As part of the data collection steps, residents’ responses to survey questions about some of the more challenging traffic locations in West Sacramento were plotted on a map, along with the police department’s fatal and serious injury accident data. Map courtesy of the City of West Sacramento.

WEST SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - West Sacramento is proposing measures to cut current fatal and serious injury (FSI) traffic incidents in half by 2035 - and eventually to zero after that.

It’s a goal of the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan that Associate Transportation Planner Steve Rosen told the City Council during their June 4 meeting, is achievable from a practical and public sentiment perspective.

“We believe that a realistic, but ambitious goal is better than an audacious goal because meeting or exceeding the goal will keep the city and community morale high and motivation high,” Rosen said. “We want constant improvement and to keep people from getting hurt.”

City staff and Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates have been working together since January 2024 after receiving a $280,000 “Safe Streets and Roads for All” grant from the U.S. Transportation Department to develop a “Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.” Statistical results about traffic conditions and fatal and serious injury accidents were presented to council at a Dec. 4 meeting.

At the meeting, Rosen said police data indicates a mean of 14.43 fatal and serious injury crashes per year in West Sacramento, almost 27 per 100,000 residents.

The plan to cut these in half by 2035 involves implementing five priority projects and programs, the development of an accident “countermeasures menu” detailing what type of crash each countermeasure is designed to address, how to use those measures and an implementation strategy blending the two previous steps as elements of upcoming city projects.

Rosen said it’s similar to slices of Swiss cheese where each slice represents a component of the “Safe System Approach:” safe streets, safe vehicles, safe roads, safe road users and post-crash care. One slice by itself doesn’t prevent all accidents.

“When we stack up the slices of Swiss cheese, the cheese overlaps the holes so there’s no way for the crash to get through,” Rosen said.

Police data shows that 70% of fatal and serious injury crashes in West Sacramento occur on 3.5% of city streets.

When this data was coupled with input from residents from surveys and face-to-face discussions, a map of “High-Injury Locations (HIL)” in the city was created and will be used to prioritize improvements. Also going into the mix are police officers post-crash analysis that the most common behaviors contributing to accidents are pedestrian violations, failure to obey traffic signals and signs and driving under the influence.

Data also indicated 63% of fatal and serious injury crashes occurred “in qualifying disadvantaged communities,” with 86% of these being pedestrian accidents and 85% involving bicycles. Of the high-injury location crashes, 78% involved motorcycles, 77% bicycles and 76% pedestrians.

The priority project is a corridor plan for the Southport Parkway addressing a high-injury location between Ramco Street and Carlin Drive. The improvements would be combined with the Port Area Infrastructure Project to install bikeways and sidewalks on Southport Parkway and Lake Washington and Harbor boulevards.

The second priority project features improvements to the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Linden Road (north) through a two-phase approach involving low-cost, short-term plans that can be implemented quickly and a longer-term, permanent plan. The intersection had 5 to 6 fatal and serious injury/vulnerable road users (FSI/VRU) incidents, such as pedestrian and cyclist accidents during the study period.

The third project is a program to roll-out “quick-build intersection improvements” that can be applied to specific locations quickly to address issues.

The fourth and fifth projects will be developing a list of programs to address road behaviors such as a “No Right on Red Policy,” a traffic safety education campaign, better enforcement of the state’s “Intersection Daylighting Law” and “Midblock Crossing Guidance” where midblock crosswalks and crosswalk improvements can be made on blocks where intersections are far apart.

Council members made several comments about the plan, such as installing better lighting at dark intersections and the need for additional sidewalks in other areas of the city.

Councilwoman Dawnté Early, who represents the Southport area, asked if there were plans to deal with truck traffic, particularly streets where trucks are currently prohibited, but sometimes operate.

“We heard trucks make the road feel unsafe,” Rosen said of public input. She said while trucks are a concern, studies indicate they are not necessarily a cause of fatal and serious injury accidents.

City Manager Aaron Laurel said trucks are a related topic to the discussion and would more likely be addressed through enhanced patrol work by the police department.

“The crux of the item (tonight) is you’re setting a goal for our Vision Zero Plan of 50% (reduction),” Laurel said to the council.

The proposed plan passed unanimously.