As someone who wants to live in a world where more people choose to walk and bike, I hate having to document so many tragic events that discourage people from making those choices. But reminding people of the human toll of cars, driving and unsafe road designs is often a necessary evil. And too often it takes fatal crashes to make policymakers and elected officials finally stand up and do something.
82nd Avenue is an example of that. When the ribbon is eventually cut on its new bus lanes and other exciting updates, I will always recall that our community paid with two lives. If not for the untimely deaths of Anthony Tolliver and Stephen Looser within two weeks of each other at the same intersection back in 2021, 82nd Avenue would likely still be under State of Oregon ownership and we would not be talking about its dramatic transformation from a unsafe orphan highway to a family-friendly main street.
But while news cycles are short and we can scroll away from uncomfortable stories, a memorial sign placed at the location of a tragedy is another way to etch the consequences of unsafe roads into our minds.
On Sunday I joined a pair of advocates whose mission is to make sure people don’t forget that the road to a better 82nd Avenue is littered with deaths and serious injuries.
Sarah Risser (above) can never forget. Six years ago she was in the passenger seat of a car being driven by her 18-year-old son Henry. A man driving the opposite direction swerved into their lane and Henry was killed in the head-on crash. Today, Risser is member of the Portland chapter of the national nonprofit Families for Safe Streets, an organization for survivors of traffic crashes.
I’ve covered Risser’s memorial sign projects in the past. It’s something she feels called to do as a way to help our community — and other survivors like her — remember those we’ve lost to unsafe roads.
Risser’s latest project is to install memorial signs along 82nd Avenue for every person killed and seriously injured in a traffic crash since 2016. She picked that year because that’s when the City of Portland committed to “Vision Zero” — an initiative aimed at ending fatal crashes for good.
I met Risser and a volunteer, Ted Buehler, at Cartlandia (a food cart pod on the Springwater Corridor path at 82nd) to document the installation of 20 memorial signs — one for each person killed on 82nd Avenue in the past decade.
“I have been thinking about doing a project like this on one of Portland’s high crash corridors,” Risser shared as she gathered signs, zipties, and a step-ladder while carrying a list of names and locations. “I ended up choosing 82nd for two reasons: One, it seemed like the crashes were a little bit closer together, so it might be more impactful as people drive down to see them. And then there’s a lot of advocacy on 82nd right now and I wanted to support that.”
TriMet, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and Metro are working on several projects as they take over management of the street from the Oregon Department of Transportation — a move long awaited by community advocates because of how local agencies are better-equipped to make the street safer and more accessible for people who aren’t inside cars.
Risser and Buehler’s first stop was 82nd and SE Crystal Springs Blvd — where a 30-year-old woman named Morgan Helms was killed trying to cross in 2023.
As he unboxed over 200 fake roses and readied branches of fresh laurel he just cut from down the street, I asked Buehler why he wanted to spend his Sunday climbing traffic poles next to traffic on 82nd. “I’m here because I think that it’s important to memorialize that people have been killed… If we put up memorials like this with messages on them and flowers, then people will see that somebody was killed here and they will think, ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t try to beat that next yellow light. Maybe I shouldn’t go quite so fast in the rain. Maybe I should go a little more slow and not try to, you know, fly around corners making right turns and things like that.'”
“Why roses?” I asked Buehler.
“They’re pretty,” he replied. “And this is the 82nd Avenue of the Roses,” he continued, invoking the street’s official name (Portland is known as the “Rose City”). Buehler added that he’s disappointed official plans for the 82nd Avenue project don’t include rose bush plantings.
As Risser and Buehler helped each other install the first sign, drivers and their cars roared by just inches away. I was struck at the juxtaposition of their project and the imminent danger they were in by taking it on. At one point Buehler cautioned Risser about stepping off the curb.
As I watched Risser arrange laurel branches and roses under one of the signs, I could see her son’s initials, “HZ,” tattooed on her wrist (his last name was Zietlow). I wanted to ask if she would have wanted someone to erect a memorial sign for her son, but I didn’t.
After the sign, laurel branches, roses, and white shoes were all hung at SE Crystal Springs Blvd, we made our way to the next intersection: SE Flavel. “This is the most dangerous of the intersections that we’re going to be going to today,” Risser shared as we assembled in the parking lot of a mini-mart. “There were three fatalities here since 2016— two pedestrians and a cyclist. And in addition to that, there were a number of high injury crashes here as well.” Then Risser let out a long sigh before adding, “Yeah… there’s been a lot of injury and death at this spot.”
It was a sunny day and SE 82nd and Flavel was bustling with people. Folks biked on the sidewalk, people walked in every direction, and the bus stop always had someone waiting. A few folks saw what Risser and Buehler were up to and offered their condolences. Even though Flavel is tiny compared to some of the other big streets that cross 82nd, I could see how all this foot and bike traffic could lead to a high number of crashes.
When they were done, Buehler felt we should join hands and take a moment of silence for the victims. So we stood in silence in a small circle right there in the parking lot. With eyes closed, we remembered: Pamela Siedel, Lydia Johnson, and Theodore Jones.
When we moved north to the next spot at SE Henderson Court, we ran into a few folks on bikes at the (absolutely wonderful!) new bike crossing at SE Knapp. Buehler invited them to join us. The pair were on a bike ride, but a few minutes later, one of them was holding an armful of laurel and was passing it up a ladder to Buehler as he worked on yet another sign installation.
“We need to remember,” Risser shared with me before I made my way home. “These are really dangerous streets, and people are dying, and have died consistently over time.”
“My hope is that if the families live in the area, or if they come down 82nd, that they’ll appreciate that their person is being remembered and honored. I think these memorials are really important.”
— Families for Safe Streets website
— Risser’s map of 82nd Avenue fatalities since 2016
— World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event information
Thanks for reading.
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