(Photo: Felicity J. Mackay, Portland Bureau of Transportation)
All 15 of the citations written by the Portland Police Bureau during Wednesday’s traffic enforcement action on Southeast Clinton Street were given to people who failed to obey traffic laws while driving their cars.
The police were out in force to help Portlanders understand that Clinton is an important bikeway; a place where cycling should be able to happen in a low-stress environment. The bureau of transportation recently underscored this fact by installing diverters at 32nd and 17th in order to prevent people from driving on Clinton. In addition to writing tickets, the police gave out eight warnings to road users (two of them to people riding bikes without lights) and passed out pamphlets with safety information.
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Here’s more from the City about what police saw:
“The stops were primarily for Failing to Obey a Traffic Control Device. Three charges were for Illegal U-Turn. All three of those were for people in vehicles who turned right at the SE 17th Street diverter, made a U-Turn and then retuned to make another right to continue along SE Clinton. The last contact of the day was at the SE Clinton and SE 17th diverter at approximately 11:00 p.m. when a person driving was arrested for DUII (.14 BAC).
These actions are a key part of the city’s approach to Vision Zero and they plan to keep it up next week. The police and PBOT will team up again on Wednesday (2/17) for a crosswalk-focused mission on Southeast 82nd. They’ll focus their efforts on two notoriously dangerous crossings at Division and Harrison. Both 82nd and Division are designated as High Crash Corridors. PBOT data shows there were 24 crashes involving people trying to walk across the street on or near 82nd and Division, two of them resulting in a fatality.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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