Tomorrow, the Community Policing Agreement that was first proposed by Police Chief Rosie Sizer following two high-profile fatalities in October of 2007, will be adopted by Portland City Council.

The five page document outlines the current state of the working relationship between the Bureau of Transportation, the Police Bureau, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, and the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition.

Here's an excerpt from the introduction to the agreement (which you can download as a PDF here) :

...Portland’s community vision has resulted in a transformation of the public right-of-way that promotes all forms of travel....

This agreement will formalize a collaborative approach that will improve the city’s planning and response to traffic related issues, and encourage all modes of travel to work together harmoniously...

This collaborative approach depends on input and participation by the community....

...By working together, we can improve problem solving efforts and information exchange and develop innovative, pleasant, and safe places for all modes of travel."

Following the introduction, the agreement lays out several "action strategies". These include:

• An increased level of communication and cooperation among the community and key stakeholders with transportation responsibilities.
• A collaborative approach to traffic safety strategies, including the development and implementation of legislative initiatives.
• An agreement about the top locations with the greatest need for improved safety. This list will be reviewed annually.
• Improved data collection processes to accurately inform the community of safety trends, both city-wide and at specific locations.

The document than lists responsibilities that each signing member of the agreement will be held to.

Highlights on the list of 19 responsibilities the Police Bureau is agreeing are a commitment to "proactively work" with PBOT, the BTA and the WPC to identify high-risk locations that could benefit from "focused enforcement", to formalize the "police bicycle officer liaison position" currently held by Officer Robert Pickett, and to improve "problem solving efforts with the transportation community" by having Traffic Division leaders present at bike and pedestrian related meetings.

Highlight of PBOT's list of responsibilities are to meet monthly with Traffic Division officers to "exchange information and discuss problem solving efforts" and to create a list of high-risk locations that is updated and reviewed annually to improve safety efforts.

For advocates at the BTA and WPC, they're agreeing to continue to actively share information with PBOT and the Police Bureau and to maintain the collaborative relationship that currently exists.

Bryan Parman, interim commander of the Traffic Division (while Eric Hendricks recovers from an automobile crash) acknowledges that nearly everything in the agreement is already taking place. "We're already doing most everything in the agreement," he told me last night, "but what this does is put it in writing. It also must be renewed each year, so we can look back and assess how we're doing."

If you'd like to show your support for the importance of a collaborative and productive relationship between the Police Bureau and the community, consider showing up and/or testifying at City Council tomorrow at 2:00pm.

This is an internal training video for the Portland Police Bureau. It is narrated by Officer Robert Pickett, who serves as a liaison for bicycling issues, Bicycle Transportation Alliance advocate Michelle Poyourow, and a team of police officers who worked together to come up with the points in the video. The video is meant to educate officers, the two say, remind them of relevant laws, and "to advise officers' discretion in bicycle enforcement situations."

The video covers various hotly debated local issues such as issuing citations, exceptions to mandatory bike lane use, and policing of group rides. Pickett cautions that the video is meant as "advice, not as a mandate" and that "members of the public should not interpret any part of this video as exempting them from following the letter of the law."

The video was promised to the community in the wake of an incident involving a group of riders from the Portland State Cycling team who were stopped by a police officer while riding on Northeast Ainsworth Street back in November of 2008. One man was issued a citation for impeding traffic after he attempted to gesture to the officer that he had passed him too closely in his vehicle.

The citation was ultimately dismissed, and the Police Bureau agreed to produce a video for training its officers on laws and safety issues surrounding bicycle traffic.

Several weeks ago, the Chicago Police Department released a training video for its traffic enforcement officers. While the Portland video's focus is on how to identify and prioritize infractions committed by people on bicycles, the Chicago video focuses on infractions by people driving cars that endanger people on bicycles, and on how to handle the particular needs and paperwork issues when someone on a bicycle has been in a crash.

A woman was handcuffed and placed under arrest this morning after she was stopped for running the stop sign at NE Flint and Broadway when she asked the police officer if she was required to show identification. She was subsequently issued a citation and released.

Jessica Jarratt, 37, the executive director of an arts funding nonprofit, was commuting from her Northeast Portland home to her office in the Pearl this morning around 9:00am. In a phone interview this afternoon, she described being stopped by a police officer at Flint and Broadway, along with several other people on bikes, after she had turned right onto Broadway from Flint without coming to a complete stop.

She was pulled over by Officer Felts, who immediately asked her for her driver's license. "I said, wait, can you tell me why you're stopping me?" The officer responded that she had run a stop sign and requested her identification again.

Jarratt said that she asked, "Do I legally have to carry it?" and that Felts simply repeated the request. Frustrated, she asked if she could call a lawyer friend to ask about her rights in the situation. "I just didn't know," she explained. "And the officer just didn't engage at all."

Officer Felts then, she reported, said "That's it, you're under arrest." She says that he "took out his handcuffs and put them on my hands in such a violent way that I still have raised red marks." He ushered her to the sidewalk and called for backup. Another officer walked over to her and she asked him to loosen the handcuffs -- "I was really in pain." He complied.

This Google Street View is looking north from Broadway at N. Flint and N Wheeler is off to the left.

Felts came back over to her and said "This is your last chance, will you give me your name?" She gave her name, age, and address. He looked her up in his computer, removed the handcuffs, and let her go free with a $242 citation for failure to obey a traffic control device.

Jarratt said that throughout the incident, "I was very calm, I didn't cuss, I didn't say anything I would be embarrassed to have said. I was clearly not a physical threat to this guy. He could have just explained. If he had said, 'Yes you're legally required to have an ID,' I would have shown him one."

"I want to be totally clear in my story that I did break a law, and I'm willing to pay the fine associated with that," she said. "My beef is the way that he treated me in the process and his overall approach. I'm definitely going to pay the ticket, and I already filed a complaint, and I also want to do everything I can to send out a message that the Portland police can't treat people this way."

You are not required by law to produce or carry identification if you aren't driving a motor vehicle, local bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg told us, adding that you do not need a drivers license or any other form of identification to operate a bicycle, "or to walk down the street for that matter." But if a police officer asks for your name, you have to give it.

If you do not identify yourself, or if you give a name that the officer suspects to be false, they can legally hold you in custody until they determine your identity. That's probably what happened here, Ginsberg said. This is different from being under arrest, which would require an officer to read you your rights and allow you access to an attorney. "If they told her she was under arrest and then let her go, well that's bad practice."

When we spoke this afternoon, Jarratt was clearly still shaken by the incident. She said the intimidation she experienced was not called for, especially since people on bikes are not, like motor vehicle operators, required to carry an ID card, and may not have been pulled over before or know what to expect from a traffic stop. "I think the whole bureau needs to realize that -- especially if they're going to be going after pedestrians, bicyclists, people who are in a more vulnerable physical situation than in a car."

Portland Police have held several series of enforcement actions at NE Flint and Broadway in the last year in response to safety concerns. Back in 2007, the city's water bureau banned its own vehicles from using Wheeler, the street just to the west of Flint, because of concerns about collisions involving bicycles. New pavement markings have been installed along with other safety features.

The Portland Police Bureau sent three motorcycle cops to SE Clinton Street this morning to observe and enforce stop sign compliance at 34th and 21st Avenues.

According to Traffic Division Lieutenant Bryan Parman, the "enforcement mission" (a.k.a. sting) came after his office received a complaint via email last week from a nearby resident. Parman said,

"The email was about poor compliance at the stop signs by everyone, not just bikes. The resident was specifically concerned at people not yielding to pedestrians." (There are marked crosswalks at both intersections).

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The result? In the one-hour mission, three officers issued 22 citations; five to motor vehicle operators and 17 to people on bicycles. Parman says everyone given a ticket was given the option to attend the Share the Road Safety Class so it won't affect their driving record (that option can be given only at the discretion of the officer who issues the citation).

Parman says the officers were "focusing on blatant behavior that creates a potentially dangerous situation," and that "given the results we found, we need to talk about a workable solution."

What Parman is referring to is his ongoing conversation with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation about how to most effectively enforce laws for bike traffic on popular bike boulevard streets.

Parman -- who said he's already discussed this morning's mission with the BTA's Michelle Poyourow* -- wants to find a more long term solution on how to best respond to these type of complaints. He said he'll also be discussing the issue at the Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting tonight.

"I understand that Clinton is a bike boulevard," said Parman on the phone this morning. As such, Parman said he wants bikes to become the preferred mode of transportation on the street, but he also wants to make sure bike operators are being safe and legal.

UPDATE: 3:23 p.m. A commenter just pointed out a YouTube video (below) uploaded on April 8th by "batboyfan", who explains it as, "Proof that the majority of cyclists in Portland do not stop at stop signs or stop lights. This is not just a few bad apples, it is the general consensus among cyclists in Portland that the traffic laws do not apply to them."

*This was a miscommunication between Lt. Parman and I. Michelle Poyourow did not discuss the enforcement activities on SE Clinton.

Representative Jim Oberstar (D-MN) -- the man whose passion for Safe Routes to Schools helped establish it as a national priority in America -- is now throwing his energy behind a new idea. And, as Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that will be writing the new transportation bill, Oberstar's ideas have real potential to turn into policy.

Today at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C., Oberstar will meet with the country's top bike lawyers to discuss the potential of a new legislative initiative to draft the country's first piece of legal policy that would directly relate to the respect and recognition of bicycles as users of our roadways.

According to Portland bike lawyer Ray Thomas, he was one of a handful of legal minds tapped by the League of American Bicyclist's Advocacy Director Walter Finch to meet with Oberstar to discuss the idea.

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Thomas, along with Portland lawyer (and author of Bicycling and the Law) Bob Mionske, well-known cycling lawyer Gary Brustin, and others will be asked for their insights on how to best move forward with this initiative (unfortunately, both Mionske and Thomas were unable to make it to the Summit, but I have heard that BTA Executive Director Scott Bricker might represent them at the meeting).

Thomas describes the initiative as a way to create a federal law to ensure equitable treatment of people on bicycles who are involved in crashes. Too often, he says, drivers do not receive serious charges in collision cases. The way the system is set up now, police officers and prosecutors (for a variety of reasons) will often not even attempt to press serious charges against motorists.

Oberstar wants to fix the system so there's a better chance that justice will be done.

League of American Bicyclists Executive Director Andy Clarke told me this morning that the initiative could result in language being put into the transportation bill that would give more "legal standing to bicycles as a mode of transportation". Clarke mentioned the precedents of federal regulations about how states must comply with blood-alcohol level and seat belt usage laws.

This conversation is only in its infancy, but with Oberstar at the wheel this is definitely worth paying attention to.

This story is part of our special 2009 National Bike Summit coverage. For more coverage, follow BikePortland on Twitter and browse the latest photos in our Bike Summit photo gallery.

"...approaches are sometimes different, and misunderstandings likely because we are all human -- regardless of whether we wear a stretchy bicycle jersey or an itchy police uniform."
-- From a public statement issued by the City Attorney's office as part of a settlement reached in the Ainsworth Incident

Traffic citations given to two men who were ticketed for riding on NE Ainsworth Avenue back in November have been dismissed.

The case went in front of a Multnomah County traffic court judge at 1:30 pm this afternoon and, instead of arguing over who was at fault, all parties in the incident have signed onto an "Open Letter to the Community" (read it below, download here).

Reuben Vyn and Peter Welte were stopped by Officer James Pryce of the Portland Police on November 16th. Pryce said the men were impeding traffic, but Vyn and Welte, along with numerous witness accounts said otherwise. They claim Officer Pryce came within inches of them as he passed by on the narrow street and that he only turned around to cite them after one of the riders -- in response to the close call -- gestured and yelled at the officer.

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PSU Cycling Club president
Reuben Vyn and Officer Pryce. Peter
Welte, who took this photo, was also
ticketed.

After the incident, Vyn and Welte sought legal representation from Portland lawyer Christopher Heaps (who you might remember as the guy who successfully pursued a Citizen Initiated Citation back in 2007). After researching the case, Heaps determined the citations were unjustly issued and he approached the City Attorney's office to ask that they be dismissed.

Reached via email today, Heaps had this to say about the outcome,

"We are delighted. Our fundamental goal was dismissal of the citations, and we achieved it. But beyond that, somebody at the City heard our message and demonstrated that the City understands the importance of its role in creating streets where all our citizens feel safe riding. We are indeed fortunate to have such enlightened leadership in Portland."

Beyond simply a dismissal of the citations, all the parties involved in the incident have signed a public statement. The statement was drafted with assistance from Officer Robert Pickett, who co-chairs the City's Bicycle Advisory Committee and has also become a liaison on bike issues between the community and the Portland Police Bureau.

Signed onto the letter are Deputy City Attorney David Worboril, NE Precinct Commander James Ferraris, Acting Commander of the Traffic Division Bryan Parman, Officer James Pryce and riders Vyn and Welte.

Here's an excerpt from the "Open Letter to the Community" (written on City Attorney letterhead, emphasis mine):

...While our goals of a stronger, safer community are common, approaches are sometimes different, and misunderstandings likely because we are all human -- regardless of whether we wear a stretchy bicycle jersey or an itchy police uniform.

The traffic stop on Northeast Ainsworth Street involving members of the Portland State University Cycling Club and a member of the Portland Police Bureau elicited strong, human reactions from all sides. Our community's law enforcement officers and bicycle riders can probably benefit from a discussion of these situations -- from both perspectives.

The undersigned Club cyclists are dedicated to following the rules of the road. They appreciate the progress that has been made in clarifying and refining the City of Portland's bike law enforcement policy but are concerned that not all police officers understand the City's police and goals. They know that, when there is confusion in the minds of diligent bicyclists between what they understand to be City policy and what they are told by an officer who has stopped them, it can make the traffic stop an unnerving upsetting occasion. The cyclists ask for predictable and consistent enforcement of the rules of the road.

The Portland Police Bureau...acknowledges that some officers have not mastered all the biking laws and the City's interpretation of them. There's a particular risk among officers who are not assigned to full-time traffic enforcement. The Police Bureau will address this problem by producing a training video for all patrol officers and hopes members of our community who frequently ride bicycles will help the Traffic and Training Divisions with the presentation.

The statement goes on to share the perspective of officers at a traffic stop and how they expect people will "express themselves" at traffic stops but asks that, "citizens cooperate with officer's efforts to manage these scenes and keep them safe".

Download the two-page statement here (PDF)

Deputy City Attorney David Worboril told me on the phone today that this settlement was reached because "we decided it was in the best interest of everyone involved." Worboril also said that he'll be managing the training effort and video creation project from here on out. A new bike law training video is expected to be completed and in use by spring. "Our hope is to have it ready and being played at roll call (a meeting before officers begin their shift) before the biking season is in full swing this summer."

Stay tuned for further developments.

We covered the beginnings of the Share the Road Safety Class; this is our first inside account by a BikePortland operative.

Traffic safety gurus (L to R): Judge
Chris Larsen, BTA instructor Gregg
Lavender, Officer James Sorensen,
and nurse Mike Morrison.
(Photos: Ellee Thalheimer)

"Bike laws are schizophrenic," the judge in my case told me. "Sometimes you’re a vehicle, sometimes you’re a pedestrian."

It’s true. The rules of the road are confusing, and for those of us who get around on two wheels, confusing can translate into lethal. That’s one reason self-proclaimed "safety geek" and Judge Chris Larsen wanted to create a better way to educate road users about how to operate legally, and safely, on city streets.

Nearly two years ago, Larsen initiated the Share the Road Safety Class, a two-hour lecture/discussion/presentation that takes place twice a month at Legacy Emanuel Hospital.

The class functions as an alternative to expensive, record-marring traffic tickets that leave offenders frustrated, but unfortunately, still ignorant about the rules of the road.

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I learned about the class only when I was relegated to it by a traffic court judge. With the helpful advice of bike law specialist Ray Thomas, I went to court with what I believed to be an unjust ticket. I got it dismissed based on the contingency that I pay a fee and take the Share the Road Safety Class.

The crowd at the Share the Road Safety Class

As I squeezed in with the other 140 people in the class at Legacy Emanuel Hospital, I remembered back angrily to the red-faced cop who had yelled at me as he gave me my ticket.

Part of me grudged having to pay the $30 class fee, then ride through the chilly night and listen to a lecture about something that I have been doing successfully for 15 years. On the other hand, learning about the official legalities of sharing the road piqued my interest.

In fact, the class ended up teaching me a lot. Judge Larsen, Officer James Sorensen, and trauma nurse Mike Morrison comprised a holy safety trinity that tackled traffic issues from each angle. The cherry on top of the night was Bicycle Transportation Alliance representative Gregg Lavender’s cycling-centric presentation.

In respect to my specific case (which wasn’t exactly a cut-and-dry incident) Officer Sorensen and Judge Larsen were able to explain that, while it may have been handled poorly, it was justified in many ways. I was impressed how Sorensen and Larsen were able to present the law in a way that gets through to even the most hard-headed law breakers.

Though not all the attendees were as enthused as I was, many got involved despite themselves (and learned something in the process). Who knows, maybe this class is one reason 2008 was a record-breaking year for the low rates of traffic fatalities in Portland.

Turns out I’m not the only one that has noticed the class’s effectiveness. Judge Larsen has been nominated for one of the BTA’s Alice Awards for his involvement with the class.

The Share the Road Safety Class is one more demonstration why the nation’s eyes turn to Portland for examples of innovative and effective transportation safety programs. In fact, Judge Larsen says he hopes to export the class curriculum and the entire program to other cities.

– To learn more about bike-specific rules of the road without first receiving a traffic citation, check out the Legal Clinics or peruse a copy of Ray Thomas’ Pedal Power: A Legal Guide for Oregon Bicyclists.

"This will adequately address the inequity of this situation and show the community that bicyclists will not be punished for riding legally on the streets of Portland."
-- Lawyer Christopher Heaps

The lawyer for two men who were ticketed for riding their bikes on NE Ainsworth last month is imploring city leaders and the police chief to recognize the error made by the officer and have him dismiss the citations.

The request by Christopher Heaps, a lawyer with downtown Portland firm Stoel Rives who is representing the riders, comes in a nine-page letter sent yesterday to Mayor Potter and all four City Commissioners (download PDF, 1.0MB). According to the letter, Reuben Vyn and Peter Welte were "wrongfully issued traffic violation citations by Portland Police Bureau Officer Jimmy Pryce," and Officer Pryce's actions were "vindictive and violate Portland Police Bureau Policies".

PSU Cycling Club president
Reuben Vyn and Officer Pryce.
(Photos: Peter Welte)

On November 15th, Vyn and Welte were riding westbound on NE Ainsworth St. with teammates from the Portland State University Cycling Team. According to the riders and several witnesses, Officer Pryce passed Vyn very closely (it's a narrow, one-lane street with on-street parking). Then, after Vyn gestured to Pryce about the near-miss, Pryce stopped his patrol car and pulled him over. As Pryce and Vyn discussed the situation, Welte engaged in the conversation and began taking photographs. In the end, both he and Vyn were issued a variety of citations.

(For a full recap of the incident, read our story, Riding on Ainsworth leads to tickets for PSU riders.)

Not much space on Ainsworth.

Heaps is no stranger to representing the rights of people on two wheels. Back in February, Heaps successfully filed a "citizen initiated violation" after the police chose to not issue a citation to a driver who struck a woman who was riding in a bike lane.

In the letter -- which was also sent to PSU President Wim Wiewel and Police Chief Rosie Sizer -- Heaps details the laws that pertain to the situation and he calls on Mayor Potter and other city leaders to contact Officer Pryce and persuade him to dismiss the citations when the issue is heard in traffic court.

About the law, Heaps writes:

"Officer Pryce's act of passing Mr. Vyn at approximately 30 mph demonstrates that Officer Pryce could not have reasonably believed that Mr. Vyn had committed the traffic violation for which he was cited (impeding traffic) since the infraction requires blocking or impeding the reasonable movement of traffic (ORS 811.130(1))."

Heaps feels that not only were Vyn and Welte cited incorrectly, he also contends that the entire stop violated Portlnd Police Bureau policies which prohibit officers from making a traffic stop out of retaliation. From the letter:

"Officer Pryce's statements after initiating the traffic stop provide ample evidence that he initiated the stop because of a gesture made by Mr. Vyn and not because of any other action Mr. Vyn had taken while riding his bike... Officer Pryce issued these citations as retribution and not for the purpose of enhancing road safety."

If Officer Pryce's actions are not acknowledged and censured, Heaps feels it will send a chilling message to Portlanders who use bicycles to get around. In his letter, he states that "condoning Pryce's actions prevents more Portlanders from bicycling and is bad public policy."

From the letter:

"When Portlanders see that the City's law enforcement officers themselves are exacerbating this safety concern (passing a bicycle too closely) by driving in a way that flagrantly disregards the risk to bicyclists, they will rightfully ask whether the City and its leaders are serious about promoting safe and legal bicycling."

Heaps says his clients' goal is to avoid further legal action because, "they are mindful that such conflict could worsen the already strained relations between our city's bicyclists and the PPB". They simply want Officer Pryce to dismiss the citations. If the dismissal is not granted, he states in the letter that Mr. Vyn and Mr. Welte "will take legal action" which he says will include a citizen-initiated citation against Officer Pryce, filing a complaint with the Independent Police Review, and "other action as necessary to ensure that Officer Pryce is held accountable for his conduct."

I asked Heaps of such a request is standard procedure. It isn't. He said, "Asking for a dismissal is extraordinary... this is a public relations thing. We want to say, look, if you're a leader in this town, you can't let something like this happen."

No date has been set for the trial.

-- Download Heaps' letter here (PDF, 1MB).

Two members of the PSU Cycling Club got a lot more than they bargained for while riding along NE Ainsworth yesterday.

According to witnesses, Club president Reuben Vyn was riding along with six other members of the club on NE Ainsworth near NE 23rd when a Portland police officer in a patrol car came by "within a foot" of his handlebars. (Ainsworth is a narrow, one-lane, residential street with car parking. The street is a designated bike route, but it's also notoriously uncomfortable to ride on. See photo below)

In a statement to BikePortland, Vyn claims he was riding "about three feet from a row of parked cars when Officer Pryce passed me, coming within a foot of hitting me." Vyn recalls that he then "signaled to him (the officer) with a lateral motion of my hand that he should have given me more space."

Not much space on Ainsworth.

According to Peter Welte, who was also on the ride, that gesture, "apparently pissed the guy (Officer Pryce) off." The police officer then pulled Vyn over.

At this point, Welte -- who was ahead of Vyn when the incident occurred -- had doubled-back and was now standing with Vyn, discussing the law with the officer.

Vyn recalls the conversation:

"He proceeded to tell me that I needed to either ride with the flow of traffic or ride closer to the parked cars in order to let other vehicles pass. I replied that if I rode any closer to the cars I would risk getting ‘doored’. He asked if that actually happens, and if that has happened specifically to me. I replied that yes it actually has happened to me.

I further explained that it is my right to ride three feet from parked cars, and that he in fact made a dangerous move to pass me at such a close distance."

Welte says that the cop "didn't appreciate our feedback regarding his understanding of the law and looked for anything he could bust on."

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After their discussion, both Vyn and Welte recall that Officer Pryce went back to his patrol car and then returned twenty minutes later with citations for both men. Pryce allegedly told them they were receiving the citations because they, "insisted on doing this the hard way."

Reuben Vyn was cited for failure to update his address on his driver's license (ORS 807.560) and for impeding traffic (ORS 811.130). Welte received a ticket as a pedestrian (he had entered the roadway to take pictures) for 'improper position on a highway' (ORS 814.070).

When Officer Pryce handed out the tickets, Welte recalls, Vyn asked, "What's my ticket for? Riding in the street?", and the officer responded "yes".

Both Vyn and Welte feel their citations are not warranted and plan to contest them in traffic court.

Ainsworth is a designated bike route, but
the narrow street makes for tricky riding.

Nathan Sramek was also on the ride. He calls Vyn's citation a "bogus charge" and, wrote in an email that, "What really bothers me about this situation, is not that Rueben and Peter were cited, but the implications events like this hold for the safety of the cycling community in general."

Sramek calls the incident "disheartening" and he feels that police officers should serve as an example to other motorists. Reflecting on the incident, he wrote that he doesn't think it's indicative of the PPB's attitude toward cyclists in general, but that "It is much easier for me to disregard driver ignorance when it is not being displayed by someone in authority."

Welte says he and Vyn now plan to research their citations and prepare for their cases, which will be heard in traffic court in December. He also said they are considering filing a formal complaint with the police bureau.

[Editor's Note: I've changed the headline of this story from "Riding on Ainsworth leads to tickets for PSU riders" to "Tickets follow close call on Ainsworth". I just didn't like the original headline, so I changed it.]

As part of an ongoing effort, the Portland Police Bureau's Traffic Division is performing a series of "traffic safety educational missions" at the intersection of Broadway and Flint.

Traffic Division Captain Larry O'Dea says his officers are conducting the missions during morning commute hours every day this week. According to O'Dea, the missions are being done in conjunction with the first round of changes made by PDOT (the "Bikes Stop" markings installed last week).

In an email sent by O'Dea this morning, he described the PPB's efforts as,

"part of our cooperative effort in increasing awareness, improving traffic control device compliance, and improving safety in this challenging area."

He also released their results from yesterday (9/30). According to O'Dea, two officers gave out 18 warnings -- 17 of them to bicycle operators and one to a motor vehicle operator.

In case you're wondering why this number is so much lower than last time the PPB did a mission at this intersection (53 bike operators were stopped back in July), O'Dea says it's because he only has two officers at the location this week, while they had "a bunch" of officers in July.

O'Dea also told me that this morning officers are reporting much better compliance than yesterday.

I'll do an update at the end of the week, with final tallies and thoughts from Capt. O'Dea.