In Brief: Walking fatality on Columbia Blvd. this morning

Tragic. Can you get any more wicked than this? Running a red light and killing a blind person in the process.

effing shameful

Here’s what appears to be the driver’s youtube video from his car in a drag race at the track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIjBpczgVeM

In case you forgot this parallel, featuring Chevy’s “Mustang” in a similar setting encouraging pedestrians to “look first”: https://bikeportland.org/2017/08/08/new-crossing-safety-psa-by-portlandia-producer-pits-pedestrians-vs-cars-237882

smdh

I think this is the tragic consequence of having little or no enforcement of red light running combined with the PSA’s putting the responsibility for safely crossing light controlled intersections on the pedestrians. We get the inevitable case of the pedestrian that has no choice but to trust the traffic light and meets up with one of the growing army of scofflaws that think red lights are optional, and they pay for it with their life. I think the PPD needs an epic old testament enforcement of red light running that doesn’t stop until the message is sent, and the city’s coffers are overflowing with the cash of the thousands of citations

If I read the sentencing guidelines correctly, this killer will likely get one month of county jail (in many Oregon Counties, that means showing up a couple of times for park clean-up detail) and one year of probation, unless he has an extensive conviction record.

Some deterrent that is. I wonder if the judge can take away the weapon he used and make him permanently ineligible to drive.

Very sad. Angered.

If urban and rural road design were controlled by thoughtful intelligent people, we would look at the full transportation ecosystem rather than being reductionist and carving things into the smallest physical components. And, if someone insisted that a bad outcome could be classified as fully attributable to human error, they would be laughed out of the room.

Isn’t this a high crash corridor that’s supposed to be ‘tamed’ by Vision Zero? Or was that zero vision?

Folks, be sure to share your outrage, sorrow, anger and/or concerns with Mayor Wheeler and Commisioner Saltzman.

Dan@portlandoregon.gov
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/wheeler/72218?
Mayorwheeler@portlandoregon.gov

Portland Police Bureau is woefully understaffed. About fifty officers below authorized number, and the authorized number is about 400 below what would be normal for a city this size. PPB is hiring and training new officers at below the retirement rate. On most days the police officers on duty in a precinct are completely committed responding to calls. There is very little police capacity for traffic enforcement. And there are also voices opposing more traffic enforcement.

Blow a stop sign, run a red light? If a bicyclist can do it without repercussion, why can’t I? It’s a slippery slope. When you ignore traffic laws while biking, you set a bad example for others, who may be driving cars.

standard blurb:
People using the road make mistakes, always have and always will. Crashes will always be with us, but they need not result in fatalities or serious injury. Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world – the intersection type with the lowest risk of fatal or serious injury crashes – (much more so than comparable signals). Modern roundabouts change the speed and geometry of one of the most dangerous parts of the system – intersections. The reduction in speed and sideswipe geometry mean that, more often than not, when a crash does happen at a modern roundabout, you usually need a tow truck, not an ambulance. Roundabouts are one of nine proven road safety features (FHWA).
The life saved may be your own.

Just spent a week in Paris which has crazy traffic for all types of road users and I never felt safer. US streets are death traps and Portland’s streets are no better. RIP.

Red light cameras work

Lowering the speed limit on Columbia may be more effective than other urban highways because of the number of commercial vehicles. If limited enforcement set the tone for commercial drivers that have more to lose from citations, the slower trucks may have a traffic calming effect.

I already have pointed out that our former chief of police Larry O’Dea shot a man in the back during his chiefly tenure in the top echelon of Vision Zero.

Just to be on the safe side I am headed into cataract surgery this week.

Does anyone know if the Perp. had Texas plates? It looks like someone with exactly the same name and age recently lived in Midland Texas. If so, does this support the theory that much of our increase in traffic chaos comes from recent transplants?

I was on Springwater MUP yesterday crossing Foster , going East. had the green light and was in the crosswalk. Another rider to my left.
Got abt 1 lane across and a big 4×4 pickup comes skidding and stops about 3 feet in front of us.

I NEVER saw him coming. Other rider made excuses for him, noting that he pulled out from FAP under the overhead lights (from the West) and could not see his red. BS.

He also noted that “if you (me) didn’t have that green shirt, we’d both be dead”

Has anyone noticed the more aggressive driving of the big 4×4 trucks lately ??

My wife says “drivers are driving angry everywhere”. She’s right. 🙁

Dan A
Many drivers (most drivers?) feel that culturally-accepted levels of speeding are fine and do not harm anybody. Here’s some sweet propaganda!
https://www.motorists.org/issues/speed-limits/faq/
But statistics catch up with us all. Millions of people speeding around ‘harmlessly’ lead to tens of thousands of deaths per year that could have been avoided by driving slower, particularly in conditions that require slower speeds to reduce the chance of accidental ‘oh crap where did that guy come from’ crashes.
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The http://www.motorists.org‘s website makes the point that speed limits should be set at the engineering limit of the road. I think this is backwards. I think that our urban environment, including local roads, arterial roads and interstates, should be designed to promote societal values, including protecting the more vulnerable from the more dangerous. So, our roads should be designed to limit speeds to those that are safe in the circumstances. The long straight roads that are the product of the unimaginative street grid foster higher limits – fine if you’re dealing with pedestrians, handcarts and the occasional horse drawn vehicle, but when you start adding faster, heavier vehicles, you need to start thinking outside the box grid.

A lot of new housing developments, even in the Portland Metro area, make greater use of curved roads, cul-de-sacs and crescents to prevent “through” traffic clogging up local roads and to prevent speeding. I think that we could do more to retro fit some of our urban areas with these types of road design. Plus we need to use automated traffic enforcement extensively. The more extreme elements of the motoring lobby won’t like it, but Salem/Washington DC need to grow a spine and resist these lobbyists.