(Photo: YouTube)
Whether it’s the Coronavirus Effect, a general sense of lawlessness, lack of concern about consequences, or all of the above — the Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division has been very busy with dangerous drivers recently.
You’ve likely seen the headlines about a spike in speeding. This is happening for the aforementioned reasons and because the pandemic has opened up more space on the roads. Any armchair traffic engineer will tell you that when people have more space to operate a vehicle they will use it to go faster (like 107 mph in a 45 mph zone) and take more chances.
Now we have hard data from the PPB about how this phenomenon is playing out locally.
Advertisement
According to statistics shared the PPB last week, the Traffic Division has issued 328% more speeding citations in the last two months compared to the same time period last year. Between March 24th, 2019 and May 12th, 2020 they issued 661 speed limit citations and 5 speed racing citations. Between those same dates this year they issued 2,832 citations for speeding and 22 for speed racing.
In the past month alone (since April 29th), the Traffic Division has issued 85 citations, 70 warnings and made two arrests during three “Pedestrian Safety Crosswalk Missions.”
Then there’s illegal street racing. Since April 20th, the PPB have shown up to four of these gatherings where people do burnouts (a.k.a. donuts) and race each other on public streets and in private parking lots. On April 12th a large group of people blocked the upper deck of I-405 Fremont Bridge so they could hold an impromptu party with their cars and get videos of people driving in circles very fast.
In less than a month the PPB has made 83 stops, issued 65 citations, towed 15 cars, and arrested 18 people at these illegal and dangerous events.
This is a huge drain on city resources that could be put to more productive use and it exposes yet another negative impact some drivers have. This type of behavior puts all road users at risk.
Thankfully PPB Traffic Division officers have been able to devote about 25% more time to traffic enforcement this year (compared to last year). That’s because all the events they usually work have been cancelled and there’s been a reduction in major crashes.
Hopefully drivers get the message that their scofflaw behaviors won’t go unnoticed. And the next time you hear someone ranting on Nextdoor about how bicycle riders are going through stop signs, please send them the link to this article.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
— Get our headlines delivered to your inbox.
— Support this independent community media outlet with a one-time contribution or monthly subscription.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Wait…what? Bikes are killing thousands each year?
I think he was using his sarcasm font.
But the fact that there were more than 500 citations for driving more than 30 mph over the speed limit is crazy. Imagine what that means in terms of how many are driving this way and not getting caught.
They might not be driving that way all the time. Congestion can slow things down.
Congestion? That is so Pre-COVID.
I thought the lack of (expected) congestion was one of the drivers (ha!) of why some folks feel inspired to act out in these ways.
Don’t worry. Traffic volumes are definitely increasing as we ease distancing requirements. Congestion is definitely on the ascendancy.
More’s the pity.
So sorry you never had fun in a car. If the skill level of most active transportation cyclists was this good I would not dislike two way bike “tunnels” as much as I always will.
I will gladly admit that I have witnessed some insane driving in the last two months. The street racing b.s. is just recently getting a little bit of attention.
The roads aren’t for fun, they are for transportation. It’s not “fun” when folks can’t let their children play outside for fear they will get hit by some trash driver in a crappy 90s 3 series.
“So sorry you never had fun in a car.”
? !
Uhmerrica.
No idea. I’ve never been that type of driver myself and on a fundamental level do not understand the need to drive recklessly.
Adrenaline, ease, and lack of consequences.
Refocus, fortify, and enforce. Give them a new activity to get their adrenaline fix, create hard infrastructure that prevents abuse of roadways, and give real consequences when caught.
I’m just going to save this link on my desktop. Although, St. Johns neighborhood social media has, in all fairness, also complained at length about the loud/dangerously fast/out-of-control car traffic.
Drivers driving recklessly is not a “retort” to bikists riding unsafely. That only perpetuates the us vs. them culture that is so unhelpful.
I’m on St Johns/Portsmouth Nextdoor too, my impression is that complaints about reckless operation of motor vehicles far outnumber complaints about reckless/scofflaw bicyclists.
Kudos to PPB for stepping up enforcement efforts this year; it’s been sorely needed. But why anyone in the street racing, 31+, or 100+ groups still has their license is beyond me… it’s way more than simple carelessness.
Heck with the citations, bring on the mobile car crushers.
I am generally against public seizure of private property. Generally 😉
Don,t worry they will get their property back afterwards, it just won’t be suitable for street racing anymore.
Well, they get the car back, it’s just been crushed.
Crushing cars is frankly a terrible idea. Doing so would mean that whoever got the ticket will just buy another car, which means that it would be necessary to manufacture another car, thus contributing to global warming due to the manufacture of the car. But seizure of license, by all means for the egregious or repeat offenders.
Because seizing a license is going to stop a law breaker from driving?
And they can buy a used car 🙂
Guaranteed jail time for driving without a license (if over 18) would be a nice deterrent
Here’s a thought! Maybe Oregon could criminalize driving without a license, as is the case in many other states. When I got hit (in a car) by an unlicensed driver years ago, I was stunned to learn it was merely an ordinance violation (ticket), not a crime. Put some teeth in the law, and it just might work.
So… We should remove their driving hands?
Just cutting off a middle finger would be devastating to many drivers.
Confiscate the bicycles of folks who don’t lube their chain, or are on the phone. Yep, earbuds, phones and “pedals”. Yeah, multitasking on the bike sucks too.m
“And the next time you hear someone ranting on Nextdoor about how bicycle riders are going through stop signs, please send them the link to this article.”
I assume some people will think the value of pointing out these statistics is to show how much more dangerous drivers are behaving than bike riders. There’s some truth to that. But what I like them for is to point out no driver is going to say that the 100-mph drivers are “us”, or that their insane speeding is anything other than individual acts that aren’t representative of typical drivers. But meanwhile, people will see bad behavior by a bike rider or two, and conclude in their minds that all people who ride bikes are bad.
Similarly, no driver is going to say, “We need to get these speeders under control, because it reflects badly on all of us drivers”.
Traffic enforcement wouldn’t be a huge drain on police resources if it paid for itself (plus a little extra). For example, instead of a warning or $200 fine for speeding, how about no warning and an automatic $5000 fine for the first offense? $10,000 fine and vehicle confiscation for second offense?
I’d rather the fines be proportional to car value or income. So if a minimum-wage worker gets a ticket it would be about what it is today, but if someone who makes 150k a year gets a ticket they should be slapped with a nice $5000 fine on the first offense.
We should not discriminate based on economic status. Equal application of the law matters.
Applying fines proportionally _would be_ applying the law equally.
No, it is the exact opposite of that. And I would ask you then, where does it stop? Must we know the economic status of every offender (private information), tack on a privilege surcharge, give a discount because of race/gender?
Who determines this “sliding scale of Equity?”
It’s a well-intentioned idea that is terrible in application.
The Oregon Constitution actually requires that taxes be based on a person’s ability to pay.
Maybe we should consider doing the same with fines and fees.
I don’t see the privacy concern. The state already knows how much money we all make based on tax returns, and a person could always petition to have the fine lowered if they can show that their financial status has changed.
The rest of your comment is a good example of the ever-present slippery slope fallacy. There are ways to approach this that would be far more equitable than the current system without it devolving into some nanny-state dystopia.
Given that we’ve just seen a tax for homeless services imposed only on “high earners”, I don’t think it is that much of a fallacy.
So a person driving 50mph down Foster is drunk and makes 10k a year would pay less of a fine or serve less jail time than a person committing the same offenses for someone that makes 50k?
Fines, yes. I don’t think anybody wants the jail times adjusted.
That is indeed how some people think.
How about proportional to the danger to the public. Gee judge that armed bank robber should only get community service cause they only made minimum wage when they wern’t robbing banks.
Fines and jail time/community service are completely different. The former should be proportional to income, the latter has no reason to be.
Why? Almost curious as to what happens when things get weird.
Why would jail time be reduced based on economic status? That doesn’t make any sense.
This is unquestionably true; we need to invest more heavily in public defenders so they better match the power of the state.
Everyone deserves a solid defense, regardless of crime or circumstance.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
-8th Amendment, US Constitution
Given recent Supreme Court rulings in this area, I’d guess a $5000 fine for run-of-the-mill speeding ticket would be ruled “excessive”, as would some of the more “exotic” proposals on this page.
The “I hate the wealthy” sentiment is pretty tangible here.
No, it really isn’t. The problem is that people with enough money can just pay up and it has no effect on their financial status. Therefore, it’s not an actual penalty and has little to no impact on their behavior.
You should stop putting words in people’s mouths (or thoughts in their minds).
Do you have any evidence that traffic tickets are not a deterrent to those who can afford to pay them?
I did some internet research and there is some evidence that fines are less of a deterrent for people who have more money.
But that’s beside the point. I was stating the argument people are making for why people with more money should be fined more.
Even if that argument is incorrect, that’s the argument that’s being made, and there’s no evidence in this thread, or in similar discussions, to suggest it has anything to do with “hating the wealthy.”
While I agree with you that “hating the wealthy” is an unfair criticism, you were making the argument that fines that did not impact “financial status” had little impact on behavior, and an unfair criticism does not relieve you of the burden of supporting your argument.
For it to be an effective solution, you must first establish the problem you are trying to fix actually exists and needs solving; that the proposed solution would work, and would be practical, legal, and fair. And that it would be better enough to justify any added complexity and administrative burden.
It’s a popular solution, but I’m still not convinced it addresses a real problem.
Except if you get enough tickets you lose your license.
That’s a great question for the courts. My guess is they would conclude a flat amount, but I’m not them.
I imagine that trying to codify and assess a series of financial “pain points” (driving 10 over the limit requires this much financial pain, and here’s what that means in your particular situation) would be more difficult in practice than it is in the theoretical confines of a forum. (And so many questions: would I be required to carry “proof of income” when I travel, or go before a judge for every ticket? And what are the implications for financial privacy? Would the court’s findings and fines (and therefore my income) be made public, or somehow sealed? etc.)
On the plus side, maybe issuing Trump a ticket would be a way to finally see his tax returns!
As this mechanism is not conventional, I’m sure some wise-acre will argue it violates the “unusual” provision of the 8th Amendment.
Sure, this is true. It is also true that prison is more difficult for some people than others. Justice is often not simple.
And there is a big disconnect between Equality and Justice.
I’d rather see fines applied by weight class. Tack on a momentum surcharge for violations committed in vehicles over 4000 lbs.
What if the vehicle weighs 3800 pounds and the driver 300?
I imagine we’d have to settle on curb weight vs. GVW. I’d be willing to settle for advertised curb weight.
According to one list I found Oregon has the 16th most expensive speeding ticket at an average of $165.00. Nevada has the highest max fine at $1000.00
When it comes to reckless driving the average ticket is $845 across the US.
Oregon tops the list at approximately $6,250 for the first offense.
Punishment for street racing ought to be a governor on your vehicle such that it can not exceed 20mph.
It sounds like a nice idea, but when you get into the details you run into a lot of challenges. Starting with where to set the limit. You actually can order some trucks, like the Ford Transit, with a preset speed governor, and you can even choose the limit. That makes sense for those vehicles, and I’m sure many people would like to see a similar 65 or 70 limit for cars, but since speed limits in this country can be as high as 85 (thank you Texas) you probably couldn’t mandate a setting lower than that.
That might be a sensible limit since coincidentally, 85 was the maximum that could be displayed on a speedometer on 1980s-era cars. As a side note, even the very few cars from that period with two-decimal digital speedometers would not go up to 99: they would start blinking “85” at speeds above 85. Of course we didn’t have governors associated with that threshold, and even in those lower-horsepower days cars could actually go faster.
Other considerations include a way to disable the governor when someone takes their car to a track, possibly something that could be handled with today’s technology, though some people might find ways to disable the governor by fooling it into thinking it’s at a track. Also there’s the fact that the average age of a car on the road is now 12 years, which makes it take a very long time for such a mandate to become meaningful. And of course such governors wouldn’t help with most street speeding, but at least they would eliminate the epidemic of 100-mph-plus speeding we’ve seen lately.
Bottom line is my personal opinion is that 85mph makes sense for such a limit, and it could be politically doable – eventually. I think you’d still run into a huge wall of opposition, but if COVID-fueled extreme speeding keeps up for a year and a half, maybe you could eventually get enough support for it.
Hilarious…you realize that people sometimes swap out the whole engine right?
Some people disconnect their odometers too. But how many?
Exactly… you don’t need 100% compliance for a law to be effective.
Thank you for the advice, will do. Should I say, “so stop complaining about bicycle riders!” after I send the article? Another question: instead of the article about car driving scofflaws (love that word, btw, very 1930s Dick Tracy), can I send an article about Trump defunding the WHO, or about the recent JC Penney bankruptcy. I’m actually not sure why I’m sending these articles to my neighbors who are upset about bicycle rider behavior. Any additional advice much appreciated.
I don’t put “scofflaw” and “malarkey” in the same category.
when is the last time you’ve been to a hootenanny?
Don’t knock shindigs. They are about to make a huge comeback after the pandemic ends.
Got me thinking about throwing a hootenanny myself. Gadzooks, it’ll be a real sockdollager.
That’s what happens when you close down the PIR drag strip and drift racing at Pat’s Acres….people gotta get their HOON on 😀
Jonathan – check your years: “Between March 24th, 2019 and May 12th, 2020”
also eight officers “lye” in wait
That was a very caustic typo.
That’s a base allegation.
Officers ate their weight in lye? 😉
Yikes. Do that too long and you turn into lutefisk.
That photo of people STANDING AROUND on the Fremont Bridge, while some person does donuts in a high-powered car, has to be the finest expression of theft of public space – and safety – that I have ever seen. JM is right: the minor infringements of cyclists pale in comparison to that utter lawlessness, with its high likelihood of death and serious injury. Every person on the Hawthorne Bridge that day should have his driver license suspended for a minimum of five years.
While I would say that this behavior is idiotic, I would say that armed militia protesters and those protesting the Stay at Home orders without PPE are a higher risk to public safety and theft of public space.
I can see where you’re coming from, but in terms of the actual threat from cars and car culture–direct deaths and injuries, deaths and illness from pollution, poor health from sedentary lifestyles, stress, noise pollution, the sheer amount of public space taken up–I think cars are far more pernicious.
That said, I could see how armed militias could be become the bigger threat in the next couple years. It seems crazy to think that, but with the way things are, it does seem possible. Hopefully it won’t come to that and the next election will put us back on track (or at least the relatively less destructive track we were on before).
You think you’re clever trying to draw attention using caps to the one side of the argument that you think might trip people up.
Nobody here thinks that protesters exercising their constitutional right to protesting and free movement is equivalent to blocking the road so drivers can illegally use their dangerous weapons for dangerous amusement.
I’ve noticed in general that there’s been an uptick in people doing things just because they can–whether that’s being jerks or committing crimes–because they’re more likely to get away with it.
For example, in my apartment building, certain neighbors are obnoxiously loud and/or smoke weed all the time. (Not that I care if anyone smokes weed, but I don’t want to be forced to smell it.)
During “normal” times, I could either talk to these neighbors or, if necessary, complain to management or even the City in extreme cases, but right now none of these options are really available, and some people are definitely taking advantage of it.
I’m trying to choke down my contempt since there’s not much I can do, but people like this, including the reckless drivers noted in the article, seem really vile to me. We should strive to be at our best and support each other during times like these, not lean into our selfishness.
I don’t see this as any different than Critical Mass, Zoobomb, or a bike messenger Alleycat, events I have participated in multiple times.
Six Mustangs doing burnouts and not a single pedestrian was hit has to be some kind of safety record. I go to drag racing and drift events and there is rarely a driver or spectator injury, and that includes illegal ones.
People with cars like this are paying attention to their driving, which is a lot more that can be said for the average commuting motorist that spend more time looking at their phone
Not sure if you have attended these particular bike events either, or if you’re glossing over the level of intoxication. Many times especially at Zoobomb an inexperienced and intoxicated rider will crash into someone else and that person will get injured.
The instance of accidents/fatalities in relation to motorsports (legal or illegal) is nothing compared to the accidents/fatalities that occur in normal everyday driving. You’re making a fringe element of enthusiasts into the scapegoat for inattentive careless drivers in vehicles that are essentially appliances to them. They’re not the same people.
You’re basically viewing motorists the same way they view cyclists, concentrating on negative stereotypes and being completely ignorant about them because you are not part of that culture. It’s hypocritical, and the main reason I do not align with cycling advocates even though I do share a lot of their opinions about cycling safety and infrastructure.
But are Zoobombers crashing into other Zoobombers (who should be aware of the risks, and voluntarily accept the risk) or into other people who are not part of the event, and just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Street racers at least occasionally crash into and even kill others who aren’t fellow racers.
That car in the picture looks exactly like the car of a guy who speeds/revvs his engine and blasts his loud muffler down my street in Beaverton. Those racers/donut people are all throughout Beaverton and Hillsboro. One guy crashed his car in an apartment complex near me. I fear for my life riding in Washington County. Up and down Cornell/ 206th/Corn pass and they smoke their tires and make loud muffler noises in those business parks in Amberglen area. You can see the damage they do on the pavement. My main complaint is the extreme muffler noise, but it has caused me to stop riding my bike. It feels like a civil war over here. I want this fast and furious car culture to stop. Plus, those aftermarket “mufflers” are usually illegal anyway. Not enough is being done about it in Washington County, IMO.
We lived across the street from one of those gems. His friends would rally there every night. He worked on his car on the street–SE 26th (vroom! vroom!). His pattern was always to idle for about 10 minutes (or more), his engine sounding like an ailing wildebeest and the earth vibrating under your feet, then he’d vrooooom! around the block and vrooooooom! down SE 26th.
We talked to both his parents and him. That was helpful.
But, I make a joke. HAAAAahahahhaahhahahahahah!!!!! HAH! Hah. ha.
I do not miss him, nor living there. Only in our dear country (and a few other choice Edens) do the needs of the one so profoundly, routinely outweigh the needs of the many. It’s become our credo, I think.
If only we cluld use speed cameras in bigger amounts. You know like they do in Europe. Then it wouldn’t be such a drain for police officers.