SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Neighbors living near the Pershing Avenue off-ramp have expressed concerns for a while now about speeding and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Dan Richardson lives along North Pershing Avenue and has advocated for more improvements in the area. There's been some, but he says more needs to be done.
“People still speed, speed leads to accidents. We've had some really bad accidents. One of the problems we have, of course, is we don't have enough crosswalks. There are only crosswalks at the signal lights which are eight blocks apart from one another,” said Richardson.
According to the Stockton Police Department they issued 24 traffic citations in May for speeding along N Pershing Ave between W Harding Way and W Fremont Street, near Victory Park. Those cited for speeding were going an average of 18 mph over the posted speed limit. Police say there were six crashes, four with unsafe speed as a main factor, in the same area.
ABC10 reached out to the city of Stockton to ask what improvements have been made along Pershing in the past couple of years and what’s to come in the future.
What’s been done:
- The city installed more 30 mph speed limit signs and increased the size of others.
- They installed two Radar Digital Speed Feedback Devices.
- Repainted centerline and lane line striping and the crosswalks at Pershing and Acacia & Harding.
- The signal timing was adjusted to allow more time for crossing along Pershing and Pedestrian Crossing signs were added to the signal mast arms.
- Funding is in place for a HAWK signal to go in at Pershing and Rose. Construction is set to start in summer 2025.
Future plans:
- The city says there are a few projects to connect bike lanes into Pershing Avenue through the Park/Oak/Fremont streets ATP project and other projects the city is working on.
- The city is also working alongside Caltrans to include a redesign of the Pershing Avenue Offramp as part of the Stockton Channel Viaduct Project.
- The city was represented at the 2024 One Voice trip in Washington DC to advocate for $2.5 million in funding to improve Pershing Avenue as part of the “Pershing Avenue Road Safety Improvement and Enhancement Project.”
Caltrans has also made improvements on and near the Pershing Avenue off-ramp:
- Caltrans installed solar-powered yield signs with flashing beacons.
- A 40 mph speed limit sign was removed from the top of the ramp.
- They put new pavement markings on the road warning of the 30 mph zone ahead and ‘refreshed’ the markings as drivers merge from the ramp to Pershing Avenue.
- Caltrans says they removed graffiti from the off-ramp bridge rails to keep drivers from being distracted.
A larger-scale project is in the works for Stockton as well, the Stockton Channel Viaduct Replacement Project. It will replace the north and southbound bridges along I-5 and seeks to redesign the Pershing Avenue off-ramp.
According to Caltrans, construction will begin in late 2026. However, it says construction of the northbound bridge is slated to begin in 2030 and finish by 2034. That means larger improvements to the off-ramp are a few years away, so in the meantime neighbors are asking drivers to slow down.
“Come off the freeway, forget that you're driving 70-80 mph on the freeway, and please just slow down. It's a neighborhood, it's a residential neighborhood. It’s not an expressway and it's not for the convenience of people to speed across town,” said Richardson.