Finally, to some specifics for 7th and 8th Streets in downtown Sacramento. 8th (northbound) and 7th (southbound), between P and H, have already been identified as primary transit streets in the Downtown Transit Circulation Plan and Grid 3.0, but the design of these streets has not been detailed.

Light rail is on the “off” sides of these two streets, the left hand side in the direction of travel. Both of the plans focus mostly on bus service, and the circulation plan identifies 8th, but not 7th, as having a dedicated bus lane. Sometimes rail and bus lanes are shared, but that would not make sense here, since buses (in the US at least) have right hand boarding, so the bus lane could not be on the left with rail, nor would it make sense to move the tracks for a minor gain. The diagram below shows an offset bus lane, and the previous post shows a dedicated rail transit lane. NACTO does not have a diagram showing what 7th and 8th would look like.

The diagram below shows the existing situation on 8th St northbound, in the block between K and J, though a single cross-section diagram cannot represent what the one block or seven blocks would look like. The second diagram shows 8th St with both a dedicated bus lane and a dedicated transit lane. The general purpose lanes have been reduced from three to two, which is entirely appropriate for a transit priority street. A bike lane is not shown, , but a shared bus/bike lane is. It is not clear whether bikes should be encouraged on this transit street. Some cities have included designated bike lanes or separated bikeways, some have included shared bus/bike lanes, and some have discouraged though not prohibited bikes, instead providing good facilities on parallel streets. This diagram could have a dedicated, red bus lane instead of the shared bus/bike lane. The city has proposed 8th St for this higher level of transit priority, so this is not a new idea, just a more detailed idea.

7th St southbound would look very similar. The city has not proposed 7th St for this higher level of transit priority. These diagrams are from StreetMix. The widths should not be taken literally as the street was not measured in detail.

Note: The author of this series on light rail downtown (Dan) is off on a backpack trip, so the next post in the series will not come for about a week. But there will be at least two more. While you are waiting, you are encouraged to look at all the streets in downtown Sacramento that have light rail, and envision for yourself how they could be improved.

• SacRT