Note: Other Truxel Bridge posts are available under category ‘Truxel Bridge‘.
STAR will publish a series of blog posts on Truxel Bridge. STAR’s interest in the project lies in the fact that a light rail, walking and bicycling bridge was approved by SacRT and by Sacramento County in its American River Parkway Plan, and is the only plan approved by SacRT and Sacramento County at this time. STAR is concerned that the city’s project as envisioned, with motor vehicle capacity, will make the bridge less successful as a transit bridge, and will reduce the likelihood of the bridge receiving the necessary environmental clearances and funding needed to build it.
Dan Allison of STAR attended the city’s Truxel Bridge Community Conversation last evening in South Natomas. City staff, the outreach consultant, and the engineering consultant all talked about this project as a done deal, and in fact cut off the public when it attempted to question whether the bridge should include motor vehicle traffic. There were a number of members of Save the American River Association (SARA) as well as unaffiliated members of the public who wanted to question the location of the bridge and the inclusion of motor vehicles, but were not allowed to. The justification for a done deal is that the city council approved the bridge concept and approximate alignment, Sequoia Pacific Avenue to Truxel Road, in 2013, end of discussion. But since 2013, there have been:
- Mayors Commission on Climate Change and Recommendations to Achieve Carbon Zero by 2045 in Sacramento and West Sacramento (2020)
- Climate Emergency Declaration (2019)
- Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, to be adopted February 2024
- 2040 General Plan, to be adopted February 2024
- SB 743 Transportation Impacts (Steinberg, 2013), requiring VMT (vehicle miles traveled) as the primary measure of transportation project impacts, removing level of service as the primary measure
- and many others
Times have changed. The public has become very aware of the impacts of climate change, particularly the contribution of increased VMT to climate change (transportation is 57% of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the city, and the important trade-offs to be made when we select one transportation project over others with a limited amount of funding.
None of this is to say that the project as defined would not still be the choice of the city council today. It is to say that the project should be reconsidered in light of changes since 2013.
Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders (STAR) 