News

November 9, 2018: The big California transportation news to come out of midterm elections was the failure of Proposition 6, an effort to roll back recent increases in the gas tax that are projected to produce about $5 billion a year for road maintenance and other transportation projects. The proposition was defeated 57 percent to 43 percent. 

10/31/18 The SACOG board kicked off a bold new “Next Generation Transit” initiative at its October 18 meeting. Speakers from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMTA) and Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) provided board members with their agency’s roadmaps for rethinking their business proposition in an age of disruption.

Thanks to the recent decision from the California Transportation Commission (CTC), the Sacramento region will be receiving $991,000 for transit improvements. The money will be used to fund Sacramento Regional Transit District’s Circulator Bus Service Expansion, which includes the expansion of service throughout the district with the purchase of electric and/or gasoline buses for safe, reliable, and affordable transportation.

9/28/18 An Advisory Services Panel of national land use and urban planning experts representing the Urban Land Institute (ULI) spent the week in Sacramento diving into the area around the Meadowview and Florin Road light rail stations. Their aim is to provide unvarnished outside strategic recommendations of how to encourage the revitalization of a commercial corridor that has the benefit of being on a light rail line and includes multiple properties owned by Sacramento Regional Transit. The panel is one of only three in the country that ULI is hosting.

9/28/18 California’s historic wildfires in 2018 may be a sign of more devastating summers ahead.  The state’s wildfire season is starting earlier and lasting longer, by about 2 ½ months since in the 1970s. Fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since the year 2000. This increased fire occurrence is also costing Californians more in loss of life and property, health care for air quality-related illness, insurance rate increases, and impacts on forest-based businesses.

8/30/18 In the past few years as the state has faced historic drought and damaging wildfire, restoring the resiliency of our regional forests and watersheds has become increasingly important. At the regional level, the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) has championed the goal of improving the health and durability of our forest ecosystems and communities. On August 7, CAL FIRE announced $27.5 million investment in forest health projects.

8/30/18 The City of Elk Grove has approved $1.5 million for Startup Elk Grove, a program geared towards encouraging entrepreneurs, helping existing startups that are looking to grow, and building a base of incubator supporters such as co-working spaces.

7/31/18 As the Sacramento region recovers from the recession and development increases, it’s increasingly important for us to grow smartly, and create vibrant communities in all parts of our region. Inclusive public spaces consider all modes of transportation and access in order to foster healthy and resilient communities. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a leading national health philanthropy, recently partnered with the Gehl Institute to study healthy public spaces and develop a framework of four principles to guide decision making.