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Active Transportation

A photo of a path with people walking and biking open_in_full

Active transportation refers to human-powered methods of travel, including walking, biking, using a wheelchair, scootering, or even skateboarding. The City of Sacramento is working towards becoming a more walkable, bikeable, and rollable city to enhance the quality of life for residents of all ages and abilities.

Some of this work includes expanding and improving active transportation infrastructure such as sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes. Creating a safe, connected, and accessible transportation network for all provides residents with more access to everyday destinations and supports the Sacramento 2040 General Plan goals around climate and mobility. Learn more about the City's active transportation efforts on this page!

Join the City for a Community Ride

Celebrate May is Bike Month! Join the Transportation Planning Team for a slow-paced, guided 4-mile loop showcasing some of Sacramento’s active transportation planning projects.

Bring your own bike (and helmet). We also suggest packing water, sunscreen, and/or sunglasses. 

Flier for a Community Bike Ride on Saturday, May 16. The Flier provides details about the bike ride and features a map showing the bike route, in addition to a photo of a previous bike ride. open_in_full

Streets for People Plan

City Council adopted the Streets for People: Sacramento Active Transportation Plan at the end of 2025. This citywide initiative addresses active transportation needs and focused its community engagement efforts in underresourced areas that currently lack basic transportation infrastructure. The Plan includes recommendations to improve walking, rolling, and bicycling in Sacramento and will guide future City and private development investment.

Logo for the "Streets for People" Plan depicting a person bicycling, two people walking, a person in a wheelchair, and a tree. open_in_full
A photo of a crosswalk open_in_full

Walking in the City

Sacramento's walking environment includes sidewalks, shared use paths, and crosswalks. 

New sidewalks and crosswalks are typically built by developers as a part of a new development project or by the City through grant-funded corridor improvement projects. Most funding for transportation projects comes from competitive grants, so new sidewalks are rarely developed by themselves.

The City may install new crosswalks after evaluating a potential cross site for multiple variables including speed, average daily traffic, and roadway geometry. Read more about the City's guidelines for evaluating potential cross sites in the "Walking Resources" section below.

The City of Sacramento is also in the process of updating its policy and guidance for the Creative Crosswalks Program, a program which infuses public art into the active transportation infrastructure through partnerships with local organizations; see the link below for current program guidelines.

Shared use paths are paved pathways - separate from the street - that can be shared by people walking, rolling, bicycling, scooting, and skating. Similar to new sidewalks and crosswalks, these paths are typically built through new development projects or through a competitive grant program.

Bicycling and scooting in the City

The City has a variety of bicycle infrastructure, or "bikeways", including shared use paths and on-street bike lanes. In addition to bicycles, this infrastructure serves many types of manual and electric modes of transportation such as skateboards and scooters.

New bikeways are built based on a citywide bicycle plan, which was recently updated through the Streets for People Active Transportation Plan. They are typically funded through competitive grant programs or occasionally large development projects.

Existing bikeways are maintained in a number of different ways; the Street Maintenance team sweep and repair shared use paths and the Recycling and Solid Waste team sweep the city’s gutters and on-street separated bikeways.

A photo of a crosswalk open_in_full
Bike parking is provided through new development projects and by the City with a small amount of local funding. There are more than 8,000 short-term publicly available bike parking spaces in the city. See the "Bike Parking Map" linked below for an updated map of all bike parking spaces.

The City also has electronic bike lockers (eLockers) and a bike SPA (Secure Parking Area) at the Sacramento Valley Train Station, in addition to city-owned parking garages including Tower Bridge, Memorial Auditorium, City Hall and Capitol garage. To use the eLocker (costing 5 cents an hour), you must purchase and activate a BikeLink card in advance. Cards are available online and at the ticket counter at the station.

In an effort to expand the network of publicly available, long-term bike parking in the city, staff has recently launched a Secure Bike Parking Pilot to identify new locations for secure bike parking citywide. Click here to learn more about the pilot.

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