32 replies to this topic

[tessieca]

The city has made it impossible to avoid the commute traffic if you want to reach local businesses. I got caught in the maze and was surprised that what they are calling "traffic calming" is actually traffic prohibition. When I finally found my way back into the commuter mess, I next discovered that I was not supposed to turn left onto Sutter Street from Riley, thus excluding local business traffic once again.

The city should consider the fact that commuters will use the quickest and easiest route and avoid others. Thus, they do not need to exclude traffic from the downtown streets, just make it a miserable route for commute; i.e. put stop signs at every corner, put in bumps, make some one-way streets, etc. Why did they have to be so drastic?? If I can avoid downtown now, I will. They have taken a federally induced problem of the dam road closure and turned it into a local fiasco.

[capt_karma]

With Light Rail coming to Folsom the city is going to spend over 2.1 million dollars to install another traffic signal on Folsom Blvd. which will add to the traffic problems. The location of this new traffic light will be at the intersection of Bidwell Street and Folsom Blvd, just down from Natoma Street.

At one time the city said that when Natoma Crossing was completed they would block off Bidwell Street at Folsom Blvd. This made sense then and today much more when looking at the current intersection today. There is no 'turn lane' for north bound Folsom Blvd. traffic turning right onto Bidwell Street and no safe merge area for traffic turning from Bidwell Street on to South bound Folsom Blvd.

I can expect that when Light Rail is complete there will be a backup of traffic wanting to turn from Folsom Blvd on to Bidwell Street when the crossing bars are down waiting for the trains to pass.

My suggestion is to NOT put in the traffic light and to block off Bidwell at the new Light Rail tracks and save having another Folsom traffic impediment!

I am compelled to write on this subject because of the increase flow of traffic through our neighborhoods as commuters try to find the fastest way through Folsom (using our residential neighborhoods) because:

1) Speed has increased so has the number of cars traveling,
2) Although Bidwell Street is no longer a Truck Route I am awaken by trucks at 1-3am speeding by, (One such truck is from the Sacramento Bee),
3) Our kids can not safely cross Bidwell Street because no motorist will stop at an intersection that has no stop sign, allowing them to cross.

Our current City managers are not interested in the feelings of affected residents, only in what will bring in more income to the city. If they can't do something to cure our traffic problems, with or without a Dam Road in the next elections they need not expect a vote from me.

[Terry]

I'm also concerned about that new traffic light at Folsom Boulevard and Bidwell Street for the same reasons you mentioned. Traffic in the area of Bidwell and Sibley has increase substantially, no one seems to understand that STOP means STOP, and that 25 MPH signs mean that's the TOP SPEED for the road.

I was also under the impression that no light would be installed, although Bidwell was going to remain open to traffic at Folsom Boulevard because the East Bidwell Merchants Association felt that closing Bidwell off at Folsom Boulevard would negatively affect their businesses (this was 5 or more years ago when the light rail planning first became a reality).

I'm surprised at any improvements at Folsom and Bidwell because of the steepness of Bidwell right there and the immediate turn the road makes there.

At any rate, traffic enforcement needs to be stepped up significantly along Sibley and Bidwell no matter how the roadway at Folsom Boulevard and Bidwell is improved.