Hillsboro PD’s novel distracted driving sting nets 50 citations in three hours

PPB, please deputize me for bike patrol on Williams. I need to put my Airzound to work anyway.

Lets see, all the cool bike stuff in Portland is closing down, Hillsboro has no campers, no e-scooters, clean streets and sidewalks, well maintained parks, more ethnic diversity, cheaper housing, some cool new separated cycle tracks , a long walking and cycling trail without dangerous lurkers and booby traps (rock creek trail) and now a crack down on distracted driving criminals. Makes one think.

So, HILLSBORO police went out into the county to mess with people. That seems about right.

My husband is a TriMet driver. From his high seat, he can see most of the phone use by drivers (he estimates from his viewpoint that between 1/3 and 1/2 are using their phones at any given time). One more creative idea would be to position a police officer in a TriMet bus, and have the police officer radio ahead to a colleague about which cars to stop. Here’s a video of how that works in Ontario, Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwqS9mpFAQY

Pffffftttt… I could write more tickets on my two-hour ride. But, it’s a good start.

he can stand on my front porch and issue tickets all day. at least 50% of people have their faces in their phones at my intersection. 🙁

The flagged speed safety camera data needs to be reviewed by a police officer anyway before a citation can be given, so why not review at the same time to check for drivers holding a cell phones?

Why not test one of these roadhound signs out. Could take data before and after to see how well it works. People don’t like to be called out, even if there is no citation involved. Plus no chance of bias.
https://www.bvsystems.com/product/roadhound-pole-mounted-distracted-driving-alert-deterrent-road-sign/

Other cities have partnered with Zendrive to get free metadata on distracted driving that shows how road design interacts with the likelihood of distraction, or where the hot spot locations are for distration. Why not partner to gain insite.

https://go1.zendrive.com/distracted-driving-study-2019/

PBOT organizes some lame event where their staff dresses in high viz and pleads to drivers. Hillsboro PD sends a plain clothes guy with a sign saying hes a cop and nails a bunch of hazardous drivers. Who’s got the backbone?

I saw someone doing it the old-school way on N. Interstate the other day – driving along reading a newspaper spread out on his steering wheel. Yikes!

One cell-phone behavior I’m seeing more and more is the “car stopped dead at stop sign or traffic light.” There’s a car just sitting at a stop sign or traffic light, with a driver engrossed in his/her cellphone. If it’s a four-way stop, we’re all looking at that car, wondering what the driver is going to do.

Apparently many drivers think that if the car is stopped, they can’t be cited for cellphone use. But I don’t think they are right. I suppose this is one reason I’m seeing more cellphones sitting in cradles on the dash: they allow the driver to continue operating the cellphone, without holding it by hand, as if it were the radio or the A/C.

Ellen DeGeneres said it best: “If something requires both arms and both legs, shouldn’t your head also be involved?”

Maybe we could just hire Hillsboro pd or Washington County Sheriffs to come in to Portland and conduct speed and distracted driver enforcement. They could keep the majority of the fines levied to pay for the service . There does seem to some precedent for this as officers from these two agencies are part of the Transit Police that operate in Portland. Also Washington counties wastewater agency also cleans up part of the Sewage and Stormwater from parts of Portland on the Western Slopes of the West Hills where Portland has trouble getting it pumped to their facilities. Maybe it is time to get creative.

Theres been some tacit acceptance of distracted driving by regulators, ride share drivers are required to use their phones, and the addition of screens and internet to dashboards. I’ve personally never owned a vehicle with one, but I had a work truck that had an in dash screen for the radio. The scrolling menus and sub-menus required quite a bit of attention. And cant forget the bluetooth. Got to take those calls on the road, hands free but attention lacking.

ORS 153.058 requires you to include the name and address of the defendant. That’s quite a burden when you’re being run over. I think it should be updated to allow a video that includes a face and a licence plate.