Two young Portlanders were crossing Northeast Glisan Street Friday afternoon when a driver sped by, hit one of them, then fled the scene.
In an email sent Monday to families who attend nearby Laurelhurst School, Principal Alyson Brant said two students were crossing NE Glisan at 41st around 3:00 pm when the collision occurred. Brant says the victim suffered a broken tibia in addition to bruises and scrapes. “We are incredibly lucky that the situation did not have a more dire outcome,” Brant wrote.
41st is a designated crossing of a neighborhood greenway. It has a striped crosswalk, a push-button activated overhead signal, and yellow caution signage meant to warn drivers of the presence of people crossing. A story in The Oregonian yesterday reported that, despite all this, witnesses said the driver was going about 40 mph, which is “extremely fast for the area.”
This section of Glisan is just three blocks from Laurelhurst School. It’s a school zone with a speed limit of 25 mph. It’s also just one block east of the large Coe Circle where two eastbound lanes merge into one.
The school says they’re in contact with the Portland Bureau of Transportation to consider changes to the intersection that would make it safer. “We hope to soon have an engineer come assess the area and review possibilities for enhancements, including flashing lights along the crosswalk, more visible ped xing signs in the center of the street, etc.”
In her email to parents, Brant expressed how dangerous drivers are a common threat in the neighborhood and urged everyone to drive more safely. “A number of near-misses and non-injury accidents have taken place in recent weeks right around the school building,” she wrote.
This crash underscores a disturbing trend of pedestrian collisions and hit-and-runs. At least seven of the drivers who killed walkers on Portland streets so far this year failed to stop. And according to PBOT’s Vision Zero Action Plan Update published this earlier this month, hit-and-run crashes are up 27% in the last five years (2017-2021) compared to the five years prior.
“The emotional scars that the injured and non-injured student sustained at the scene will linger far after the scrapes have healed and the bones are mended.”
– Alyson Brant, Laurelhurst School
While advocates push for changes and government leaders promise changes to address these statistics, Portlanders are left in a state outrage and fear that often results in people being reluctant to let their children roam free on our streets.
“The emotional scars that the injured and non-injured student sustained at the scene,” Brant wrote, “will linger far after the scrapes have healed and the bones are mended.”
UPDATE, 12:49pm: Police confirm the crash and say the driver of a reddish/brown early 90s Volvo is still on the loose.
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I hope the kid has a quick recovery. The fact that the driver was “only” doing 40 (rather than 45 or 50) probably helped to not make the collision fatal or cause a life-changing injury per Vision Zero.
The east-bound right lane on Glisan from the roundabout to 41st shouldn’t be there – it’s a design error by PBOT. Same with the west-bound right lane on Glisan from the roundabout to Laddington Court. There really should be only one lane. A continuous concrete median on Glisan with pedestrian/bike cut-outs and refuge would be a good next-step by the city.
A broken leg is never a quick recovery. It takes at least a year before you feel close to normal. Can’t believe the driver sped off after hitting the kid.
David: Coe Circle is not a “roundabout” but a multilane “rotary”.
Rotary is an out of date* intersection treatment that is only focused on peak hour roadway capacity throughput (Stroud intersections) and landscaping. *This has not been a best practice roadway intersection treatment for well over ~90 years. It needs to be fully reconstructed versus small mitigation nibbling at the edge. [This is one location that BPoT actually has the right of way to implement a safety enhancement…now it just needs the will to act.]
Do not let the need for a Trimet bus stop(s) at this location defeat traffic safety for the community and its riders…I would strongly assume that a single lane traffic circle (with protected bikeway and walkways) could be implemented that also had ample space for two dedicated bus only slip lanes/ lay by station areas (look up ‘bus sluis’ / ‘bus gate’). An automatic bollard or parking lot type control arm can also be used in place of a sluis / gate feature…if you want to use a more conventional access control treatment [conventional for the PNW].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAs-xZs5BmY
As for pedestrian safety (vision zero / safe systems approach etc), what would ‘Joan of Arc’ think about this and what she witnesses every hour of each day.
https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/2016/03/whats_the_difference_between_a.html
It’s not really a rotary either, way too slow, more of a jackass compromise, like much of Portland’s infrastructure. Ladd’s circle was designed as a rotary, but it functions as a slow-speed roundabout, like Dupont Circle in DC. Boston has quite a few high-speed rotaries, as does Europe.
Long after Coe Circle was built, but still ever so long long ago, there was for a time a trolley line through Coe Circle along Glisan, with a station within the circle, before cars became so popular.
Roundabouts in Lk Oswego seem to work okay but some solution for traffic hazard intersections is more in order. Here’s 2 ideas: Convert stoplight intersections to Flashing Red. (when motorists no longer see a green light ahead, they slow down). Another idea is one only Silicon Valley could love: AV tech Level 3 “driver assist” feature that allows motorists to drive slower, but not faster, than posted speed limits.
PBOT ODOT METRO Tri-Met are inexcusably incompetent agencies. These DOT agency spokesperson’s Rose Quarter I-5 project is GARBAGE. The SW Corridor MAX extension a horrendous debacle (the public put in harms way, air & water pollution worsened), marginal gains in transit patronage, subsidized Apt dwellers face 45+mph traffic thru their window and along chaotic walkways.
Putting aside the road builder’s dictionary, a lot of this is regional. Where I grew up back east, all circle intersections were called a “rotary.”
It doesn’t need useless items like flashing lights or wands or stern;y-worded signs – it needs the road re-engineered to SLOW DRIVERS DOWN. Won’t happen until PBOT finds a rule in AASHTO giving as much priority to peds and bikes as vehicles. A pedestrian is an obstacle in the Clear Field per AASHTO rules…
The kid was hit in broad daylight in a crosswalk with a Red light.
Infrastructure can only do so much and will take years to change.
How about a few cops around to arrest people like this?
People are driving 40mph on the streets because the odds of getting pulled over in
Portland for ANY moving violation is Zero.
On my bike, I was about 1 second away from getting hit crossing SE Clinton and Cesar Chavez. The cars headed north-south had a red light, and one of the cars headed south figured they could just go after briefly stopping. As much as this scared/irked me, it was even more disappointing to see a police car sitting in the lane facing north just sit idly and watch the car blatantly disregard the light when people were crossing. I’m concerned police “enforcement” would be a large investment for relatively little benefit; I look forward to seeing how more red light cameras impact behavior, though I recognize that’s not sure fire as well as a ticket in the mail days later doesn’t stop a speeding driver in the moment. As cct said, I feel as though changing infrastructure to make drivers feel unsafe going so fast would be the biggest benefit.
60 people have died this year on the streets.
I personally think a little “investment”is worth a few lives but that’s just me.
Or we can wait 5 years for “infrastructure”, whatever that means.
Glisan is a pretty major east-west STRAIGHT road. If it was narrowed to a 9 foot lane, cars would still go 40mph, I would bet on it.
We would only have about 300 more deaths waiting for the magic infrastructure to be built that you think MIGHT solve the problem.
How long should we have to wait for traffic enforcement? It’s already been more than 2 years for that.
No reason why you can’t do both
Exactly.
Telling me and the rest of the non driving public that we need to wait a few years for stuff to be built to stop the killing is not exactly a winning message.
Given that Portland will be broke on transportation stuff for the next few decades, what Portland really needs is a plan to shut streets down, not allow throughput, put in diverters up the wazoo, focus traffic onto a few strategic arterial stroadways every mile or so with pedestrian islands on every lane like I’ve seen in the UK.
COTW
Traffic diverters and assorted calming devices haven’t worked at all. Kudos for Naito Pkwy bikeway. Thumbs down on Rose Quarter I-5 widening for the same reason widening Hwy 99W for a MAX line was inexcusably bad engineering.High impact, cost. Low productivity.
So glad the public voted NO on the SW Corridor debacle.
I’d rather one lane of parking along the South Park Blocks, the parkside lane. From PSU plaza entrance to Teachers Park between Salmon & Yamhill. Bi-direction parkside with rows of soft marked posts, ie, a separated bikeway there – is – ahem, BETTER than on Broadway. As a motor skooter street user, I hate the painted Broadway bike lane and believe it the lesser of two options. DO NOT get me started on the Rose Quarter I-5 DEBACLE – – Ooops, the Green Loop is ruined and the traffic gets worse. Oh well….
In that case, you’d be betting on something that contradicts decades of observational traffic studies. But I guess the bad odds against you should come with a lucrative payout if you beat them.
Calvin,
Also remember traffic cameras don’t work if you don’t have license plates. Unfortunately the requirement to display license plates is another law that is not being enforced in Portland.
How do you know there was a cop sitting idly in their car watching people blow the light rather than doing paperwork or something on their computer?
Oh it’s okay because the cop was playing on their computer while waiting at a stoplight
They were in a travel lane, stopped for the red light. I would hope that the cop wasn’t on their computer/doing paperwork while driving, but you’re right that it could also be a case of distracted driving there for all I know.
Sorry, that wasn’t clear (to me) from your post. I thought the car was parked.
It’s not zero: some days you’ll see a lone motorcycle cop pulling over cars on SW Multnomah Blvd.
So it’s 1%, or maybe half of 1%.
PBOT’s Vision Zero will never be successful without a dedicated funding mechanism. We can plan for whatever we want, but unless there is money to implement safer infrastructure it just makes me feel like the city is not serious about solving the problem.
I sort of disagree with this. Yes, more funding is always good. But I don’t think lack of funding is the root of the issue. I think satisfaction with incremental progress and a fear of upsetting the status quo is what really holds us back. Until we get the leadership in place that is able to navigate the type of bold changes required to move the needle, I fear we will always chase “more funding.” Like I’ve said on here many times… We will never have safe streets if we continue to make (politically) safe decisions about how they are governed and designed.
We get the leadership we demand.
I would say that the reason we get piecemeal stuff at an institutional level is exactly the lack of dedicated funding though. ODOT keeps pushing out unpopular highway expansions because they have an inordinate amount of money dedicated for it. Money creates power structures, and if Portland is serious about changing the material conditions on the roads we need to understand this.
1. A person outside a motor vehicle is killed or badly injured at some location on Portland’s streets.
2. That person’s friends, family and other people who are concerned point out an unsafe condition.
3. A re-design and some new construction occurs: At that location.
The third item doesn’t often occur without the first two. Even if all agree that some bit of infrastructure is a dangerous mess there is no movement without item number one. Some poor body has to die and then, the grudging memorial. It’s happened enough times and we’ve all seen it.
I would say that this approach is fundamentally flawed. PBOT and the public at large are well aware of where dangerous conditions exist for cyclist and pedestrians, there is no real reason to wait for tragedy to change something. The lack of movement on safety is not just a function of political will – it’s a function of who has money and power in the transportation space.
That’s where political will comes from.
It’s hilarious to see you write this now — 8 years later.
.
Back when Vision Zero was being prepared for a council vote, I was shushed by Bob Stacey for publicly haranguing Novick for a Vision Zero plan that lacked any dedicated funding. The elephant in the room is that many of Portland’s progressive transportation visionaries were not genuinely interested in ending car-nage and shifting mode share away from the bloody car.
.
Portland’s plans/reports are, for the most part, dog and pony shows, designed to hoodwink residents with don’t remember or choose to ignore Portland’s litany of failed plans.
“Car-nage.” Very clever!
As a failed leader once said, presciently, today we have “American car-nage.”
I’d be very interested to see the mode split for PBOT management/desk jockeys. I’d bet it’s almost entirely car with the remaining slice being “work” from home.
I remember attending a PBOT bureau-wide meeting in the auditorium on the 2nd floor, back in 2001 or 2002, where someone had actually compiled PBOT worker travel mode at that time – it was over 80% SOV even then, with a significant percentage by public transit and by bike. Working from home was rare back then. I’m sure HR still keeps tabs on that data.
As with other bureaus, many workers couldn’t afford to live in Portland. In most cities including Portland, over 80% of police live outside the city, for the simple reason that they know precisely how dangerous the city is, and are usually completely ignorant about the crime rates of any other community, including where they reside.
Very few cities actually require their workers to live within the city boundaries – at one point Gresham had this requirement but I’m not sure if they still do.
I like the idea of dedicated funding, but it has serious limitations. There is 9or was) some funding for vision zero identified projects. However, when Greeley was getting rebuilt, I was begging PBOT to address the high speeds (average over 55 in each direction). I brought VZ, and asked what could be done to make the driving conditions safer, a couple of women in their minivan during the design!, but PBOT said that this was not a vision zero project, it was a freight improvement project being paid for with freight money. My takeaway form those conversations is the we need to have increased safety metrics and mandates for ALL PBOT projects if we are going to head towards vision zero.
This is exactly why Vision Zero needs dedicated funding sources (or more of them) though yes? The fact that PBOT was forced to throw a safety improvement project in with a freight improvement led to the mediocre outcome on Greeley.
But if they have dedicated funding, they have Vision Zero and projects and non V-Z projects. I think they need make the V-Z standards and mandates that need to be met for each and every project. Safety should be a deciding metric for selecting every project. If V-Z is isolated, it will be siloed like any other pot of money. PBOT management was not able to access any V-Z funding or any additional funds for Greeley even though they acknowledged the need and the the fact that once the project is completed, the deficiencies will be moved to the bottom of the priority list and will not be addressed for decades. It would be much more effective and efficient to require V-Z standards for all new projects, including selecting them.
That’s not a “beacon”. That’s a full-on signal that goes red and then has “Walk” lights that turn on.
yeah. my mistake. Correcting it right now.
That intersection is right where two lanes of traffic merge after speeding around/through Coe Circle. Definitely a sketchy place when drivers are more concerned about merging than stopping. Portland seems to have a few of these sketchy spots where an intersection has two lanes on one side, and then one lane on the other. It seems like traffic should have to merge BEFORE the intersection, not IN it?! That seems like the answer here to force traffic into a single lane that matches the configuration of the other/crosswalk side of the intersection.
The parked car in this picture is accomplishing what PBOT has not done. Maybe we can start parking bright yellow cars at intersections to calm traffic?
Holy crap that’s bad. Yeah, there should be something permanently there blocking traffic. We have a lane like that on Interstate and Rosa Parks, but there is a short (maybe 20 feet) lane on the opposite side of the intersection. It still has the problem of people racing to merge where they can ignore the (pretty long) crosswalk on the west side.
Yep. I live near here and this is what the intersection needs. The need to build out the curbs to narrow the roadway, on both sides.
For all we know, this Volvo was one of the Mad Max vehicles I regularly see around town. That color and description means it is likely a 240/740 that would be 25+ years old. People go fast in this area, but 40mph is much faster than typical. Absolutely sociopathic behavior.
That car goes away during peak hour commute times…as the parking is then prohibited. (per the most recent Google Streetview when I last looked.)
I’m sure someone will tell me how wrong I am, but it seems to me that kids in Portland are paying the price for the decision to defund the police.
Considering that the PPB wasn’t actually defunded, let’s start with that.
Also, the “kids” are always paying the price for voter’s decisions.
The police were never actually meaningfully defunded:
https://www.streetroots.org/news/2022/08/03/ppb-budget-2022
They did however punatitively derelict their duties as punishment though:
https://bikeportland.org/2023/08/08/portland-police-bureau-officer-admits-no-traffic-enforcement-messaging-was-politically-motivated-377939
So they were defunded….
yes, they were….$15 million to be exact….
https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-police-budget-15-million-defund-cannabis-council-vote/
According to that article; PPB had to cut their budget by 5.6%, the same amount many other city services were asked to cut their budgets by after a $75 million general fund pandemic shortfall. 5.6% of $244 MILLION is ~$13.7 million. People wanted to “meaningfully defund” PPB to the tune of $50 million.
Calling that “defunding” is a bit off.
Given that the entire City had a shortfall in revenue of $75million, the fact that an agency that gets over 30% of the general fund only took on 20% of the shortfall means they actually did better than the rest of the bureaus..
It’s not like that wasn’t their 3rd largest budget in history either.
Or that they lost 45 sworn officer positions that were *vacant* and still had dozens of funded/vacant positions (that’s from their own budget request for the following FY).
But you just keep claiming that defunding happened and that abrogating their *sworn* duty was somehow an appropriate reaction tot he budget shortfall.
The Dutch, who have the best infrastructure, say that you shouldn’t blame the Police or even that speeding car. A good street design should protect the kids, make speeding through intersections impossible.
Having Police everywhere is a great way to throw a lot of money away every year, forever and ever, without actually resolving the underlying problems.
Not having the police everywhere while you address the underlying problems gets a lot of people killed.
It’s not either/or, but both/and.
The Dutch gave out over 8 million traffic violations in 2022.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
The Dutch also don’t let you drive or buy a car unless you go through a comprehensive driver’s ed program.
Unfortunately until Portland decides to add back police traffic enforcement into our quiver of traffic violence reduction tools we will be hard pressed to even approach the goals of Vision Zero.
I hope this child is able to heal quickly (emotionally and physically).
We’ve recently read that the traffic division has been reconstituted by I’ve not actually seen any evidence of that. It’s been years since I’ve seen what appeared to be a traffic stop. I think the PPB are still in the slowdown resulting from COVID, the fight with a particular city commissioner or two, and because they’ve become used to it.
Adding to that, there are almost no consequences for intentionally dangerous driving in Portland. A scoflaw motorist can reduce his chances of incurring any consequences by driving with no license plates, by choosing to not get required insurance, and by not stopping if they hit someone.
I know there are lots of folks on this forum who fans of infrastructure changes to “prevent” motorists from excessive speed. Besides the lack of funding it will take decades to implement changes to the system.
I don’t have confidence in that infrastructure changes will have as much effect as some hope. This morning, driving to a friend’s house in SW Portland, I followed a car on a very narrow, twisty residential street with extremely limited sight distance. I generally drive this at 10 to 12 mph. Really. The motorist I was following, was zipping up the hill at 20 to 25 mph before he pulled into his driveway on this same street!
IMO, infrastructure is a safeguard against humans making momentary lapses in judgement or attention. Yes, drivers should always be 100% hyper-aware but the reality is that human being just don’t operate that way. A well-designed street will slow down the vast majority of drivers so they have time to react when something unexpected happens. What’s the saying; “Humans are vulnerable, humans make mistakes”?
People going 40 in a 25 and bowling over kids will never be persuaded by any level of traffic calming. They are choosing to break laws and engage in harmful behavior, and should face consequences for that behavior. If the laws aren’t going to be enforces, why not just repeal them altogether?
They can also just stop and more often than not the police won’t do anything to them unless they’re very inebriated. Even when they still don’t have insurance or a license PPB has been known to not even ticket them.
You have personal info on this or is this just internet BS?
You have evidence of this?
You must be a cop or know a cop or know inside info to post this.
Adding on: given the recent higher numbers of stolen vehicles (and often shared among a larger group) there is even less worry about property damage or moving violations…just dont stop and keep driving until ditching the vehicle. (Sadly no stopping to aid to the vulnerable road user etc.)
This makes my blood boil. Who hits a child and then just speeds off. That piece of shit can rot in hell.
Another intersection where PBOT will “send someone” to do what? Marked crosswalk, stop light, lowered speed limit already there.
At the intersection where Jeane Diaz was killed, PBOT has actually made drivers MORE LIKELY to plow into pedestrians in the crosswalk and bicyclists on the greenway crossing.
Driver hits a child and does not even bother to stop, and we don’t even hear the PBOT commissioner call for justice? Perhaps our PBOT Commissioner’s mayoral campaign slogan can be “If you thought Portland streets were dangerous and deadly when I was a commissioner, wait until you see how many folks can be maimed or killed once I am mayor!”
Remember our new mayor will mostly be a ceremonial position, They won’t have a vote nor a veto.
A broad-daylight hit and run rates collective punishment of all drivers, like six months of legalized car theft in that zip code.
Oh stop the nonsense please. How about we catch the guy in the Volvo?
I agree. We should take away the police who are working on car theft and instead use them to find sociopaths like this guy.
In a lot of cases, the guy stealing the car, and the one “driving it like he stole it” are the same person.
Collective punishment isn’t working in Gaza and it won’t work here.
Aside from that, this neighborhood isn’t very densely populated, and this street has a good bit of thru traffic. Given those factors, what makes you think the driver lives nearby?
…umm maybe I missed it, but the cops are looking for the person that ran over the kid to arrest them right?
Any details on the car to look out for?
This stretch is terrible for speeding. I used to bike this stretch to and from work all the way down to the Sandy connection and it was miserable every single day. 35-45 is a very common speed which is why, even with a bike lane, I’ve changed up and take Davis/Everett until Sandy.
After two years of near hits on Glisan (funny how it is the only street where I regularly had jacked up trucks swerve into the bike lane to intimidate and harass me on my commute. Never anywhere else around town). A bit more hilly, but so much more pleasant and safe.
This topic comes up over and over and the Infrastructure First people are like people who blame women who are raped for wearing tight skirts.
A person in a car driving way over the speed limit, most likely impaired, who hits a child at 40 mph and doesn’t stop and the Infrastructure First crowd blames the Public and the government for making the road too wide.
Put a motorcycle cop on streets like Glisan and Burnside at that time of day and just maybe, that would prevent children from being run over in crosswalks.
I agree that there should be way more enforcement, and hopefully we could scale up enforcement sooner than build safer streets (though it’s taking forever to find willing people to join the PPB).
On the other hand, the infrastructure works even when the cop isn’t present.
Yeah the infrastructure first is very similar to housing first. Sounds like a great idea as we do need housing and infrastructure improvements but as policy they are both letting people die as we wait years or decades for what may never come or never be sufficient.
This seems like BS to me. Those who advocate infrastructure first generally do so as preventative measures. That they suggest infrastructure could have prevented a current case does not equal them dismissing the driver’s culpability.
Hit and run is a big enough problem that it is time for a solution, every car should be required to have a tracker that reports its location and speed. With such a program in place it would be trivial to find vehicles involved in hit and run collisions, reducing the incentive for fleeing and leaving a victim to potentially die in the street.
If you think ‘Murrricans are going to let the deep state track their movements*, you will have to pry my cold dead hands off the steering wheel of my lifted F350 dually (with luxury cab package).
.
* when Apple and Google track us it’s capitalism just as God intended
Luckily, neither Apple nor Google have the ability to imprison you.
They’re happy to hand over your data to the people who do:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-09-28/google-user-data-is-police-s-top-shortcut-for-solving-crimes
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/23/apple-user-data-law-enforcement-falling-short
At the bare minimum it seems like something that should be installed in the vehicle of anyone who has a history of breaking traffic laws, similar to a breathalyzer for dui. Get a speeding ticket, get a tracker…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-11-20/this-new-jersey-mayor-ended-traffic-deaths-with-a-vision-zero-plan?srnd=citylab
Interesting article about a successful vision zero plan in Hoboken NJ. The mayor had a vision and didn’t waver against people who oppose things just because they don’t like change. Sadly, I don’t think anyone in Portland politics has a vision or the guts to carry it out if they did.
One truck full of asphalt can raise the lvl of the crosswalk like they do in the Netherlands. It’s cheap, effective and makes it much much safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
It’s a 25 mph zone so it’s perfect for the speed. Road design should encourage drivers to do the speed limit. Signs don’t work.
Police don’t have the same goals as you and I do. They don’t care about pedestrians or bicyclists. You can have a full traffic division, they will still prefer ticketing bicyclists and not enforcing traffic laws against drivers.
What is the goal of the traffic police?
Is it now time for automatic speed enforcement cameras in school zones?!
PS. Most school zones should have a 15 mph (not 20 etc) design speed…especially when signed ‘when children are present’. That is Unless the school is a institutional factory bunker with an access control moat and no community uses.
Sure, but speed camera installations need to accompanied with a huge campaign to enforce the law that mandates license plates be displayed. Since the COVID roll back of enforcement of our laws I see cars driving without plates and without temporary registrations being driven on Portland streets all the time. Remember speed cameras only work if there is a license plate displayed.
You could tow 10,000 Teslas this week if we started towing vehicles with no front plates. No one cares anymore.
It’s crazy that this intersection hasn’t really changed in ~70+ years. If anything, the curbs are now lower from new layers of paving, and people are even less afraid of them and driving ever-faster.
Now: