commission.
You can also view a series of online posts about this issue here:
https://wordpress.com/post/forwardsac.wordpress.com/71
This plan is a vision for what this corridor looks like in 15-20 years. Lets be ambitious and turn Freeport Boulevard into an incredible "Main Street" for the surrounding neighborhoods.
I urge the City to vote NO against the Freeport Blvd plan, send it back to planning staff, and to come back to it again soon with the intent of a lane reduction.
This plan is a slap in the face of the public outreach that has been conducted and is another example of the city's refusal to change, even though they claim to want to! Planning staff claims that Freeport has 20,000+ ADT yet provides absolutely no data to back this claim up, and doesn't even include their figures in the plan or in the appendix; it is completely unacceptable to shoot down the possibility of a lane reduction, and not even provide the "evidence" that is being cited as the reason why! Transparency is essential to projects such as this one, so it's VERY telling that the city continues to skirt their responsibility to prove why we cannot reduce lanes. Other cities have narrowed far busier streets, and motorists have TWO parallel freeways to choose from should their trip take them downtown, so traffic is NOT an excuse. If the city's goal is to reduce VMT as they claim, then it should be a no-brainer to reduce the number of lanes on Freeport and work to provide other mobility options outside of the dogmatic "I must drive everywhere" viewpoint; Nobody will take the city seriously if they cannot follow through on their own goals they claim to espouse, and it is urgent that the council holds planning staff accountable for their inability to provide the evidence as to why Freeport should remain a surface freeway!
If the goal here is safety, then a lane reduction is a hugely necessary tool to accomplish these goals. People WILL speed if Freeport remains a 5-lane surface freeway like it is now, and changing the speed limit will do nothing to stop it without the proper infrastructure in place. You are endangering cyclists and pedestrians by allowing Freeport to remain so wide and to remain a traffic plague on the city, and it is urgent that the city council sends this back to planning staff. All public outreach sessions have proven that residents and visitors want SAFER streets and want to be able to walk/bike/transit to get to where they are going, yet the city ignores their pleas for a lane reduction and for the safe infrastructure simply because they don't want to! If you are confused as to why nobody rides the 62, and why the current sidewalks and bike lanes don't get much usage, IT'S THE CARS. Let the traffic engineers sulk in the corner and do the right thing, send this plan BACK!!
I urge you to consider the consequences of passing this plan without the proper infrastructure to ensure safety on the corridor, especially because once the construction is finished Freeport's physical form will be locked in place for at least 20-30 years. If we mess this up now, there's no quick solution to the safety problems and deaths that WILL occur as a result of the city's negligence and insistence on 1960s planning. Freeport is NOT a freeway, and should not be treated as such. Vote NO.
I live, work, play, shop in South Land Park and use Freeport Blvd. daily.
In fact, I helped the City two years ago to kick off this part of the Commercial Corridor campaign - asking my neighbors for their feedback on how to improve Freeport Blvd. with a transportation plan and identify roadway improvements that support safety and mobility. I have also attended all zooms and most in person meetings during this phase of the Transportation Plan and provided my feedback to staff directly.
I am asking Council to approve this Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan and to amending the Bicycle Master Plan to reflect the Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan.
In conjunction with the Del Rio Trail Project, my neighborhood will see these catalyst projects to improve mobility in and out of downtown / central city.
Thank You.
Joe Flores
Parks and Community Enrichment Commissioner
District 7
Freeport Boulevard can be a great place to shop and dine. There are plenty of small businesses, and plenty of potential customers within an easy walk or ride of the corridor. Unfortunately, this proposal does not go far enough to improve the street, and I believe it will leave ALL users unsatisfied. As a driver, I object to the new traffic signals, yet as a bicyclist or pedestrian I see few meaningful improvements to pleasantness (trees, buffering from traffic) or safety. There are too many driveways and intersections as it is, for all users. More radical changes should be considered, such as:
- Close some side streets to car access, and/or removing left turn access to/from them.
- Reduce the number of lanes (at least between Sutterville south and Fruitridge), allowing roadside trees and more space for street parking, bicycles, and
- Consolidate access to some blocks on frontage/parking roads (like a true boulevard). Perhaps some of the strip mall property owners would be willing to trade some private parking for a healthy amount of street parking and a substantially enhanced streetscape.
Reducing traffic speed, but increasing the smoothness, should be an acceptable tradeoff to drivers, and benefit all other road users and property owners as well.
There's a common phrase in Appendix A - "The Community approved this". I have been a close observer and contributor for this plan, yet I am not certain when the Community approved these changes. Workshop #3 and the Community Open House were held when most neighborhood associations in the area were preparing and holding their fall festival activities, and could neither participate nor encourage other people to participate. Holding the Open House on the Saturday before Halloween definitely limited the participation of Freeport Blvd. neighborhoods because many area residents were at holiday events planned and funded months before the City announced the Freeport Transportation Plan Open House. I don't support the addition of three new lights along this stretch of road - this will cause congestion at rush hours for all auto and bicycle travelers alike. I don't see that these changes will make it any safer to be a bicyclist on Freeport Blvd. Yes - there is a need for far more trees and greenery in the plan area. As a commercial corridor, it is good to keep two lanes of travel in both directions because public buses and trucks must use Freeport Blvd. or the businesses will die. Many public comments on this plan do not take the health of the businesses of Freeport Blvd. into consideration - it's spoken of as if it's a 'fly-over zone' between Fruitridge Rd. and downtown. Given the one-sidedness of many comments, I am concerned that efforts to please everyone using this important narrow corridor for safe auto, public bus, safe bicycle, and safe pedestrian travel will fail. Is this a commercial corridor to take area residents to and from downtown by car and bus, or is this to be a business center for immediate residents to access by foot and bicycle and not a major thoroughfare into downtown- this is the question we needed to resolve with this improvement plan. Instead we are trying to squeeze the transportation needs that should take 6-8 lanes with limited, very controlled driveways into four lanes with far too many driveways, and in the end achieve a congested mess that will not please anyone.
This plan as written does not include any lane reductions which will not meaningfully reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMTs), and as a result will not meaningfully impact greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other unhealthy air pollutants that we are forced to breath all winter long. We urgently need to transition away from a car-dependent lifestyle, and Freeport Blvd represents one of Sacramento's most significant "stroads". We must not rush to condemn this critical corridor into another several decades of a polluting, unhealthy, and unpleasant experience for all residents.
Furthermore, please consider that implementing this plan, with the excessive number of self-deteriorating auto travel lanes and complex electronic signalling, will result in a needlessly expensive maintenance liability to the city at a time when it already spends the largest slice of its budget on transportation infrastructure instead of other, more directly meaningful amenities and services.
I'd like to echo previous comments that note there is not enough consideration for incorporating trees and reducing traffic speeds. I only use these streets as a cyclist and would not feel much safer with the proposed plan.
I am opposed to adoption of the Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan Final Draft. While a lot of laudable work has been done so far for which staff and the city deserve credit, the draft under consideration falls short in a number of significant ways. This plan, and its potential to dramatically improve one of the most critical connections in our city, is too important to rush through before it is truly ready. I recommend sending the plan to staff for consideration of the following minimum modifications:
1. Provide additional landscape spaces to improve the tree canopy and pedestrian experience
2. Reduce dangerous conflict points between cyclists and automobiles
3. Provide better, safer access to Land Park for Carleton Tract residents
4. Provide strategies for reducing vehicle speeds
5. Provide justification and data for the number of automobile lanes. Reduce the lanes to the minimum amount possible.
Thank you for your consideration of this comment and all the hard work to date by staff and stakeholders to deliver a Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan of which we can all be justifiably proud.
Why is there more than 2 car lanes? Why do the buses have to go into the bike lanes to pick people up? Why is there no buldge outs? Why are there intersections without crosswalks on all for sides? And why do three way stops lack cross walks? This plan is one of many examples that make me question if the city actually cares about vision zero or hitting their climate goals.
I am opposed to the adoption of the Freeport Blvd Transportation Plan. While I am generally supportive of the city's transportation planning efforts, this plan is a failure for two major reasons: 1) the plan largely ignored public input to the plan, which voices strong support for significant traffic calming and more street trees, and 2) the plan accepts and guarantees the Freeport Blvd will remain a motor vehicle dominated corridor, for at least 30 years. The city has a climate emergency, and this plans is inconsistent with that emergency.
We should be thinking boldly about how to address our City's climate and transportation needs. The Freeport Blvd Plan tinkers around the edges and is an underwhelming attempt to address major deficiencies on this corridor.
I encourage the City Council to send this plan back to staff and request a plan that aligns with Vision Zero, one that would make Freeport safe and accessible for all.
Specifically, the revised plan should include the following:
1. Provide additional landscape spaces to improve the tree canopy and pedestrian experience
2. Reduce dangerous conflict points between cyclists and automobiles
3. Provide better, safer access to Land Park for Carleton Tract residents
4. Provide strategies for reducing vehicle speeds
5. Provide justification and data for the number of automobile lanes. Reduce the lanes to the minimum amount possible.
Attached is my comment letter which was submitted to the active transportation commission.
You can also view a series of online posts about this issue here:
https://wordpress.com/post/forwardsac.wordpress.com/71
This plan is a vision for what this corridor looks like in 15-20 years. Lets be ambitious and turn Freeport Boulevard into an incredible "Main Street" for the surrounding neighborhoods.
I urge the City to vote NO against the Freeport Blvd plan, send it back to planning staff, and to come back to it again soon with the intent of a lane reduction.
This plan is a slap in the face of the public outreach that has been conducted and is another example of the city's refusal to change, even though they claim to want to! Planning staff claims that Freeport has 20,000+ ADT yet provides absolutely no data to back this claim up, and doesn't even include their figures in the plan or in the appendix; it is completely unacceptable to shoot down the possibility of a lane reduction, and not even provide the "evidence" that is being cited as the reason why! Transparency is essential to projects such as this one, so it's VERY telling that the city continues to skirt their responsibility to prove why we cannot reduce lanes. Other cities have narrowed far busier streets, and motorists have TWO parallel freeways to choose from should their trip take them downtown, so traffic is NOT an excuse. If the city's goal is to reduce VMT as they claim, then it should be a no-brainer to reduce the number of lanes on Freeport and work to provide other mobility options outside of the dogmatic "I must drive everywhere" viewpoint; Nobody will take the city seriously if they cannot follow through on their own goals they claim to espouse, and it is urgent that the council holds planning staff accountable for their inability to provide the evidence as to why Freeport should remain a surface freeway!
If the goal here is safety, then a lane reduction is a hugely necessary tool to accomplish these goals. People WILL speed if Freeport remains a 5-lane surface freeway like it is now, and changing the speed limit will do nothing to stop it without the proper infrastructure in place. You are endangering cyclists and pedestrians by allowing Freeport to remain so wide and to remain a traffic plague on the city, and it is urgent that the city council sends this back to planning staff. All public outreach sessions have proven that residents and visitors want SAFER streets and want to be able to walk/bike/transit to get to where they are going, yet the city ignores their pleas for a lane reduction and for the safe infrastructure simply because they don't want to! If you are confused as to why nobody rides the 62, and why the current sidewalks and bike lanes don't get much usage, IT'S THE CARS. Let the traffic engineers sulk in the corner and do the right thing, send this plan BACK!!
I urge you to consider the consequences of passing this plan without the proper infrastructure to ensure safety on the corridor, especially because once the construction is finished Freeport's physical form will be locked in place for at least 20-30 years. If we mess this up now, there's no quick solution to the safety problems and deaths that WILL occur as a result of the city's negligence and insistence on 1960s planning. Freeport is NOT a freeway, and should not be treated as such. Vote NO.
I live, work, play, shop in South Land Park and use Freeport Blvd. daily.
In fact, I helped the City two years ago to kick off this part of the Commercial Corridor campaign - asking my neighbors for their feedback on how to improve Freeport Blvd. with a transportation plan and identify roadway improvements that support safety and mobility. I have also attended all zooms and most in person meetings during this phase of the Transportation Plan and provided my feedback to staff directly.
I am asking Council to approve this Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan and to amending the Bicycle Master Plan to reflect the Freeport Boulevard Transportation Plan.
In conjunction with the Del Rio Trail Project, my neighborhood will see these catalyst projects to improve mobility in and out of downtown / central city.
Thank You.
Joe Flores
Parks and Community Enrichment Commissioner
District 7