(Photo:J.Maus/BikePortland)
Saying that traffic injuries like the ones that are common on Powell Boulevard “inexcusable and unnecessary” outside the doors of Cleveland High School, the father of two Cleveland students is organizing a protest of the speed-oriented urban highway during Monday’s rush hour.
A collision Sunday involving a pickup truck and a bicycle severed a young man’s leg. Police said the truck had been northbound on 26th and turned left onto Powell in front of two people heading southbound on bicycles.
Dan Kaufman described Monday’s event as a “super-legal slow-down,” in which people deliberately move slowly on a street in order to call attention to the fact that high speeds, and roads designed to encourage them, are inappropriate in an urban context.
According to the online map of traffic injuries since 2004 created for the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Vision Zero campaign, 1,018 people were injured on Powell between 7th Avenue and Cesar Chavez Boulevard from 2004 to 2013, the vast majority of them in cars. Seven people died: two people in cars and five people walking.
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Kaufman, a longtime local livable streets advocate, started organizing the event on Sunday after learning about the collision, which remains under investigation. Here’s his description of the event on Facebook:
Another inexcusable and unnecessary casualty has occurred on Powell Blvd. This time, a man has lost his leg and is in danger of dying. Other deaths and injuries occur on our inter-urban highway on a daily basis.
26th and Powell is a particularly dangerous stretch of Hwy 26 that runs in front of Cleveland High School (where my children attend), Powell Park, Hopworks Urban Brewery, Burgerville 25th & Powell, and many other shops and residences.
Join us for a super-legal slow-down of this intersection at afternoon rush hour.
Take a slow tour on foot, bike, automobile, or skates. Bring your friends, neighbors, family, and signs. Let ODOT know that we will no longer tolerate this kind of carnage and we demand immediate street-repair that puts human lives and safety first.
Let us continue this these protests at any/all ODOT Neighborhood Highways until we are satisfied that ODOT puts safety far and above speed and throughput on our streets.
The event is listed for 4 p.m. at Cleveland High School, 3400 SE 26th Ave.
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Thank you for writing about this, Michael! I hope this is a success, and I’d love to see it elsewhere in Portland. I’d also like to see more protest bike rides. I’m so tired of all the bike hate lately and the city’s inexcusable inaction.
I’m looking forward to the Slow-Down. This intersection and the streets around it are totally unsafe for families. Gladstone, Holgate, 26th, Powell, and Division are all built looking like freeways even though they run right through our neighborhoods.
Our elected officials want to talk about how great this city is for walking and bicycling, but they ignore the clear and present danger we face on our streets. The City neglects to collect data on crashes except when they result in a serious injury like Sunday’s tragedy. That means officials ignore all the near-misses, the close-calls, and the dozens (or probably hundreds) of times people come a hair’s breadth away from a serious injury or death. City officials are ignorant of the magnitude of the problem and show little compassion for the Portland residents who regularly face lethal danger when simply trying to get their families to school, work, or the store.
I hope it’s not an inappropriate time to remind folks we are still collecting signatures to have Portland’s Bicycle-Friendliness downgraded to something more in line with the average, mostly-survivable bicycling community we are at the present moment:
http://change.org/p/league-of-american-bicyclists-downgrade-portland-s-ranking-as-a-bicycle-friendly-community
This is the intersection my children often have to negotiate to get to school on foot or on bike. It’s awful and scary and the only ‘good’ option for blocks. I will be there tomorrow.
Thank you for getting the word out.
Was speed a contributing cause to this injury crash? Seems like failure to yield by the motorists to the cyclist rather than speed was the cause. My fear is this “protest” will only polarize cyclists and motorists… Hope I’m wrong 🙂
One could argue that speed is (indirectly) to blame. The timing of the lights on 26th (very short) relative to the lights on Powell (much longer) are a function of how ODOT sees the relative importance (and speed) of the people traveling on those two streets. Impatience on the part of left turning folks on 26th who may wait through multiple cycles is at least in part a result of the asymmetrical light timing.
Speed (or end-speed) was certainly a factor. Dropping the gas to turn through a yellow light before it turns red is an issue. Even a loaded late-late model pick-up can accelerate 0-30 in 4 seconds easy. This is not to say running straight through yellows is safe either, but the turn still must yield.
Traffic light turn signal would have likely prevented.
“Dropping the gas to turn through a yellow” is also illegal in OR.
‘“Dropping the gas to turn through a yellow” is also illegal in OR.’
This and the behaviour of six cars blowing through a red light, while now common, were fairly rare even 5-10 years ago in the Portland area.
I am visiting in Los Angeles right now (I live in Bend) and am seeing driving behavior that I have not seen in any of my past 20 visits. Drivers now use the bike lane as a travel lane…the right lane has learned to move over as far to the left as possible, so cars now use the bike lane for as much as two blocks. Of course, in L.A., the implications of minimal, since I see about one bike every half hour on Pacific Coast Highway (where your odds of survival are about as good as, say I-5 Portland during rush hour).
Partly a factor of the lights too… not the one at this corner probably, but so many of the modern sensor lights on side streets have extremely short cycles such that only 1 or 2 vehicles can even make it before it turns yellow. I am guilty too. I am trying to reform… but just this morning after sitting for more than a full minute at a side street light in Vancouver, behind 2 cars, the light turned yellow before the 1st car cleared and the second entered. I went through with the two cars behind me as well, knowing I’d have sit for a full 2 minutes. Now, I do know that 2 minutes is not worth someones life, but in the moment we don’t go through those calculations and what is required is a complete change of habit and mindset to set the trigger for stop when seeing yellow, instead of push it.
“Now, I do know that 2 minutes is not worth someones life, but in the moment…”
And we also know that the chances of you killing or maiming someone with your bike-as-you-speed-through-a-yellow is infinitesimal. Not so for Mr. Yellow Pickup, as we know.
I support this and will do my best to participate.
I would be helpful if the cognoscenti on this board would chime in on the possible legal repercussions when we congregate to take “a slow tour on foot, bike, automobile, or skates” of that intersection. Seems like I remember that blocking traffic or moving at a pace slower than surrounding vehicles is a punishable violation. Would hate to see demonstrators getting ticketed, or worse.
Speaking of visibility, why don’t bicyclists have decent headlights AND taillights. If a driver can ‘not’ see another car coming, why in the world do bicyclists think we can see them ? If a car passes a bicyclist and the bicyclist races up to get in front of the car, again. I’d call that road rage.
“If a car passes a bicyclist and the bicyclist races up to get in front of the car, again. I’d call that road rage.”
Hm. How curious. In my experience, what you refer to as racing isn’t required at all. My speed on a bike is fairly constant. It is the guy in the car who ‘needs’ to pass me, only to find himself queuing a block or two ahead behind all the other cars, whose speed we might question. When I come upon that line of cars, I’ve not been racing but merely going about my (steady) business. How you get to thinking of this sort of leapfrogging-due-to-the-person-in-the-car’s-need-to-pass-me as biker-road-rage is beyond me.
“If a driver can ‘not’ see another car coming, why in the world do bicyclists think we can see them ?”
That would be called ‘driving too fast for condition.’ It is the responsibility of the impatient person in the car to look for and see what is in front and about him.
Blind people, dogs, boulders, children, older people… why should they all have to constantly be on high alert in case someone feels the need to speed through their lives in an automobile?
“Super legal” for a driver, would imply not that you’re going slower than ‘normal’, but that you’re going as slow as is prudent given the conditions. If it’s raining, you need to go slower so you can see people turning, cyclists, pedestrians. If it’s dark, you need to go slowly enough that you can see someone (in dark clothing, since that’s the “norm”) stepping off the curb to cross the street. You should drive slowly enough that you can spot a cyclist on the street. If it’s dark and raining, that may mean you’re going 20 mph, even on Powell Blvd. The “speed limit”, is the high limit, under “ideal conditions”… mid-day, sunny, without the low sun in your eyes, no rain, etc. Anything else, drivers actually should be going much slower than most of them are.
As our cities change, the attitudes towards the purpose, functioning, and interaction of all moods of transit must change. These attitudes must be molded through aligned laws, penalties, infrastructure design, and public relations.
Push through-traffic to the interstates by crippling the status car culture with enforced speed limits of no more than 25 miles an hour city wide–Powell, 30, Sandy, etc (sue and gridlock cross-street, until the state and county comply).
Slow Portland down.
PBOT will do what it can, but as long as ODOT controls how speeds are set in the state, there will continue to be disagreement.
I urge Portland area cyclists to buy a bike mounted camera or loan mine.
Then upload both photos and videos to http://flickr.com/groups/carsdeadlybikesnot
Some cameras are buggy and take a lot of work to keep them charged and with a clean memory card. I’ll train anyone who rides a lot on these dangerous routes. It’s made my brain much more aware and safe.
Hell is a concept for people who drive cars and believe in god, spirituality is for cyclists facing the wrath of motor vehicles.
I’ve been riding for several months with a camera, mostly during my morning and afternoon commutes during which car traffic is a lot more congested and drivers are angrier/more hurried. I’ve had two minor collisions while the camera was in use – neither my fault – and thanks to the obvious blinking light on top of my helmet there was absolutely no question of blame. There have also been *numerous* instances where drivers retreat behind me and back off after seeing the camera while they aggressively passed or otherwise pulled dangerous stunts. It’s definitely a deterrent. And, of course, it catches the weirdest stuff like the pickup truck lady two weeks ago who honked and yelled at me for safely and legally passing stopped traffic on the right.
Camera recommendations?
Gopros are big, but a lot of the others are pretty resolution poor.
Gopro is offering a new specific model called “Hero” it’s only $129.99 and doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles. But is their smallest and lightest model. And is the easiest to use and still gives either 720 or 1080 HD video.
I’ve had mine for 4 months and use it every day, I’m planning on getting a 2nd one to mount facing behind me to catch both front and rear footage.
I have gotten so much footage of bad drivers that I can’t even keep up with editing all of it!
http://road.cc/show/review-section/helmet-cameras/9772
http://www.core77.com/posts/25590/the-way-we-live-now-the-rideye-is-a-dash-cam-for-your-bicycle-25590
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-your-own-dashcam-for-your-car-or-bike/
Big can be good. A boxy GoPro pretty clearly declares itself as a camera, not a light or something, and often seems to have a deterrent effect.
Hey Joe (sorry couldn’t help it)
Email me at invisiblebikes@gmail I’ve got tons of footage of bad drivers over the last 4 months and would be happy to share it.
Hey dudes, What about the rest of us? Upload those videos somewhere so that we can all appreciate them (and learn).
Here you go, check out some of my uploads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DYxCXKXY0
I have lived in the southern half of the Creston-Kenilworth neighbor hood for the last 11 years. On Holgate, on Gladstone and on 28th Place just south of Powell. I was a daily bike commuter using that intersection from 2005 through 2008. I have seen the aftermath of more than one hit and run deaths in this small area. I also drive a car though I will do almost anything to avoid that intersection in my car.
I respectfully point out that increasing the irritation and anger that the run of the mill motorist will feel at this slow down will not provoke future safety awareness. I am horrified at the carnage wrought upon pedestrians and bicyclists in my neighborhood and am livid about the kind and amount of traffic that speeds 20 feet from my door on Holgate near Caesar Chavez. I am not sure how to change things. My years of activism in our forests and for social justice have shown that direct action, while making me and my affinity group feel good and righteous, it does little useful in bringing change. I completely understand the protest. Things need to change and 20 years ago is not soon enough! And, further alienation of faster and slower users of our community commons does not strike me as either effective or useful in achieving the stated goal. Nevertheless, thank you for your thoughts and efforts to bring about change and I hope that against all experience that it will bring about change that is so necessary.
“I respectfully point out that increasing the irritation and anger that the run of the mill motorist will feel at this slow down will not provoke future safety awareness.”
And I have to respectfully disagree with you. At the very least this planned protest has already gathered a ton of media attention, and even though most people will probably ignore it or even mock it, if even one person is made aware of this dangerous intersection and the general bike safety situation in this city, I consider that a “win.”
Activism may not bring about immediate and complete change, but it most certainly does chip away at the status quo little by little, which is why it’s important that we all (cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians) continue to fight for safer streets in this city.
Have you heard of the Pembina propane pipeline? Hales withdrew support after facing public backlash. Activism works.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-33181-mayor_charlie_hales_withdraws_support_for_pembina_propane_terminal.html
Maybe we should plan a BetterBlockPDX event at that intersection? What better place to demonstrate the benefits of a road diet than a dangerous intersection in front of a school?
Powell at 21st had 1600 eastbound and 1200 westbound cars in just the through movements in counts this year.
1,000 vehicles per lane is the standard, so Powell does not have ‘too many’ lanes. The bad backups would likely double if you removed a lane on Powell.
“bad backups”
Was 2009 Portland’s Climate Action Plan a real plan or was it just feel good pandering?
OBJECTIVE 6.
Reduce per capita daily vehicle-miles traveled
(VMT) by 30 percent from 2008 levels.
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/49989
2012 progress report.
Item 6 items begin on page 34.
http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/393345
Not sure VMT should be in a climate action plan. The metric presumes vehicles will continue to exhaust similar levels of pollution into the future. That is likely not true. Vehicles will continue to become more efficient and less polluting. VMT might work better to measure mode share as an index of livability not related to the air we breath, but relative to risk of collision and future infrastructure maintenance.
Maybe Hales and Novick could personally come by the protest and lend their support.
What the hell is wrong with Portland’s policing priorities? Your city has heat aplenty to send out to police policitcal demonstrators, but no extra officers to spare to slow these deathtrap streets down?
At the bike summit, it was pointed out that most police do not equate traffic duty with saving lives. A meme that needs to change.
i’d recommend always using a strobe light during daylight hours, especially when traveling > 10 mph. I find that motorists do not appreciate the closing speeds when traveling quickly on bikes. the lights make them think twice before cutting in front of a cyclist. this is a tragedy, pure and simple.
And I’d ban strobe lights entirely. They’re great at raves, where people love having their perceptions distorted by bright, flashing lights, but those people are on Ecstasy. Strobe lights mess with people’s sense of time and space–they are not appropriate for road use.
And even if they can make an individual rider more visible, that effect is eliminated as soon as there’s more than one strobe. With more than one, it becomes impossible to identify an individual and track his progress.
We need to end the lighting arms race. Making yourself the most visible thing on the road makes everyone else that much less visible. On the other hand, if we all use a reasonable amount of light, enough to ensure we’re seen without overpowering everyone else, we’ll all be safer.
Arms race? Some of us just like to see where we are going on poorly lit bikeways. I just recently picked up a 1800 lumen light at Bike Gallery. No strobe mode, but love the brightness. This should do till something brighter comes along.
i ride this intersection daily, and the strobe keeps accidents like this from happening to me. prove me wrong, and i’ll drop it in a heartbeat. i agree that people ‘should’ see us, but they don’t.
I use a generator powered light, front and back, on my city bike and it’s always on. Steady beams. It definitely helps my visibility (compared to other trips I take during the day on other, un-lit bikes).
Solid, bright lights are what is useful — not strobes or blinkies.
I have some elephant repellent I’d like to sell you.
With all due respect, I do not think a comment thread where we are discussing a person who was very severely injured is the best place to call out people for riding with blinkies or bright lights.
Unless, maybe, someone suggests that the way to avoid severe injury is to use a strobe.
The more visible people there are on the road… the more people there are on the road that are visible. Blinkies are not the enemy.
Ron, not that I disagree with you but in this context… meaning daylight lighting, the “*fast blink” feature of lights works best for catching the attention of drivers.
During daylight hours there is more than enough ambient light that blinking lights will not affect anyone’s vision or depth perceptions, the human eye doesn’t work like that.
But I do agree with you that at dusk or at night time (dark hours) a blinking light should be switched to steady or slow “breath” style blink because if the head light (or tail light) is the only immediate source of light then it will affect someone’s vision and depth perception. So yes, I agree all riders should not use blinking functions at night.
I use the fast blink during the day time, it works especially well to prevent right hooks or cars from encroaching into the bike lane because it grabs the attention of a driver in their mirrors.
*btw bike head lights do not strobe, they blink in a fast pattern but no where near the speed of a strobe.
You could not be more wrong. American drivers need the pointy stick in the eye that strobe lights provide. When our drivers become human again I’m open to changing my opinion. For a cyclist in the USA, lighting must be thought of as an offensive weapon using lumens as bullets.
Is Powell one of those streets that’s a state highway even within PDX city limits?
Yes.
My heart goes out to the young victim of this tragic accident. Tomorrow night, May 12th, Reed Neighborhood Association will be having a meeting at Tucker-Maxon School at 6:30 pm in the gymnasium. The email blast includes the following agenda item – “Rich Newland from the City of Portland will be present to discuss the Bikeways 20 project and what that means for our streets.” I would encourage those who live in the neighborhood to attend this meeting and show support for the project. I’ve heard some folks grumble about “losing parking” and “we’ll no longer be able to drive North on SE 28th from Holgate to Gladstone”. I’ll be there to show support.
My thoughts go out to him and his family & friends.
Can someone explain why a coordinated, two-lane slow-down on Powell wouldn’t be a violation of ORS 811.130 (Impeding traffic)?
http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/811.315
A person commits the offense of failure of a slow driver to drive on the right if the person is operating a vehicle upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing and the person fails to drive
Many dozens of bikes on Powell would make ~12 mph the normal speed of traffic.
Share the road.
I rode home on Powell on Friday after the Clinton ride, but it was only above 50th since that’s where I ended my Clinton ride…
only 1 person honked at me, and just one honk as they were passing… I was impressed that I didn’t receive more hostility…
I could commute down Powell in the morning since it’s such a straight shot…
I’d join this afternoon but I’m not even off work by 4:00 much less in the area before 5:30… also, I took TriMet cuz I’m a wuss in the rain…
It would be nice if police would come out to enforce against road ragers while things like this are going on.
It would be nice if the “activists” were doing something constructive with their energy rather than blatantly trying to provoke confrontations. There’s a reason a I won’t touch Critcal Mass with a ten foot pole: it seeks to create conflict more than it seeks to find solutions. Sounds like that’s what we’ve got going on here today. Sad….
Is that guy in the picture seriously riding with no shoes?
I ride barefoot from time to time. It’s comfortable. What possible difference could it make to anyone else?
How late is this going?
It looks like Mayor Hales has mentioned this rally a few times in a positive light, so maybe it’s alread making a positive difference.
Something that would help slow drivers down would be a law that required any car that hits a pedestrian or cyclist be crushed within 48 hours of the wreck or being found by LEO in case of a hit-and-run, unless more time was needed to process the vehicle for evidence, in which case the vehicle would be crushed immediately after being released by forensics.
Right, because in the United States, one is guilty until proven innocent. Actually, if a bike is involved, I think that’s a little too lenient. How about we just get rid of justice all together unless it serves our needs?