PedPDX 3 Year Status Update (2019-2022)

Information

PedPDX is Portland’s Citywide Pedestrian Plan. It prioritizes sidewalk and crossing improvements, along with other investments to make walking safer and more comfortable across the city. The plan identifies the key strategies and tools we will use to make Portland a great walking city for everyone.

On this page

PedPDX includes performance measures and action items that PBOT tracks to understand progress toward achieving the Plan’s goals. PedPDX states that PBOT’s Pedestrian Coordinator will provide periodic updates on the status of that progress. This PedPDX 3 Year Status Report provides an update on the work done since the 2019 adoption of PedPDX through 2022.

The status report information is available on this website for more accessible reading. To view the PDF version of the report, click the link below:

PedPDX 3 Year Status Report11.25 MB

PedPDX Goals, Performance Measures & Status Update

Measuring progress toward PedPDX’s four goals is vital in ensuring that PBOT is working to implement the PedPDX action items and making Portland a great walking city. The measures used to evaluate our success in achieving the PedPDX goals will be both outcome-based and programmatic. The performance measures in Table 1 are how we measure our success in achieving the PedPDX goals.

Table 1: PedPDX Goals, Performance Measures, and Status Report
PedPDX Goals	Performance Measure	Status Report
Equitable + Inclusive: Make Portland walkable and accessible for all, no matter who you are or where you live.	Percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with sidewalk gaps citywide and in areas identified through PBOT’s Equity Matrix with high concentrations of low income communities and communities of color Percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with crossing gaps citywide and in areas identified through PBOT’s Equity Matrix with high concentrations of low income communities and communities of color	The percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with sidewalk gaps (sidewalk on neither or one side) that are in areas with low income communities and communities of color has decreased 3.2% between 2019 (41.7%) and 2022 (38.5%). The percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with crossing gaps that are in areas with low income communities and communities of color has decreased 6.5% between 2019 (78.8%) and 2022 (72.2%). There are an additional 5.5 miles of streets in these areas that do not meet transit stop spacing requirements. Thirteen miles of streets that previously met the crossing spacing guidelines are now considered gaps due to the transit stop crossing frequency included in PedPDX. For consistent data reporting the 13 new miles of gaps were not included in the network percentages measure above. Moving forward, the transit spacing gap will be integrated with the other spacing guidelines for consistent evaluation between updates.
Safe + Secure: Make walking in Portland safe and secure for everyone.	Citywide number of pedestrian crashes of all injury types Pedestrian crashes resulting in death or serious injury	Disclaimer: Crash data is only available at a roughly 2 year delay. At this time PBOT only has crash data through 2020. PBOT’s Vision Zero team tracks fatal crashes through today. Pedestrian Crashes: The number of pedestrians injured in traffic crashes appears to be on a downward trend between 2017-2019, decreasing almost 15%. There were 189 pedestrians in traffic crashes in 2020, just a little over half the number in 2017, but that is likely in large part due to changes in travel patterns and reporting issues during COVID. Pedestrian Fatal and Serious Injury Crashes: Fatal and serious injury crashes appear fairly level between 2017 and 2020. There was a slight dip in 2018 and 2019 but there is not enough data to determine if it’s statistically significant. Fatal pedestrian crashes have been persistently high since 2017. In 2021, there were 27 pedestrians killed in traffic crashes. 2022 is on track to be one of the deadliest years on record as well. In 2021, 70% of pedestrians killed were houseless at the time, The increase in houseless and the significant increase in vulnerability to traffic crashes while living unhoused likely contributed to the record high year.
Comfortable + Inviting: Provide a comfortable, inviting, and connected pedestrian network that supports walkable neighborhoods and strengthens community.	Percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with sidewalk gaps Percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with crossing gaps	The percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with sidewalk gaps (sidewalk on neither or one side) has decreased 3.4% between 2019 (43.1%) and 2022 (39.8%). The percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with crossing gaps has decreased 7.3% between 2019 (79.8%) and 2022 (72.4%). Thirteen miles of streets that previously met the crossing spacing guidelines are now considered gaps due to the transit stop crossing frequency included in PedPDX. For consistent data reporting the 13 new miles of gaps were not included in the network percentages measure above. Moving forward, the transit spacing gap will be integrated with the other spacing guidelines for consistent evaluation between updates.
Healthy People + Environment: Increase walking for transportation and recreation in Portland as a means of achieving improved health outcomes for all people and for the environment.	Percent of Portland commuters walking to work (American Community Survey)	The 2018 walk to work rate in Portland was 6%, according to the League of American Cyclists Benchmark Report, which hasn’t been updated since. The 2018 Census ACS data shows a rate of 4% in 2018 (DP03: Census Bureau Table) and a 3% rate for 2021 (DP03: Census Bureau Table).

Strategies & Actions

Chapter 6 of PedPDX is the Implementation Toolbox; think of it as the City’s workplan to implement PedPDX. The Implementation Toolbox provides citywide strategies and actions for making Portland a more walkable city for all. Those strategies and actions include a variety of ways to improve the physical pedestrian network, but also include improvements to policies, programs, and planning.

Since PedPDX was adopted in 2019, the strategies and actions in the PedPDX Implementation Toolbox guided the work of all of PBOT’s pedestrian-related programs and activities. The various programs are described in more detail in Chapter 7 of PedPDX.

Data analysis and extensive outreach, including public surveys, focus groups, and work sessions with technical staff and community members, directly informed the development of the Toolbox’s strategies and actions. This robust process resulted in 13 strategies and 67 actions.

Key Takeaways

There are three programmatic performance measures that PedPDX states are to be regularly reported on:

Implementation or adoption of new policies and guidelines in the PedPDX Implementation Toolbox
- Of the 67 actions described in PedPDX, two are considered complete, 43 are in progress, and 22 have no action to report.
Percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with sidewalk gaps / miles of walkway built
- From 2019 to 2022, the percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with sidewalk gaps (sidewalk on neither or one side) has decreased 3.4%, from 43.1% to 39.8%.
- Since 2019, about 34 miles of sidewalk have been built in Portland through both capital projects and private development. Additionally, 8.5 miles of our highest priority (tiers 1-3) sidewalk gaps (sidewalk on neither or one side) were made complete by adding sidewalks to both sides of the street.
Percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with crossing gaps / number of crossings improved
- From 2019 to 2022, the percentage of the Pedestrian Priority Network with crossing gaps has decreased 7.3%, from 79.8% to 72.4%. This decrease does not take into account the 13.4 miles of streets that do not meet transit stop spacing requirements.
- Since 2019, 2,084 crossings have been installed (or restriped to high visibility crosswalks) and 98 deficient crossings have been brought up to city standards.

Click on the Menu at the top right to see status of each Strategy and Action

Click the link to view the PDF version of the report:

PedPDX 3 Year Status Report11.25 MB