Portland City Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane is about to take her commitment to traffic safety to the next level. In what she’s calling “Vision Zero Week,” the councilor will preside over a resolution next Wednesday (September 17th) that will reaffirm the city’s ambitious proclamation issued one decade ago.
Inspired in part by her connection to Jeanie Diaz, a southeast Portland librarian who was killed by a reckless driver in 2023, Councilor Koyama Lane elevated Vision Zero during the city’s most recent budget cycle. While her resolution does not obligate any funding for capital projects or programs, it would make significant administrative changes that could increase political urgency around the issue.
And Vision Zero needs all the help it can get. When the proclamation passed in 2015, advocates wanted the city to include a firm date to reach zero deaths. That date? 2025. Today we’ve still got way too many people killed while using Portland roads. And we’re still searching for answers as evidenced by a newly formed City Club research project that will study Vision Zero for the next 12 months.
If passed, the resolution would do two main things. It move the lead Vision Zero staffer from the Portland Bureau of Transportation into the Deputy City Administrator’s office. As we’ve seen with a plan hatched by an office overseen by Mayor Keith Wilson — and pushed for by City Administrator Mike Jordan — that would have removed traffic diverters in northwest, there’s a clear need for a stronger PBOT presence in the DCA’s office.
The resolution would also establish a new Vision Zero Task Force, “focused on identifying actions to meet the City’s goals in eliminating traffic deaths.” PBOT used to have a Vision Zero Task Force but they disbanded it in 2021. Also unlike the previous task force, this new one will not include reps from advocacy groups or individual road safety activists. Instead, it will be comprised solely of city staff and will connect with external groups or subject-matter experts only “where appropriate.”
Councilor Koyama Lane released a video on social media last week encouraging Portlanders to testify on the resolution and to wear orange when they show up. She’s also promoting three events for Vision Zero Week: on Wednesday there’s a ride to City Hall and a parade planned before the council meeting, on Thursday Portland will host the Age-Friendly Oregon summit, and Friday is the annual PARK(ing) Day where Koyama Lane says she is “taking to the streets” to convert a car parking spot on SE Stark and 30th into a community space with road safety-related activities.
I also hear Koyama Lane would love to meet more bicycle riders and lovers of safe streets at her Constituent Coffee event this Saturday (9/13) from 9:00 to 10:30 am at the PDX Saints Love Day Shelter (247 SE 82nd Ave).
