Podcast: World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

In this episode, I’ll take you to the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event that happened this past Sunday. You’ll hear interviews recorded with participants of the walk from Lloyd Center to a memorial demonstration at the plaza in front of Veterans Memorial Coliseum. You’ll also hear excerpts from the speeches made at the demonstration, and an interview about safe streets funding and policy with The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone.

The event was organized by The Street Trust, Oregon Walks, and Families for Safe Streets OR/WA.

People in this episode (in order of appearance):

• Jonathan Maus (host), founder/editor/publisher, BikePortland
• Lena Wiley (unnamed in the episode, sorry!), pedestrian and march participant
• Brendon Haggerty, Healthy Homes and Communities Manager, Multnomah County
• Claire Vlach, Oregon Walks
• Jackie Yerby, bike advocate and member of the board, The Street Trust and Cycle Oregon
• Sarah Iannarone, executive director, The Street Trust
• Michelle DuBarry, member, Families for Safe Streets OR/WA (also interviewed in episode 16)
• Wendy Serrano, equity and inclusion manager, Portland Bureau of Transportation
• Charlene McGee, director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Multnomah County
• Sarah Iannarone, executive director, The Street Trust executive director

I think you’ll love this episode, particularly my interview with Iannarone. Here’s just one exchange:

BikePortland:

“So for instance, when ODOT says the I-5 Rose Quarter project is a ‘safety project,’ you think that’s something advocates should be skeptical of? Or maybe look at more closely and be like, ‘How are we really defining safety here?'”

Iannarone:

“Or maybe we actually need to more effectively define ‘safety’, either through statute or through planning rules, right? Because if that does qualify as a safety project now, and that’s not where people are dying, and we aren’t able to even get the $135 to $185 million for inner Powell Boulevard, where we know people die, month after month, year after year, then there is a disconnect in what’s actually happening in our system based on what the definition of safety currently is.”

Links from the episode:

• BikePortland coverage of Multnomah County Public Health report on traffic crash deaths and Safe Systems approach (August 2023)
• PBOT Safe Systems webpage
• Families for Safe Streets OR/WA 
• Oregon Walks
• The Street Trust 
• World Day of Remembrance national site  
• BikePortland Fatality Tracker 

Listen in the player above or where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

— Read or download a full episode transcript below: