Sacramento Streetcar

In my other, other occupation as an armchair city planner, I've come up with a grand idea for a Portland-style streetcar in Sacramento.  I think a streetcar would reduce traffic and parking problems and would encourage people to move downtown by addressing their transportation needs.

The streetcar would be free and would travel down J Street from 3rd to 29th Street.  Then the streetcar would run along 29th to L Street where it would turn right.  The line would travel down L to 9th where it would make a quick left-right to run the rest of the way down Capitol to 3rd Street*.  The streetcar would complete its run at 3rd and J Street.

The streetcar route would be very convenient to most major downtown destinations.  It would run less than a block from the Capitol, Downtown Plaza, the Convention Center, Memorial Auditorium, Community Center Theater, the Hyatt and the Sheraton.  In addition, there would be stops within a few blocks of Old Sacramento, the Embassy Suites, Sacramento Music Circus, Raley Field, the Crocker, nearly all of Sacramento's existing skyscrapers and most of the new condo developments.

With what looks to be as many as several thousand housing units going in to downtown, we want to encourage people to walk or take transit to work.  Buses could fill the need, but there is a negative association with buses that simply can't be changed.  That association doesn't exist with trains.  Portland's streetcars are heavily used, air conditioned and just generally pretty cool as long as you don't try to put money in them**, which practically no one does anyway.

New downtown residents aren't necessarily going to live next to their place of work.  What we don't want is a state worker who lives in the Sacramento Towers at 3rd and Capitol driving to their job at the East End Complex at 16th and Capitol.  The streetcar would run directly in front of Sac Towers and three blocks from the East End Complex at the 16th and J Street stop.  The same goes for a midtown resident who lives at 18th and L and works in the Wells Fargo building at 4th and Capitol. Fifteen blocks is a really long way at 5:00 PM in a July heat wave.  On an air-conditioned streetcar, the ride is a pleasure, plus it would save the $100-plus per month Wells Fargo charges to park in the building.

All of downtown's streets are wide enough for the streetcars.  It would be a great way to reduce traffic and street parking problems downtown, especially as all of the new residents are added.  It might even have a positive impact on our annual summer Downtown Brown pollution problem.  I think the Sacramento Streetcar is a perfect solution to getting people around downtown.   

* 3rd Street between Capitol and L Street is currently one way.  It could easily be changed to allow two-way traffic. 
** You're technically supposed to pay when you pass the edge of downtown on Portland's streetcars.  Like the tourons*** we are, my wife and I tried to pay for our ride. The money got stuck in the streetcar's bill changer and the driver literally rebooted the train at the next stop.  He turned the entire train off, turned it back on and the money came spitting out of the machine.  We pretended not to know what happened.
*** Touron = Combination of tourist and moron.

Update: Edited post to clarify my dorky use of the English language.

Comments

[YouSoSpecial]

Check this out
http://www.riverfrontstreetcar.com/

[Carl]

Good eye! I still think this would be absolutely great for downtown Sacramento, and could really help out on West Capitol as well. Thanks for the link.

[YouSoSpecial]

Good news! RT, Yolobus, and the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento are working together on a feasibility study for a streetcar line to link the two cities across the Sacramento River. Watch for news of workshops the week of October 30, 2006. Here is a link to the staff report that approved hiring a consultant for the feasibility study. http://www.cityofwestsacramento.org/cityhall/agendas/Council/20060816/reports/ai4.pdf

[Carl]

THIEVES! SacRT stole my idea! They could at least pay me a very, very small consulting fee. Basically, I'd take a donut and cup of water in trade.

Thanks, Sugit. I hope they fast track the streetcar idea.

[sugit]

Thought you might like to see this...

http://www.sacrt.com/cass.stm#Tentative%20Agenda

This would be awesome...

[sugit]

I have always wanted to see something like this come into down/midtown. I felt though we needed to see a larger amount of people living in the city core before it could be used at full capacity and make sense. That time looks like it will happen sooner than later with all existing residential construction that will completed within the next year and what is on the drawing board

My wife works at the Wells Fargo Building, but we live on 13th and P..quite a walk. A streetcar would suit her nice

I was in portland over the summer and loved their streetcar. If we can get something like that in Sac in the next couple of years, living downtown will be much easier and will prob encourage more people to want to move downtown.