list of most dangerous intersections.
The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is set to launch a new safety campaign based on “high crash corridors,” which are wide streets with fast motor vehicle traffic that have a higher than average amount of crashes.
According to PBOT, funding for the new campaign comes from $260,000 of new state revenue taken from the Jobs and Transportation Act (HB 2001) that passed during last year’s legislative session. Mayor Sam Adams (who oversees PBOT) will launch the campaign at a press event at SE Foster and 108th tomorrow morning.
Here’s a first-look at one of the new banners that will be hung in clear sight of road users on these dangerous streets:
PBOT has identified 10 high crash corridors, but in order to make an impact, they will focus limited funding on four of them:
SE 122nd Ave.
- Southeast Foster Road
- Southeast and Northeast 122nd Avenue
- Southwest Barbur Boulevard
- Southeast and Northeast 82nd Avenue
In addition to the “See Kids” banner, PBOT has a series of banners with different subject matter including someone on a motorcycle, on a bicycle, and one that refers to the enforcement consequences of distracted driving/cell phone use.
PBOT traffic safety staffer Mark Lear says the campaign will be a “comprehensive look at safety in each of these corridors.” Lear also says these new safety efforts will be similar to their 82nd Ave of the Roses High Crash Corridor Safety Project that wrapped up in 2008.
As detailed in today’s Portland Tribune with the headline, Danger! It’s getting more dangerous to cross Portland streets, PBOT, with funding and collaboration from ODOT, are trying to tame Portland’s widest, highest-speed streets. To do that, PBOT will focus on the “Three Es” of traffic safety; education, enforcement, and engineering. On 82nd, among the changes were new median islands and other crossing and intersection treatments.
For more on Portland’s high crash corridors and most dangerous intersections, read this in-depth story by Peter Korn of the Portland Tribune.
- High Crash Corridors Safety Campaign Launch Event
Friday, November 19, at 9 a.m.
Intersection of SE Foster and SE 108th
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It if funny that 82nd Ave is on the list. Didn’t PBOT install a wall on 82nd to help speed up traffic and discourage pedestrians from crossing this highway. It would have been nice if the wall would have been installed perpendicular so that pedestrian access would have been enhanced.
Lance,
The Wall was done by the state ODOT, not by the city, PBOT. Just FYI. But you raise an important point… that is the management juggling that occurs on these major arterials that are owned by ODOT.
I see people just walking around the wall, still having to run across the street
How about having some speed and red light enforcement instead of billboards? Warm fuzzys are great, but if PDX hit speeders and red light runners in their pocket books I’m sure it would have a larger impact. That’s my 2 cents.
I think we could decrease all vehicular maladies by installing permanent photo radar devices at about every 3rd or 4th intersection or side street. They’d be like virtual speed bumps making 82nd, or any other street, impossible to use as a drag strip. Let a few police monitor the cameras live and issue tickets remotely from the office so that whole machine vs. human ticketing thing is avoided.
Of course the machine part would buffer the video feeds and automatically signal to the on duty officer that a particular incident may need a citation.
There isn’t enough money to pay for all the traffic cops needed to do this in person but does seem to be price for ignoring the problem.
From the CDC page http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/research/cost.html
In a one-year period, the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes exceeded $99 billion – with the cost of direct medical care accounting for $17 billion, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total annual cost amounts to nearly $500 for each licensed driver in the United States, said the study in the August 2010 issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.
The city of portland helped pay for the wall project, and it cost more than they are spending on this whole campaign…
I hear you Bjorn, and I agree that the Wall on 82nd deserves more scrutiny as to its impact/effects on traffic and the motivations behind putting it up… But it was a separate, ODOT project (link here) and it was not part of the High Crash Corridor program.
Funny, it looks like the SE 122/Division crashes are most frequent in the direction of the video banner display.
That video billboard is annoying, but I would guess that it doesn’t contribute all that much to collisions. It’s strip-mall city right there, lots of vehicles entering and exiting the various businesses. I’ve come close to being taken out there by left-crossing vehicles who were given a way through backed up traffic by a good samaritan.
‘See Kids’ seems like a way too limited message to me.
Right, Burr. Like you’re not supposed to see any other people on foot!?
BURR,
Like I said in the story, that’s just one of several banners with different messages that will be a part of this campaign.
If your driving fast in heavy traffic you will never read a banner
I live near 82nd & Division,(3rd highest accident intersection) I watch & at each light change one or two cars going west on Division and turning left at 82nd runs a red light. I see the Police do infrequent sting operations, but not enough, because once their gone, the red light running continues. The City needs money?, raise the fine until the message gets through, quit running the red lights, PLEASE!
3 words: red light camera
How long are we, as a society, going to tolerate this carnage? It is sad to me that we accept 35,000 road traffic deaths and uncounted hundreds of thousands of injuries and accidents in the U.S. every year when we know precisely how to reduce these numbers tenfold: drop speed limits, increase enforcement, raise ticket prices, toughen drunken driving laws, enforce helmet and seatbelt laws (see TBR Special Report 300).
Those that complain these simple rule changes will be too intrusive, too mean, and just too much regulation are then saying their freedom is more important that our collective lives, our collective health. We have become blind to the fact that the status quo has stolen our freedom and diminished our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Something is terribly wrong, folks, if we can’t and don’t feel safe every time we get on our bikes or walk down the street.
The more I read about this stuff the more I realize that cars and car-focused culture are steal my freedom and threatening my life every single day as a bicyclist and a pedestrian.
OK John, breath in, breath out, breath in…
Road diets and roundabouts would do some good on those streets. We build these inner city multi-lane highways and wonder why there’s a safety problem. Hmm.
These dangerous facilities all overemphasize automobile movements. They will not be any more safe until they become complete streets that comfortably accommodate all modes of transportation and minimize traffic speeds. We need to get ODOT and their outdated traffic engineering philosophy off our city streets.
Also, since when is a billboard considered “education”?
“campaign” ? Please what joke. NOTHING will change out here. I’ve lived in neglected east PDX for ten years now and have seen nothing but lip service from city leaders.
You can add SE Division between 60th and 82nd to that list. One of the denser hoods getting from south tabor to mount tabor park is a challenge. No bike lanes and 35 mph makes it dangerous to even walk on the side walk. People trying to get in and out of Warner Pacific University made even more dangerous without a stop light, especially when there are sports/music events. People have been hit by mirrors and other protruding car parts. I’ve seen several accidents with SUV’s and Trucks hoping the short curb and ending up in people’s homes. Does someone have to die before they lower the speed limit and add a stop sign? There has to be a better process so the neighborhood can take charge of the matter. I’m surprised Warner Pacific Admin hasn’t done anything yet as its a pretty big student safety issue.