Around 10 o'clock two nights ago a man walking along Marconi Avenue near Becerra was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver of a speeding eastbound car. KCRA reported last night that the CHP has arrested the hit-and-run driver. Sadly, tragedies like this are all too common in Sacramento County, which tallied 1000 vehicle collisions with pedestrians during 2015 through 2019. 348 of those collisions were fatal or severe.

The south side of Marconi, where the driver struck the pedestrian, is one of our community's major roads without sidewalks. That's right, for a full mile - from Montclaire across from the Sacramento Suburban Water District offices to the Arco station at Eastern - pedestrians have to walk on the shoulder of the roadway. Now, there's no guarantee that cars won't hit you if you are on a sidewalk, particularly given that our area's sidewalks (where they exist) have old-style, diysfunctional rolled curbs that allow vehicles to encroach onto a sidewalk or are attached sidewalks (vertical curbs with sidewalks having no lateral separation from, the roadway).

According to the County's draft Active Transportation Plan, much of Marconi, including the accident site, as being part of a "High Injury Network" - an area of major concern. It is not clear, however, whether anything will be changed there anytime soon. Sidewalks are expensive and the County has a very long list of such projects. Since the County tends to rely on grants for transportation projects, incremental changes could be all we can expect. Public comments on the draft Active Transportation Plan are being accepted through November 14th.