When 86-year-old Portlander Roger Lee was hit and killed by a motorcycle rider while trying to walk across Southeast Powell Blvd just after 9:00 pm on March 9th, his death was a tragedy. And for neighbors who knew Lee and have pushed for safety improvements in this area for many years, it struck a very raw nerve.
Members of the South Tabor Neighborhood Association (STNA) say Lee’s death didn’t have to happen and that festering dangers on SE Powell (Oregon Highway 26) made it much more likely. “State and local agencies know this stretch of Powell is unsafe—they’ve known for years,” said Juan Cummings, chair of the STNA, in a statement. “Our tax dollars were allocated for pedestrian safety here, yet people keep dying—and no one is treating it like the emergency it is.”
Cummings points to $2 million in state transportation funds TriMet was awarded in 2016 for enhanced pedestrian crossings on Powell and Division. Yet work on the “Powell-Division Safety and Access to Transit Project” is only now scheduled to start this spring, six years after the initial target completion date.
Portland Police say Lee was crossing Powell at SE 67th when he was struck and killed. The STNA says Lee was on his way home from a Portland Trail Blazers game and had just gotten off the TriMet Line 9 bus. As Lee stepped off the bus and went to cross SE 67th, security footage shows a motorcycle rider accelerating just second before the collision.
“This dangerous, un-signalized crossing sits at the heart of a busy community hub, with a grocery store, restaurants, and a dispensary drawing foot traffic,” reads a statement by the neighborhood. “With bus stops on both sides and a parking lot to the south, pedestrians are forced to cross Powell, a five-lane highway, with no marked crosswalks or safety measures.”
The STNA has teamed up with the Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association to demand “immediate action” from TriMet, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. They want some type of intervention on the street that will slow traffic and protect people crossing Powell between SE 52nd and 82nd, “before another life is lost.”
BikePortland covered this project in 2022 with a story that highlighted fears from neighbors who raised similar alarms to Cummings and others. Excuses for the delays reported back then were that all 11 planned crossing upgrades had to get approval before any of them could begin construction. The project includes the crossing at SE 79th, where advocates have raised concerns about the design approved by ODOT.
People who live along Powell say they are frustrated and disappointed by the delays. They say local families with students at nearby schools are forced to navigate a highway just to get to class.
At the STNA meeting on March 20th, advocates will outline next steps to garner attention for their concerns. Foster-Powell NA will discuss the issue at their April 14th meeting. There are also plans to attend the TriMet board meeting on March 26th; but one resident has already done that to no avail.
“We’ve gone to TriMet’s board three times already—after multiple deaths—only to be met with delays,” said John Carr, STNA vice chair. “At the very least, the already-funded project needs to be fast-tracked. But that’s just the start. There’s no reason this stretch of Powell should still be a death trap.”
Thanks for reading.
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Another devastating example of the consequences of government agencies prioritizing the swift passage of motor vehicles through the city over the well-being of humans (and all other species!) in the city. What amount of human suffering outweighs the drivers who just needs to accelerate to get through faster? When will we design for to lessen the former even if it mildly inconveniences the latter?
I’d reply immediately to this posting, but it will likely be delayed by several re-writes and redesigns, wording will be shifted to other earlier-delayed postings that are higher priority and ensuing responses from others, plus several edits and deletes, plus several meetings of the Bike Portland Stakeholder Advisory Committee with BP staff to go over the various comments. There’s trips to Salem and Amsterdam mixed in there somewhere. Maybe by March 2030 it will all get worked out, but who knows?
I’m sure ODOT will do the right thing and close some more crosswalks on Powell without upgrading any nearby crossings. They shouldn’t be allowed to put up those signs until they’ve installed a safer crossing within a block. Looks like the nearest signalized crossings to 67th are two blocks away in either direction.
Honestly those signs shouldn’t exist at all. Removing liability from the state and drivers just encourages complacency with their dangerous roads and driving.
I also really dislike those (talking generally vs. just on Powell). Most are in locations where I doubt anyone or hardly anyone ever crossed anyway, and the few who may have aren’t likely to be dissuaded by signs.
What they DO do is act like message boards telling drivers, “We’ve listened to you, and you’re right–pedestrians are getting killed because they’re crossing where they shouldn’t, not because of speeding or anything else drivers are doing. So we’re putting up these signs to see if we can reign them him for their own safety”.
If they’re going to put them up, they should include an arrow pointing to the nearest signalized crossing, with the distance in feet, just to shame ODOT into having to write numbers in the hundreds to thousands of feet. Not that ODOT really would feel shame.
But then they’d have to figure out how to direct people to the nearest legal crossing, when the route to it has no sidewalk, and it wouldn’t be safe and perhaps not legal to get to that crossing without crossing the street–where they just erected the NOT A CROSSING sign–so you could walk facing traffic.
At least ODOT is spending all that money on freeway expansions in the name of safety
TriMet should not have bus stops on Powell that are not approximately adjacent to a crossing that has, at a minimum, a flashing yellow beacon signal. I use one of those several times weekly to cross Powell, and they are great!!!
I agree with you, though with the caveat that I think they need to install significantly more RRFBs along the corridor, especially like 60th to 205. They are relatively low cost and great bang for the buck given how much higher the driver yield rate compared to just a marked crosswalk.
I’m not opposed to culling some bus stops, but more for the sake of keeping line 9 buses moving better. I ride the 2 a lot and most of what improved travel times was them getting rid of so many stops for the FX2 project.
Yes, definitely.
One thing that is really frustrating to me is how many places around town have curb cuts for what is legally the crosswalk, but no paint to denote it. Sometimes they even put up yellow signs with a picture of a person walking but they don’t actually paint the crosswalk. Not to be a carbrain about it, but it is much easier to see someone against the contrast of the stripes vs. just bare pavement when it is dark. Seems like pretty low hanging fruit, yeah?
PBOT often says crosswalk striping gives pedestrians ‘a false sense of security and safety’ and leads to MORE incidents. If there is no striping, you are more terrified of crossing the street, and will be more cautious is the actual logic of some traffic engineers.
Note there is no mention of the goddamn DRIVER being more cautious.
Not trying to be antagonistic, but do you have a source on that? Seems crazy that they think that painted crosswalks – a universally acknowledged road marking – give a ‘false’ sense of security but they are okay doing stuff like relying on drivers reading “No Turn on Red” signs to protect bikes from right hooks.
https://ggwash.org/view/40788/traffic-engineers-still-rely-on-a-flawed-1970s-study-to-reject-crosswalks
Has links to studies, counter-studies, and many of the highway and transpo departments that still use the 1972 paper as an excuse. Do I have a document stating “PBOT says…?” No, but I have heard it said by staff and it is a commonly-held belief among transpo offices.
Interestingly, searching for ‘crosswalk false sense of security’ brings up dozens of articles on supposed ped danger – and religious sites.
I have also been told this by PBOT officials on many occasions.
Dude that’s crazy. Division and 109th has everything but the paint for a crosswalk. There are curb cuts, a cutout in the median, yellow signs, and “stop here for peds” signs. Hong Huynh was killed there a couple months ago. Would a striped crosswalk there have saved him? Maybe, I don’t know, but it could’ve at least been enough contrast to get the driver – who probably had both eyes on her phone – to look up long enough to brake. The worst thing is that two blocks down, on 107th, there is a painted crosswalk. SE 90th has a similar treatment to 109th. I saw a driver scream at a woman who was crossing there to “use the f-ing crosswalk” as he blasted past her. That IS the crosswalk, babybrain!
Next time I go to an open house or whatever I’m going to ask them about this. It’s insane to me that PBOT will slap down kinds of crazy, confusing paint-and-plastic art projects but they aren’t willing to paint a goddamn crosswalk.
Thanks for linking. Interesting read. It reminds me of the parking study done in the 1930s by the ITE that is the basis for US parking requirements. Or the debunked study on autism and vaccines in 1998. Sometimes these things take on a life of their own, even after they’re pulled from journals.
I dug up this Canadian Vision Zero critique, and if you replace “Winnipeg” with “Portland” it’s like you never left home!
https://medium.com/zero-vision/not-in-plain-sight-dangerous-engineering-flaws-in-winnipegs-design-of-pedestrian-corridors-d464c188360b
Stand-out comment for me was:
“The result is that claimed adherence to the manual is being used selectively when convenient.”
That is PBOT in a nutshell.
Great article!
Yes, especially when it seems like a high number of drivers think people should only cross at crosswalks–which to them means striped crosswalks–so they don’t look for people crossing anywhere else, and don’t slow down or stop when they do see them (but sometimes yell or honk).
Also typical are intersections with one marked crosswalk, and one pair of curb cuts, but the curb cuts aren’t at the corners connected by the crosswalk.
The very worst are when curb cuts are installed mid-block without signage or markings. They lure/encourage people to cross, but don’t establish a legal crossing.
I live in Foster Powell, four blocks from Powell and cross as a pedestrian regularly. The lack of safe crossings is a big problem but so is the extremely excessive speed most drivers travel down the road. I would like to see some traffic calming measures and much more enforcement of traffic laws.
Unfortunately many of our transportation advocacy groups in Portland actively “de-emphasize” the importance of enforcement. Until that changes it’s gonna be an uphill battle to improve compliance with our traffic laws.
I cross Powell at the crosswalk at 75th regularly and it’s often very dangerous, adverse interactions with drivers who don’t stop or swerve around me while i’m in the crosswalk. I do also see plenty of very aware and respectful drivers who yield but i’m always pissed when motorists won’t stop when i’m actively crossing the street, within the clearly marked crosswalk. I can’t wait for improved safety measure here. I now regularly reroute with my kids to avoid this crosswalk. PBOT, please do something before one of my children gets hurt.
We should have gotten bus rapid transit with dedicated bus lanes on Powell, instead of crowding it onto Division. BRT would have dramatically altered the pedestrian experience, including safer sidewalks and crossings, shade from street trees, and slower speeds of motor vehicles in reduced lanes. Drivers witnessing the BRT go by on their daily commute might decide to leave their cars and hop on the fast bus, where they can shorten their commute time, relax, and leave the driving to Trimet.
This rendering by Nick Falbo shows the location near my house, around SE 30th and Powell, where we had three pedestrians struck and killed in one year, two in the same month.
What did ODOT do on their so-called Powell Blvd. Safety Project? Well, they increased the turning radius for trucks across from Cleveland High School on 26th Ave. & Powell, where scores of high students wait to cross after getting off the bus, and where Sarah Pliner was later killed on her bike by a trucker. And, they cut down 17 mature street trees in 14 blocks because they could not be bothered with tree maintenance of keeping suckers cut down and branches limbed up to accomplish their visibility goals.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but there’s tons more destinations and housing along inner Division than Powell. The FX2 does have to squeeze through a few spots but I think the solution to that is to remove street parking in the narrowest spots.
That sure is a pretty picture but TriMet, PBOT, and ODOT would burn up every single ounce of political capital they have if they took that much space away from cars.
YES this. Powell should be transitioned to BRT ASAP and developed into a MAX whenever possible in the future. This is where our transportation money should be going now.
The connection to MAX would require an above/below grade section at Powell where the UP tracks are. I also think it would be a fair consideration to cut and cover adjacent to Cleveland (thereby expanding Powell Park), and making that area infinitely safer/quiet. The MAX to I-205 would solve a lot of problems in the current system, but mainly the steel bottleneck. I’m not against the Barbur line, but a Powell line would have a multiplier effect on the current MAX system (e.g., redundancy) and city (e.g., denser development)
This may sound like a broken record but here goes:
NO ENFORCEMENT = TRAFFIC VIOLENCE
Yes, better infrastructure is needed but alone it is NOT enough and will take decades to develop. It’s time to reduce the carnage now.
This whole conversation is a broken record.
The fact is that we don’t have enough cops to do regular traffic enforcement; we don’t have enough money to rebuild our most dangerous streets; and installing speed cameras in any kind of a widespread basis is politically, financially, and logistically difficult.
Anyone who thinks we should be spending more money on any these should attend one the city’s budget listening sessions and speak their mind. And prepare to be disappointed.
Oh, and speeding isn’t an issue that anyone is testifying about.
There is plenty of money in our 8 BILLION dollar budget. We just are spending it in the wrong spots. Do we really need a team of 4 DEI specialists in the Parks department alone? Do we really need an Office of civic life? Are we getting value for the hundreds of millions we send to local nonprofits every year?
I crossed powell daily to get to work for years- in a marked but unlit (no crossing lights) crosswalk. The number of times the near lane stopped and a driver in the far lane came ripping through inches from my face would blow your mind.
So sad. Just trying to head home after a Blazers game. Does the “Powell-Division Safety and Access to Transit Project” have a webpage to place to look at the designs? Does it include this intersection where Mr. Lee was killed? Unfortunately, any design that retains two car lanes in each direction is still high risk unless there is a signal with a red phase to stop traffic. Plenty of deaths on Division still where they did a bunch of safety enhancements but kept the two lanes in each direction. Same situation will play out on 82nd soon too.
I have good word that this project is being delayed by ODOT and PBOT permits where new issues keep getting raised late in the permit process by permit reviewers that failed to raise them earlier in the review. Part of the issue appears to be that ODOT controls the roadway itself, while PBOT controls back of curb line (ie. sidewalks, poles, ramps, etc). Obviously, that’s no way to manage a roadway since there’s clearly an interaction between the two. So basically any project on Powell is going to suffer from this situation.
I worked on another project where the PBOT-ODOT coordination was so poor that the permits languished for months resulting in additional costs to the project. These car-biased traffic engineers are so stuck in their own rules and regulations that they can’t permit a project that will improve the situation for people that just need to cross the street to get home. They think they are being responsible, but in reality, they are a large part of the problem.
Just had Roger Geller from PBOT join our Creston walking bus from north side of Powell to Creston Elementary today. We shared many of these same issues with him. It’s also a PPS problem – dangerous crossing within a catchment means less neighborhood school attendance. And Creston has been severely impacted by budget cuts b/c of our smaller enrollment.
We cross at the 47th Street red light crossing at Pho Hung. We instill the fear of god in our kids in terms of keeping their head on a swivel, making eye contact, watching for the rate of speed. All in hopes that we’ll feel okay with them crossing independently some day (the 10-11 year olds). We want even more calming there w/ some islands and better ramps that align with the actual crossing. It’s awful how they have let all of this fester.
It sounds like you’ve already got a stoplight/crossing signal. Given a somewhat realistic budget, what would you like to see implemented as a solution?
ODOT facilities are criminal negligence. They consciously do (or more importantly don’t do) things that lead to “excess deaths.” If a private citizen took such actions we’d call it murder.
We really need to hold their feet to the fire. *Transportation* should just mean moving people, not ODOT’s worldview where it means high speed car throughput no matter the cost.