The City of Portland has made a new commitment to daylight 200 more intersections over the next two years. The news comes in the form of a quiet update to the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s website.
Daylighting, or what PBOT refers to as “vision clearance”, is an intersection treatment that removes visible barriers like parked cars and trucks from corners in order to improve visibility. The treatment has gained popularity among transportation advocates nationwide because of how it can radically improve safety at intersections (where most serious injury and fatal crashes occur) and it’s extremely inexpensive. In Oregon it also has legal backing.
In 2020 nonprofit Oregon Walks launched a “Clear the Corners” campaign to ratchet up pressure on the City of Portland to abide by the Oregon Vehicle Code (ORS 811.550 section 17) which says drivers can’t park within 20-feet of a crosswalk. While the law allows cities to set their own level of compliance, road safety activists think PBOT isn’t doing enough. That same year, the City of Portland has slapped with a lawsuit brought by a person who was hit as a result of what his lawyer claims was negligence on the part of the city to enforce the daylighting law. Pressure from the lawsuit (which is still pending in the Court of Appeals) and advocates worked. In 2021, former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty secured $200,000 to daylight 350 intersections.
But as BikePortland reported one year ago, there are still way too many intersections in Portland with terrible visibility due to people parking cars at the corner.
In fact, an analysis by Portland State University student and road safety advocate Melissa Kostelecky found that there are about 4,000 intersections in Portland that should be cleared of parking. At around $600 per intersection (the price for signs and poles at four corners), that would cost about $2.3 million. Kostelecky’s report analyzed 18,143 intersections citywide and looked at factors such as proximity to a school, presence of ADA ramps, crash history, speeding patterns, bike network connections, and so on.
Determining which corners to clear first is part of the challenge. PBOT’s standard practice is to apply vision clearance standards (no parking within 20-feet of the corners) on all major paving and capital projects. But when they find extra funding, they have expanded that scope to include more locations. The upcoming treatments will be targeted near schools, neighborhood greenways, and in designated pedestrian districts (as identified in city plans). PBOT will also respond to specific locations based on complaints. Anyone can call PBOT Parking Enforcement at 503-823-5195 (and wait for option 3) to report a dangerous corner for consideration.
The latest promise from PBOT to daylight 200 intersections in the next two years comes from a $50,000 commitment from the Fixing Our Streets (local gas tax) program.
View a map of eligible daylighting corridors and learn more on PBOT’s Vision Clearance website.
