(Photo courtesy Betsy Reese)
I hate to say it, but there has been yet another right-hook collision on N Broadway.
This morning at around 8:35 am, a woman driving a Chrysler PT Cruiser turned right off of Broadway onto N Ross Avenue and collided with a man riding his bicycle. The man on the bike was traveling west on Broadway toward the Broadway Bridge prior to the collision. The extent of his injuries are unknown, but I have confirmed the collision with the Portland Police Bureau and with two witnesses who saw the aftermath.
According to Krissy Harbert, who was in a car on Ross, waiting to turn right onto Broadway, the bike rider who had been hit was “clearly in a lot of pain.” Ironically, Harbert is a resident at the Paramount Apartments and she’s been helping the building’s owner, Betsy Reese, keep track of the right-hooks that happen near their building. Reese has spearheaded an effort to improve traffic safety on Broadway. Just yesterday Reese sent out an email urging her contacts to “take action now” on the North Broadway Safety Crossing Enhancement Project which is currently under consideration to make ODOT’s coveted list of State Transportation Improvement Projects. The project would aim to, “enhance traffic safety and operations along N Broadway St between N Ross Ave and N Wheeler Ave.”
Harbert said she sees ambulances on Broadway “all the time” and that just yesterday she saw a cop “busting bikers on Flint” (a reference to the notorious Flint stop sign).
The manager of the Paramount Apartments, Nita Jacura, was meeting with prospective tenants when she heard the commotion and ran outside. She saw the man being lifted into the ambulance and saw the police interviewing the driver of the car.
This area of N Broadway has a long and sad history of dangerous traffic problems. As far back as December of 2006, then mayor Tom Potter was calling out safety concerns (and sticking up for police enforcement of bicycle laws). In 2007, following fears of right-hooks on Wheeler (just one block west of Ross), the Portland Water Bureau prohibited their trucks from turning right. Problems on Broadway persisted for years and following two right-hooks in 2012, Mayor Sam Adams took the big step and installed a median to stop people from turning right from Broadway onto Wheeler.
Even with Wheeler closed, it appears the problem has simply moved to the next block.