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Portland is a Sanctuary City

Safe Routes to School Program Traffic Calming: Multiple Locations

Transportation
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Traffic calming projects funded by the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. Streets located along, and crossing, the SRTS Primary Investment Routes are considered for speed bumps and cushions.
On a bright and sunny day: a side view of a low-profile speed cushion with small channels for emergency vehicle wheels. A white chevron is painted on top and a school sits in the background with a green lawn.
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What is happening now?  

All projects planned for 2024 have been completed. 

We are currently working on design for the following projects to be built summer 2025:

David Douglas/Centennial Cluster
SE Alder Street, from SE 155th to SE 162nd Avenue 

Completed Projects

The following list of traffic calming projects were completed between 2018 and 2023, funded by Fixing Our Streets, General Fund, and 2012 PPS Bond dollars. 

David Douglas/Centennial Cluster
SE 117th Avenue, from E Burnside to SE Market Street (2023)
SE Main Street, from SE 137th to 148th Avenue (2020)
SE 104th, from Powell to Holgate Boulevard (2024)
SE Holgate, from SE 122nd to SE 136th Avenue (2024)

PPS - Cleveland Cluster
SE 33rd Place, from SE Holgate Blvd to SE Raymond Street (2019)
SE Stark St, from SE 14th to SE 18th Avenue (2019)

PPS - Franklin Cluster
SE 34th Avenue, from SE Belmont to Hawthorne Boulevard(2020)
SE Duke Street, from SE 72nd to 82nd Avenue
SE Knapp Street, from SE 82nd to 92nd Avenue

PPS - Grant Cluster
NE 15th Avenue, from NE Skidmore St to NE Mason Street (2023)
NE 41st Avenue, from Interstate 84 to NE Glisan Street (2021)
NE Royal Court, from NE César E Chávez Blvd to NE 43rd Avenue (2021)
NE Fremont St, from N Albina Ave to N Gantenbein Avenue (2019)

PPS - Lincoln Cluster
SW 16th Avenue, from SW Clifton to SW Spring Street (2023)
SW 45th Avenue, from SW Hamilton St to Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway (2019)
SW 47th Avenue, from SW Hamilton St to SW Julia Street (2019)
SW Shattuck Road, from SW Windsor Ct to Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway (2020)

PPS - McDaniel Cluster
NE 92nd Avenue, from NE Fremont to NE Halsey Street (2021)
NE Tillamook Street, from NE 72nd Dr to NE 82nd Avenue
NE Siskiyou Street, from NE 72nd to NE 82nd Avenue

PPS - Roosevelt Cluster
N Midway Avenue, from N Columbia Blvd to N Fessenden Street (2023)
N Peninsular Avenue, from N Columbia Blvd to N Lombard Street (2023)
N Smith Street, from N Bruce to N Oregonian Avenue (2022)
N Burr Avenue, from N Lombard to N Bank Street (2022)
N Ida Avenue, from N Lombard to N Smith Street (2022)
N Willis Boulevard, from N Hodge to N Haven Avenue (2019)

PPS - Wells Cluster
SW 17th Avenue, from SW Spring Garden St to SW Taylors Ferry Road
SW Spring Garden Street, from SW 20th Ave to SW Taylors Ferry Road
SW Canyon Court at SW 58th Avenue (2022)

How were the projects chosen? 

In 2017, Safe Routes to School, together with school communities and a Stakeholder Advisory Committee, identified Primary Investment Routes leading to every permanent public elementary, K-8, and middle school campus in Portland. We developed a prioritized list of infrastructure projects to improve safety and walking access along those routes. You can read more about that process and see a map of projects here

Traffic calming projects listed on this page are generally on a Primary Investment Route or have multiple Primary Investment Routes that cross them.

For newer requests, the Safe Routes to School program uses an evaluation matrix developed by PBOT that combines traffic operations like speeds and volumes, policy considerations like priority safe routes to school corridors, and equity impacts using PBOT's Equity Matrix. Streets with the highest speeds and traffic volumes in areas of highest needs were prioritized.

Types of speed bumps and cushions

Portland uses three types of speed bumps and cushions to slow traffic: standard speed bumps, emergency vehicle bumps (also called speed cushions or fire-friendly bumps), and bike-friendly bumps. The Safe Routes to School program typically only uses standard speed bumps or emergency speed cushions depending on the street designation. We have included the bicycle bump here for additional information. 

Three images showing the three types of traffic calming bumps or cushions: a speed bump with no channels, an emergency vehicle bump with three channels, and a bicycle bump, with two channels.
Note the differences in the three types of speed bumps. The emergency vehicle bump has three channels, while the bike-friendly bump on the far right has two channels. A standard speed bump has no channels.

All types of traffic calming bumps and cushions are intended to slow vehicles to posted speeds, with different characteristics depending on the type of street. 

Speed Bumps

Emergency vehicle bumps / Fire-Friendly Speed Bumps / Speed Cushions

  • Have three channels built into them, spaced to let emergency vehicles pass through with less delay
  • Passenger vehicles and trucks, with smaller wheel spacing, usually must still pass over part of the bump
  • Typically used on streets designated as Major Emergency Routes, after approval from Portland Fire and Rescue. Major Emergency Routes are part of a network of streets meant to facilitate prompt emergency response.

Bike-friendly Bumps

  • Have two channels designated for people biking to ride through a speed bump rather than over it
  • Typically used on Neighborhood Greenway routes where people bicycling and pedestrians are given priority

Contact

PBOT Customer Service (by PDX 311)

phone number311Information and Customer Service
phone number503-823-4000Every day, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (excluding federal holidays) Interpretation available | Interpretación disponible | Phiên dịch có sẵn | 提供口译服务 | Доступна интерпретация | Tafsiir la heli karo | Доступний переклад
Oregon Relay Service711Oregon Relay Service

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