Sacramento wants to fix its dangerous roads. But will the city pay for it?

The Sacramento City Council’s Budget and Audit Committee asked city staff for more information about prioritizing safe streets in the 2024-25 budget, while acknowledging Tuesday that a budget deficit may prevent the council from allocating $10 million to fix dangerous roads.

The city sees a disproportionate number of deaths on its streets, and research has shown that the vast majority of these deaths are preventable with improvements to infrastructure.

According to preliminary information from the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, 10 people died in collisions on city streets in the first 83 days of this year. The Sacramento Bee confirmed that six of them — Mattie Nicholson, Kate Johnston, Jeffrey Blain, Aaron Ward, Sam Dent, Terry Lane and David Rink — were cyclists or pedestrians, the most vulnerable road users.

Many of them died on streets where the city and its infrastructure expressly allow drivers to travel at lethal speeds.

Nicholson, who appeared to be the first person to die on a city street in 2024, was hit and killed on a thoroughfare with an unprotected bike lane where cyclists are fully exposed to vehicle traffic. The Freeport Boulevard intersection where she was fatally struck lies between a 30 mph zone and a 35 mph zone. A study in Accident Analysis & Prevention found that if a driver traveling 32.5 mph strikes a pedestrian, the average risk of death is 25%. At 40.6 mph, the risk of death is 50%.

One of the Active Transportation Commission’s recommendations to the council includes reducing speeds across the city.

The price tag of deadly roads

Deaths on public streets have a cost, both in terms of the unfathomable grief borne by families and the monetary cost borne by the public. In January, Nicholson was hit and killed just three blocks away from where QuiChang Zhu, 72, was crossing the street in January 2018 with her grandson, then 6. Both were struck by a car. Zhu died; her grandson, Jian Hao Kuang, survived the crash with extensive brain damage. The city paid the family an $11 million settlement.

That settlement figure represents $1 million more than city staff say they need in the first year to implement all nine of the Active Transportation Commission’s goals.

“This is really about funding public safety,” Councilwoman Mai Vang said on the dais Tuesday. Vang made the proposal to the budget committee along with Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela.

“Given our structural deficit, I also just want to just say that our city budget is $1.6 billion, but we have about $1.4 billion in deferred maintenance, right?” Vang said. “And until we figure out another source of revenue, it’s going to be incredibly hard for us to fund active transportation.”

Mayor Pro Tem Karina Talamantes echoed the sentiment.

“I support all of these recommendations from the Active Transportation Commission,” Talamantes said. “We also have no money, and we’re balancing the budget today in the next few weeks.”

Toward the end of the committee meeting, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said that securing funding for safe streets should be “a top, top priority.”

The outgoing mayor said, “I would just suggest to my colleagues here that you make this issue a major organizing principle of the next city council … that this become the issue — maybe as important as homelessness in terms of preparing for our future.”

In her motion, Vang specifically asked city staff for more information on quick-build bikeways, which can improve safety for all road users, including drivers. The committee also discussed the necessity of a future ballot measure to generate more funds to address dangerous streets.