In this newsletter...
- Remembering lives lost: A call for safer streets
- Portland calls for stronger national vehicle safety standards
- Updated NE 102nd Avenue evaluation shows safety project led to fewer crashes
- Safety camera updates
- Decoding the data: How Portland collects and uses traffic crash information
- PBOT responds to Vision Zero audit
- Signal improvements to separate pedestrians from people driving in time and space
- Improving new N Portland shelter residents' access to nearby services
- Use caution as days continue to grow darker
- High Crash Network projects
- Vision Zero Dashboard: Monthly, updated deadly crash data
- Remember to say crash, not accident!
- Free Vision Zero stickers, brochures, fliers, and yard signs
- Personal safety resources
- What we're reading
Remembering lives lost: A call for safer streets
Coming together in remembrance
On Sunday, Nov. 17, Portland Bureau of Transportation joined Families for Safe Streets, BikeLoud, Oregon Walks, mothers and fathers of traffic crash victims, advocates, elected leaders, and members of the community at Portland City Hall to honor those who have been killed in traffic violence on our streets.
Organizers adorned the SW Fourth Avenue City Hall entrance with a white ghost bike to memorialize people who have been killed while bicycling and portraits of traffic crash victims. During the event, attendees wrote the names of people who have been killed on our streets on a large canvas banner. Before the event concluded, a trio of women, Portland Threshold Singers, sang while individuals placed red flowers on the building’s columns.
A vision for safer streets
All the people in attendance want a different reality—one where safe speeds, safe streets, safe people, safe vehicles, and post-crash response all come together to create a safe transportation system that prevents traffic deaths.
Honoring lives and demanding action
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is a global event held every year to honor those who have lost their lives or been impacted by roadway crashes. This year communities across the globe gathered together to demand action towards improving roadway safety and to uplift proven strategies, including redesigning dangerous streets, reducing speed limits, and improving vehicle design.
Learn more about World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
Portland calls for stronger national vehicle safety standards
To reach our Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries on Portland streets, our Vision Zero Action Plan Update 2023-25 identifies specific, measurable actions divided according to the elements our the Safe System approach: safe speeds, safe streets, safe people, safe vehicles, and post-crash response. Our action plan includes two actions specifically directed towards addressing safe vehicles:
- Advocate for stronger national regulations
- Partner with City Fleet team on ways to increase traffic safety
We're working to make vehicles safer for people inside and outside of vehicles
Improving traffic safety through vehicle technology and regulation is a relatively untapped opportunity in the U.S. For example, the European Union requires that all new vehicles have automatic braking to prevent possible collisions, speed limiters to prevent vehicles from exceeding the speed limit, and back-up cameras. These features are only available in some cars sold in the U.S. While city governments can demonstrate technology using their own fleets, federal policy is required for systemic change.
Advocating for stronger national vehicle regulations
Last month, Portland Bureau of Transportation submitted a letter supporting National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's (NHTSA) proposed rule requiring new passenger vehicles to be designed to reduce the risk of serious-to-fatal injuries in child and adult pedestrian crashes, specifically addressing vehicle hood height and design.
Read PBOT's letter supporting NHTSA's proposed rule
Updated NE 102nd Avenue evaluation shows safety project led to fewer crashes
What is the NE 102nd Ave Safety Project?
The NE 102nd Ave Safety Project is a $2 million project to increase safety for pedestrians and people biking, taking transit, and driving on a two-mile stretch of road from NE Weidler Street to Sandy Boulevard. NE 102nd Avenue is one of Portland highest-crash streets—and especially dangerous for pedestrians, yet students of all ages cross the street to access Prescott Elementary School and Mt. Hood Community College. In 2019, using funding from Fixing Our Streets, Transportation System Development Charges, the cannabis tax, and related projects, Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) crews and contractors worked to:
- Shorten crossing distances
- Enhance crossings with pedestrian islands at six locations
- Lower the speed limit and design the street for slower travel
- Add buffered bicycle lanes in each direction
Original evaluation showed overall safety improvements
To evaluate the project, PBOT staff collected safety and traffic data before and after construction. The results of the original evaluation, published in 2020, suggested that traffic safety improved overall on the corridor by slowing vehicle speeds and better meeting guidelines for pedestrians and people biking.
Data shows fatal and serious injury crashes decreased substantially
As Oregon Department of Transportation releases the official crash record 12 to 18 months after the end of the year reported, initial PBOT traffic safety project evaluations don't cover fatal and serious injury crash findings. Now, four years later, we updated the NE 102nd Ave Safety Project Evaluation Report to include key findings informed by the crash data:
- Fatal and serious injury crashes decreased substantially along the corridor
- After project implementation, there were no bike crashes on the corridor
- Pedestrian crashes increased slightly, although the severity of pedestrian crashes decreased
Crash reduction is the most important indicator that a project has improved safety. As PBOT staff typically look at five years of pre- and post-project crash data to assess trends, this preliminary crash analysis is an early glimpse into how the NE 102nd Ave Safety Project is performing.
Read the NE 102nd Ave Safety Project Evaluation Report
Safety camera updates
We're continuing to bring more safety cameras to Portland
This fall, Portland Bureau of Transportation worked with contractors to install more speed and intersection safety cameras at and along the highest-crash streets and intersections across the city. These cameras play a critical part to help enforce safe driving behaviors along with infrastructure and education.
The following locations are currently operational (or in a warning period):
Speed safety camera
- SE Powell Boulevard near 22nd Avenue (eastbound)
Intersection safety cameras
- NE 82nd Avenue at E Burnside Street (southbound)
- NE Glisan Street at 82nd Avenue (westbound)
- NE 82nd Avenue at Glisan Street (northbound)
Automated enforcement is a proven tool
We're using safety cameras to enforce safe driving because research indicates it works. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration completed an international survey of automated enforcement and found that speed safety camera enforcement reduces injury crashes by 20 to 25%. A more recent Cochrane survey found that speed safety cameras reduce total crashes by up to 49% and deadly and serious injury crashes by up to 44%.
Learn more about Portland's safety cameras
Decoding the data: How Portland collects and uses traffic crash information
Data guides our investments
We rely on data to deliver our Annual Deadly Traffic Crash Report; update our action plans; maintain our Vision Zero Dashboard; understand deadly traffic crash demographics, top contributing factors to traffic safety, and common crash types and locations; and inform and evaluate our traffic safety projects.
How do we access data?
Most traffic crash data relies on self-reported information, and not all traffic-related deaths are included in the official record.
Crash reports are required:
- if the crash involves a motor vehicle and damage is at least $2,500.
- for all crashes involving a motor vehicle that result in injuries (no matter how minor) or in death.
When is the complete, official crash record available?
There are typically between 6,000 and 12,000 reported crashes in Portland each year. Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) compiles information about these crashes to create the state’s official crash record. ODOT then releases the complete, official crash record 12-18 months after the end of the year reported. For preliminary deadly crash data, we use information provided by the Portland Police Bureau. This allows for the most up-to-date estimate of traffic deaths.
What reporting criteria do we use?
PBOT uses National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reporting criteria which excludes people who die under the following circumstances:
- More than 30 days after a crash
- Intentionally (suicide)
- In an act of homicide (a person intentionally crashes into another person)
- In a crash not involving a motor vehicle
- From a prior medical event (e.g., a heart attack or drug overdose)
- In a crash in a parking lot
Deaths are also excluded if a medical examiner determines that a person died of causes not directly attributable to a traffic crash, e.g., suffering a heart attack while driving.
Since we use NHTSA reporting criteria, our traffic crash data may sometimes differ from local news reports.
Learn more about Vision Zero data
PBOT responds to Vision Zero audit
Last month, the Portland City Auditor released an audit report, "Vision Zero: Portland Bureau of Transportation needs to systemically evaluate whether its safety projects reduce traffic deaths and serious injury crashes."
Audit findings
The audit found rising fatal crashes despite the Vision Zero Action Plan's focus on traffic safety. The audit calls on Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to evaluate projects to ensure they reduce deaths and injuries and result in equitable outcomes. The report notes that PBOT uses data-driven strategies and suggests the bureau continue to gather qualitative input from community members that could identify smaller-scale improvements that could have positive equity impacts.
PBOT's response
In a recent OPB Think Out Loud episode, PBOT's Public Information Officer, Dylan Rivera, shared that while the audit helps the public be more aware of Vision Zero's progress, the bureau is already evaluating traffic safety projects and working towards getting construction projects back on schedule following Covid-19 impacts and delays.
Read the Portland City Auditor's Vision Zero report
Signal improvements to separate pedestrians from people driving in time and space
Portland Bureau of Transportation's (PBOT) Signals and Street Lighting team is upgrading intersections across the city using proven tools to help prevent pedestrian crashes. The Safer Intersections for Pedestrians project, 2022-28, is focusing on intersections with signals on our highest crash streets. Nearly half of pedestrian crashes take place at signalized intersections.
So far, PBOT crews have completed upgrades at 58 locations across the city.
Improvements separate pedestrians from people driving
Signal improvements include:
- Pedestrian Head Starts that give pedestrians the walk signal several seconds before drivers get a green light. This allows pedestrians to begin crossing the street before drivers start to turn.
- Accessible Pedestrian Systemsto improve accessibility and help people with limited vision cross streets safely using non-visual ways such as audible tones, speech messages, and vibrating surfaces.
- Protected left-turn signals that separate left-turning drivers from people in crosswalks.
- Signal head upgrades including larger signal heads and retroreflective backplates for greater visibility.
Together, these elements help to separate vulnerable road users from people driving in time as well as space.
Helping students access school more safely
Earlier this fall, PBOT crews finished upgrading the traffic signal at the SW Multnomah Boulevard, 45th Avenue, and Maplewood Road intersection. The upgrades include new protected left-turn signals for traffic on Multnomah Boulevard, new accessible pushbuttons, an indicator light for cyclists on Maplewood Road, and improved signal heads. These changes will benefit Maplewood Elementary School students and families who ride to school on the Maplewood Bike Bus route.
Made possible by Portland voters
Safer Intersections for Pedestrians is made possible through Fixing Our Streets, the 10-cent citywide gas tax approved by Portland voters in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
Learn more about Safer Intersections for Pedestrians
Improving new N Portland shelter residents' access to nearby services
Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) recently teamed up with City Shelter Services as they were preparing to open their next Temporary Alternative Shelter Site in the St. Johns neighborhood this fall, N Portland Road City Shelter Site. This collaboration will help to ensure that up to 200 residents will have access to nearby essential services.
Improving residents' access to nearby essential services
PBOT identified low-cost, quick-delivery safety treatments to improve the half-mile street segment between the shelter site and transit, groceries, and services, including:
- Speed reduction from 45 to 30 mph, including a "reduced speed ahead" sign, speed reader boards, and variable message signs to notify drivers of the speed limit changes
- Street design reconfiguration to narrow travel lanes to reduce vehicle speeds and create more space for walking and rolling along the shoulder
- Elements to protect vulnerable road users, e.g., crosswalks, walk signals (pedestrian signal heads), wider pedestrian path with concrete barriers, and vegetation clearance
- Protected left-turn signal head to separate left-turning vehicles from pedestrians
Unhoused individuals face greater risk of traffic death
We know that particular groups are impacted by traffic violence differently, which shapes where we invest and how we respond.In Portland in the last two years, 55% of pedestrians killed—30 out of 55—were unhoused when they died. That means unhoused individuals face a traffic death risk 80 times higher than that of housed individuals.
Vision Zero is a shared responsibility
Eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries in Portland is possible. PBOT can lead the way by significantly changing the design of our most deadly streets to lower speed limits and slow drivers, as well as make it easier for people to get around without a car. However, achieving our goal requires collaboration and commitment from many different partners. PBOT's partnership on the N Portland Road City Shelter Site is an example of how achieving the Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets requires everyone's involvement.
Learn more about the N Portland Road City Shelter Site
Use caution as days continue to grow darker
As days continue to be darker and darker, we urge Portlanders to use caution and understand that the season brings a higher risk of traffic deaths.
We all have a responsibility to help make our streets safe
People driving on our streets need to take extra care at night since the impact of fast-moving, heavy steel vehicles can kill or seriously injure people who are walking or biking.
- Drive at or below the speed limit
- Watch for pedestrians crossing the street
- Drive sober and never impaired
- Never pass school buses or vehicles stopped at crosswalks
- Walk, bike, roll, or take transit to get where you need to go
- Be alert and be courteous towards other travelers
- Get a ride for a friend if they’ve consumed alcohol or drugs
Street lighting investments save lives
We’re continuing to invest in street lighting, striping, and more visible street signs to improve safety in dark conditions—critical for Portland to meet its Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries.
- We’re prioritizing adding lighting on our highest crash streets and intersections to improve safety in dark conditions.
- Striping our streets improves safety by making boundaries between lanes more visible. During the summer, PBOT crews striped the entire city twice. This year, they striped 4,100 miles!
- We’re installing 32,000 new street name signs all around town so Portlanders have an easier time navigating streets in darker conditions.
Learn more about how to stay safe during changing weather conditions
High Crash Network projects
The Portland Bureau of Transportation prioritizes safety investments in Portland's highest-crash streets and intersections. These 30 streets and intersections with the most serious crashes represent 8% of Portland streets yet account for 62% of traffic deaths in recent years. The High Crash Network also disproportionately intersects with communities with higher proportions of people of color and lower median incomes.
Recently completed projects
- Central Eastside Access and Circulation Project
- SW Broadway Bike Improvements Project (hotel loading zones)
- 82nd Avenue Critical Fixes: Signing and Striping and Street Lighting
- 70s Neighborhood Greenway: SE Flavel to NE Sacramento (NE Halsey Street Connection)
Projects under construction
Brentwood-Darlington Multimodal Improvements
New sidewalks and crosswalks on SE Duke and Flavel streets; new neighborhood greenway on Knapp and Ogden streets with new signalized crossing, enhanced crossing, and added signage
- Location: SE Duke and Flavel streets from 52nd to 82nd avenues, Knapp and Ogden streets from 52nd to 87th avenues
- Construction: 2024, anticipating completion before the end of the calendar year
Additional projects under construction:
- 82nd Avenue: Major Maintenance Project, Klickitat to Lambert and Beech and Ash crossings
- SW Broadway Bike Improvements Project (signal improvements)
- SW Fourth Avenue Improvement Project
Learn more about the High Crash Network
Vision Zero Dashboard: Monthly, updated deadly crash data
The Portland Bureau of Transportation's Vision Zero Dashboard provides an overview of traffic safety improvements from the past five to 10 years—as well as data relating to our performance measures.
The Vision Zero team updates the dashboard regularly. Preliminary deadly crash data is updated monthly, while other data is updated quarterly or annually based on availability from our program partners, including the Portland Police Bureau.
Learn more about the Vision Zero Dashboard
Remember to say crash, not accident!
We’re inviting our community to change the way we talk about crashes. We want to shift the broad cultural perception that crashes are inevitable and remind each other that they are predictable and preventable. A Vision Zero approach refuses to accept traffic violence as a byproduct of “just the way things are.” So, will you join us?
Learn more about why we say crash, not accident
Free Vision Zero stickers, brochures, fliers, and yard signs
Help educate family, friends, neighbors, your school, or your organization about Vision Zero, Portland's commitment to eliminate serious and fatal traffic injuries.
- Order and receive in the mail stickers, brochures, and fliers
- Pick-up a yard sign from the Portland Building front desk
Learn more about how to get free Vision Zero materials
Personal safety resources
We want to help create a transportation system that allows all people to feel safe getting where they need to go. Check out our webpage full of resources that address personal safety on our streets, including information about how to:
- report a non-urgent traffic safety concern,
- sign-up for a personal safety workshop,
- report a bias incident or hate crime,
- stand up against street harassment, and more.
And remember, you can always start with PDX 311 for help with any local government questions or service needs. Staff are fluent in English, Spanish, Romanian, and Tagalog and have resources to assist community members in additional languages.
Learn more about personal safety resources
What we're reading
- Metro and partners awarded over $1 million in federal grant funding for safe routes to school in North Portland (Metro)
- Wider streets are more dangerous for pedestrians to cross (Smart Cities Dive)
- Do bike lanes really cause more traffic congestion? Here's what the research says (CBC)
- What the data says about dangerous driving and road rage in the U.S. (Pew Research)
- State safety plan recommends lower DUI limit, driver education reforms (The Urbanist)
- With focus on reducing roadway deaths, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalizes significant updates to 5-star safety ratings program (NHTSA)
- What do U.S. vehicle regulators have against tiny cars? (Bloomberg CityLab)
- The most dangerous roads in America have one thing in common (Vox)
- Lawmakers urge traffic safety leaders to update women's crash test dummy standards (News Center Maine)
- Continuing the conversation challenging perceptions race, transportation, safety, and the built environment (Institute of Transportation Engineers)
- Language reform drives change in road safety journalism (Global Health Now)
- Paris to replace parking spaces with trees (Bloomberg CityLab)
- Tails of the city: What public pets abroad tell us about America's sanitized streets (Placemaking US)