CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - On October 30, the City of Citrus Heights held the first Community Workshop for the Multimodal Transportation Safety Program (MMTSP). The goal of the MMTSP is to increase traffic safety throughout the city and create a transparent process for citizens to report traffic concerns.  Funding for the project comes from the Caltrans Sustainable Communities grant with matching funds from the City.

Community engagement is a vital element of this project, and many residents shared their opinions at the workshop at the Citrus Heights Community Center. “People are really frustrated about traffic safety in their neighborhoods,” said Leslie Blomquist, Principal Civil Engineer for Citrus Heights. “We’re listening.”

Blomquist said the goal of this project is to get as much community input as possible “so we can implement traffic calming measures and come up with more short-term solutions as well.” Blomquist said there is no question that traffic calming measures are needed throughout Citrus Heights neighborhoods, but the goal of the MMTSP is to figure out what measures will be the most effective and how to prioritize where the money is spent. “There’s not enough money to fix every problem, so we’re trying to come up with a tiered approach and make the process transparent,” said Blomquist.

Neighborhood Champions are also working to increase community engagement in the project. The Champions are local volunteers who help promote street safety in Citrus Heights and communicate project goals to people in their neighborhoods. Champions also lead WALKshops — field workshops that take residents to view calming measures in action. Examples of calming measures include speed bumps, raised crosswalks, curb extensions, neighborhood gateways, median islands, and roundabouts. Residents can see which measures are working effectively and which might be appropriate in their own neighborhoods.

Residents of Hanson Ave. recently organized a WALKshop to tour other areas in the city and one participant said, “It’s easy to see what works and what doesn’t, and what would work on our street.” After viewing the potential traffic calming measures, residents determined that speed bumps would be the most effective option. They explained that their street is too narrow for any other option to work in the available space.

Hanson Ave. is east of Sunrise Blvd., just north of Old Auburn Rd. Residents explained that the biggest issue on Hanson Ave. is vehicles cutting through the neighborhood to avoid traffic on the nearby major thoroughfares. The additional vehicles drive at unsafe speeds, leaving residents fearful of walking through their own neighborhood.

“It’s an old rural neighborhood with ½- to 1-acre lots. It used to be a dead-end street, but it was opened up to through traffic back in the 1970s,” one resident explained. Some residents who have lived there for decades said that opening the street didn’t actually have much impact on the neighborhood. The speeding didn’t become a major issue until recently. Residents attribute the change to a construction project a few years ago to widen Sunrise Blvd. With the increase in traffic during construction, many drivers began using side streets to avoid the delays. “This introduced Hanson as a potential cut-through.”

Sarah McMinimy, a Steer Consultant working with the City on the MMTSP, said that much of the feedback from the Community Workshop aligned with their expectations. They heard a lot of the same stories and the same issues from multiple people. “We’re hearing the same narrative, which tells us this really is a city-wide problem,” said McMinimy. “We’re still hearing a lot of frustration, but I think people are now starting to believe that this program could really help. We’re building more trust, and people are talking to us more as a partner now.”

Many residents were especially interested in the MMTSP Tool Kits, which can provide them with lawn signs to encourage safe driving, Pace Car bumper stickers to help set safe speeds while driving, and pop-up temporary safety measures that can be quickly implemented and tested on their streets. “I’m really glad you guys are here doing this,” said one attendee.

Mary Poole, Citrus Heights Operations Manager, told attendees that anyone can be a Champion: “Everyone has a responsibility to drive safely. … We can all make a huge impact. We each have a really important role.”