After months of advocating for Slow and Active Streets, on February 12th, 2021, the first set of Slow and Active Streets were launched in the Midtown/Newton Booth neighborhoods. YAY!

What is a Slow and Active Street?  

• They are residential in nature and a classified as a “local street” (as opposed to collector or arterial streets);
• Have no more than one travel lane in each direction;
• Have a speed limit of no more than 25mph;
• Are not on a bus or light-rail route; and
• Do not have a Police or Fire Station on the street.

They look like this picture from Oakland, which has had nearly 75 miles of Slow Streets since May 2020. The street below is now open for people to walk, stroll, skate, scoot, and ride down without fear of cars zooming through. Residents with cars are still able to access the street, but other through-traffic moves to a parallel roadway. Oakland’s Slow Streets effort stemmed from the initial pandemic lockdown. Months later, Oaklanders are happy to have them. They report higher usage of these streets, and more residents are getting outside, riding their bicycles, enjoying the fresh air and space. No doubt, problems remain, but OakDOT is committed to working with communities to make the changes needed.

SABA has been instrumental in launching the effort in Sacramento with many community partners. Our earliest work on Slow and Active Streets was with Civic Thread.

With sustained advocacy from a wide swath of the Sacramento community, City Council and the Mayor said Yes! to a Slow and Active Streets program in Sacramento as a pilot in December 2020, which was among the first set of recommendations from the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change. The pilot program is open to all neighborhoods in Sacramento with priority given to Environmental Justice (EJ) neighborhoods. The pilot program ran until the end of July 2021.