Sacramento, California

According to jibin123, Sacramento is the capital of the US state of California, located on the transition from central to northern California. The city itself has 525,000 inhabitants, but the agglomeration has 2,411,000 inhabitants (2021).

Introduction

The metropolis is the fourth largest in California, after Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. The city is located on the Sacramento River, between the plains of the San Joaquin Valley, and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There are no major differences in height in the city, although the east is a bit more hilly. It is striking that the center is almost on the edge of the agglomeration, the suburbs have mainly continued in an easterly direction. Most suburbs are not that big. Sacramento has a Mediterranean climate, with average temperatures above 30 degrees from June to September. Snow is not very common in Sacramento, although the Sierra Nevada not much further away gets huge amounts of snow, up to many meters per year. The city is prone to fog.

The agglomeration measures 45 kilometers from east to west, and 40 kilometers from north to south, although the greatest distance is diagonal, being 50 kilometers.

Big cities

Road network

Sacramento’s highway network.

Sacramento’s highway network is not very large, and most highways run around the edges of the city. Major routes are Interstate 5, Interstate 80, US 50 and State Route 99. Outside of that, there are virtually no other highways. No highways have been built since the 1970s, despite a doubling of the population. Sacramento itself is built in a dense grid pattern, but the suburbs have a larger grid, with winding streets in it.

The highway network usually has no more than 2×4 lanes, but many exits are built at high capacity, such as cloverleaf. Sacramento is a relatively pedestrian and bicycle-friendly city, although the great distances do not encourage cycling to work, especially from the further suburbs.

History

Sacramento’s oldest highway is a section of I-80 northeast of the city, which opened in 1946 and was actually outside the metropolitan area at the time. In 1954 and 1955 this section was extended to Sacramento. 1954 also saw the opening of the first section of SR-99 south of Sacramento, which was completed in 1964 to downtown. Business Loop 80 also opened, which was signposted as I-80 until 1980. I-80 was then routed over the northern bypass, which was opened in 1970 and 1971 and was temporarily signposted as I-880. Interstate 5 was built later, parts of it were only opened from 1969. This route was largely completed in the mid-1970s. In 1973, most of the US 50 freeway stretch opened in Sacramento.

After the mid-1970s, no new highways were actually built in the Sacramento region. However, existing highways were widened. In the 1950s and 1960s, a complete ring road around Sacramento was planned, however, only the northwest portion of which was built as I-880 in 1970 and 1971, over which I-80 now runs.

Congestion

Congestion is also happening in Sacramento, as the number of lane miles per 1,000 residents is quite low, lower than average US cities. In contrast, the congestion is not as great as, for example, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where lane-to-population ratios are even lower. The biggest problems are on the long commuter routes, such as US 50 and I-80 toward downtown. In addition, both highways can be busy on weekends due to recreational traffic to the mountains and winter sports areas.