Bicycle advocates are calling for immediate changes to local roads and bike infrastructure after 10 bicyclists have been killed on Sacramento-area roadways so far this year.
The Sacramento County Bicycle Advisory Committee presented a report to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday highlighting areas advocates say are among the most dangerous for people who bike and walk.
The report includes a map showing bicycle crashes throughout the county. Purple dots represent bicycle crashes, while black dots represent the 158 people who were killed while walking or bicycling in Sacramento County over the past five years.
Evan Dudley, a member of the Bicycle Advisory Committee, said Sacramento's relatively flat terrain makes it an ideal place for bicycling, but safety concerns can keep people off the roads.
"Sacramento is a flat city. It's a great place to be able to bike," Dudley said.
The issue is personal for Dudley. His 12-year-old son, Austin, rides his bicycle to school and must cross Watt Avenue, which advocates identify as one of the county's more dangerous corridors.
"It can be kind of scary because every once in a while I'll be riding down and then a car will just randomly pull in the bike lane," Austin said.
"A lot of these roads, especially at peak when the kids are going to school, there's a lot of points where there could be conflicts between them," Dudley said.
Advocates push for protected bike lanes
The Bicycle Advisory Committee is calling for more infrastructure designed to physically separate bicyclists from vehicle traffic. Among the ideas are additional bike lanes and barriers to create a buffer between bicycles and cars.
"Barriers are the best answer," Dudley said. "It doesn't need to be concrete necessarily. A lot of the plastic bollards are a great way to delineate."
Sacramento County says it has added more than 14 miles of improved bike lanes over the past year, including a section of Watt Avenue in North Highlands.
The county is also working on safer routes connecting bicyclists to the American River Parkway trail system.
"To be able to get to it is actually rather difficult," he said. "There aren't a lot of good connectors."
Dudley said that as the region's population grows, it's important to have better bike lanes in place.
"The more people who are riding their bikes, the less traffic there is, but when you don't feel safe, there's no reason to go out there on a bike," he said.
Sacramento County is also looking at ways to regulate the growing popularity of e-bikes, which can go much faster than a regular bike and potentially cause more serious injuries.
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