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Cars on K project drives forward
by Kathleen Haley, published on April 20, 2011 at 6:07 PM
Storyline: City Services
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City staffers are moving forward on the project to bring cars to K Street, saying Wednesday that the street will see its final days as a pedestrian mall in the fall.
Nader Kamal, a senior projects manager for the city, said the street may be ready for cars by November. People will be able to drive between Eighth and 12th streets once the project is complete.
Cars have been barred from K Street since the 1960s, when the city turned it into a pedestrian mall.
“It seemed to be the trend at that time,” city Transportation Department spokeswoman Linda Tucker said, referring to pedestrian malls.
Thursday, the Law and Legislation Committee — composed of four City Council members – will examine updates to an ordinance on pedestrian malls. The ordinance updates, which would allow cars on K Street, are technical changes. The updates will need to be approved later by the full City Council. The City Council decided last year to dedicate $2.7 million to prepare K Street for cars.
Kamal said construction on K is scheduled to begin in July. The construction work will include installing a new traffic signal at 11th and K streets, changing the existing traffic signals on the street and putting in stripes for two-way lanes.
City officials and the downtown business community have said that cars on K will help attract customers to shops on that street.
The increased traffic from cars “will create just a little more visibility on K Street,” said Denise Malvetti, a senior project manager for the city.
Vehicles will also make people feel safer on K Street because the cars will bring activity to the street, she said.
But Sacramento resident Linda Moss, 63, had a different view of cars on that street. “It’s pollution,” she said, while walking from K Street to a bus stop Wednesday.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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Although that is already starting to change--I walked home down K Street tonight, and things were pretty lively at 8 PM!
It was my understanding the vehicular traffic would be one way only, From 8th to 12th Street to funnel people towards the Convention Center. From my perspective as a light rail driver, I have a hard time wrapping my head around 2 way train and car traffic. Can you verify if the plan was one way or two way traffic in terms of automobiles?
Thanks
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the plan is for two-way traffic.
Cheers,
Kathleen
Joe: Traffic will be two-way, not one-way. One-way was an option they considered in the initial report but decided against it.
Mr. Boyer also made an interesting point--this project will be, for all practical purposes, what is known as a "complete street"--a street where cars are permitted, but they are just one of several available transportation choices. If it works downtown on K Street, maybe we can expand the same concepts (wider sidewalks, more bike lanes, more fixed-rail transit, less parking) to other city streets!
Will this be the thing that saves K Street? Probably not, in and of itself. But if it can draw investment and businesses to K Street (and, considering that several businesses and developers are citing the return of cars to K Street as reasons why they are now starting projects there) it might be a catalyst. Don't worry, though--this project will not turn K Street into a copy of streets like J and L downtown, where the one-way flow of traffic is only useful to get motorists into and out of town, rather than a way to get around downtown.