Franklin Boulevard Class IV Protected Bikeway Project

Location

Franklin Blvd (Big Horn Drive to Cosumnes River Blvd)

City or County Responsible for Project

City of Sacramento

Author

Philip Vulliet

Organization

City of Sacramento

Address

915 I Street Suite 2000, Sacramento CA 95814

Phone

916-808-5092

Project Description

The City of Sacramento and the City of Elk Grove teamed up on the Franklin Boulevard Class IV Protected Bikeway Project to implement bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements along the Franklin Boulevard Corridor while also performing much needed pavement maintenance. Franklin Boulevard functions as a commuter route and is the only continuous roadway connecting the City of Elk Grove to Sacramento’s urban core between Interstate 5 and Highway 99, an overall distance of 11.5 miles. Franklin Boulevard has 4 lanes of vehicular traffic, and carries 25,000 cars per day at speeds of around 45 mph. Although there were existing Class II bike lanes along Franklin Boulevard, the high vehicular speeds and volumes act as a deterrent for cycling along the corridor. In the existing condition, the corridor provided an extensive paved width for vehicles. The outside vehicular lanes were 19’, and that width encouraged speeding, and passing in the bike lane during the routine morning traffic back-ups. This resulted in collisions and created an uncomfortable condition for bicyclists. The City of Sacramento initially proposed to construct one‐way Class IV protected bikeways in both directions of Franklin Boulevard between Cosumnes River Boulevard and the southern City limits near Francesca Street. The City of Elk Grove supported Sacramento’s goals to improve bicycling on Franklin Boulevard and obtained SB1 funding as part of Caltrans’ I-5 improvements through the Congested Corridors program, to extend the pavement maintenance and bikeways from the City line south to Big Horn Boulevard. For efficiency in design and delivery, the cities agreed to have the City of Sacramento design and construct both segments as one project. With this project the two agencies pooled available pavement maintenance funding to provide a multi-modal safety and operational improvement along with increased pavement life on a critical regional corridor. The Franklin Boulevard Class IV Protected Bikeway project extend pavement life, brings low‐stress bicycle connectivity between the South Sacramento and Elk Grove communities, calms traffic, and creates a wider buffer between moving vehicles and pedestrians. The new protected bikeways provide access to the Franklin Boulevard light rail station, the Laguna Creek Bicycle Trail network, and benefit a nearby Elk Grove elementary school. A separate City of Sacramento project extended the protected bikeway further from Cosumnes River Boulevard to Mack Road where it ties to the buffered bike lanes on Mack Road. This will create nearly 3 miles of protected bikeways on Franklin Boulevard between Elk Grove and Sacramento, and with the City’s planned future protected bikeways on the northern limits of Franklin Boulevard, and the County of Sacramento’s past streetscape improvements in the middle segment, Franklin Boulevard has the potential to transition from being a route that bicyclists avoided, to a major bicycling corridor.