After years of fatal collisions and a steady drumbeat of bad news, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is turning the tide on Cesar E Chavez Boulevard. Last Tuesday, Mayor Keith Wilson announced that the latest budget bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives included a $250,000 earmark for the notoriously unsafe road.
“This stretch of Chavez Boulevard is one of the most dangerous thoroughfares in Portland,” Wilson said in a statement. “This project will save lives – lives of pedestrians, bus riders, cyclists, and drivers.”
The funding was requested by Congresswoman Maxine Dexter (who replaced longtime transportation champion Earl Blumenauer in 2025) and supported by senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. It will be invested in a one-mile stretch of Cesar Chavez between SE Powell and Woodstock where PBOT will put it toward lane restriping, street lighting, traffic signal upgrades, new crossings, wider sidewalks, and more.
$250,000 won’t go very far; but this isn’t the only iron PBOT has in the fire when it comes to Cesar Chavez. As I reported last month, PBOT already has $2.2 million set aside from a state grant for the section between SE Lafayette (just south of Powell) to SE Schiller. Since that previous story, PBOT has launched a project website, online open house, and public feedback survey.
As we expected, PBOT is proposing a major road diet on Chavez that would take the profile from its current configuration of four standard lanes (two in each direction) and no shoulder, to two lanes with an additional lane for left turns (aka “left turn pockets”) at select intersections. With the space gained from this reconfiguration, PBOT will add curbside parking for automobile users.
South of Holgate, PBOT wants to build a three-lane cross-section that would include one standard lane in each direction, a center turn lane, and on-street parking wherever possible.
Below are current views of Cesar Chavez and SE Francis (left) and SE Schiller (right) next to the PBOT proposal:
If you’re curious about why PBOT would add car parking given that none of our plans call for encouraging car use, consider that its accepted dogma that the presence of parked cars (and the humans who enter and exit them) in the curb lane has a calming effect on drivers. Put another way, on-street parking will lead to slower speeds — which is something PBOT is very interested in on a street where about half the drivers go over the 30 mph speed limit. And of course, adding parking to a street is also a way to make a road diet more politically palatable.
PBOT is also confident in their proposal because their traffic analysis shows this section of Chavez has excess capacity. “The most traffic volume in this section is southbound during the evening peak hour with 720 vehicles,” PBOT writes on the project website. “This volume is substantially lower than many of Portland’s four-lane streets.” PBOT’s analysis showed this project area has similar traffic volume to NE 33rd near Grant High School, which has just one travel lane in each direction.
Some critics might latch onto the fact that PBOT foresees a 30-60 second increase in travel times once the project is complete. But in light of the safety benefits on such a historically dangerous corridor, anyone who takes that position will have a tough row to hoe.
Some local bike advocates think there’s enough space for bike lanes instead, but it doesn’t seem like that will become a major campaign. There’s a good grid of neighborhood streets nearby, and this project on Chavez could help spur talks of a parallel greenway route that is more welcoming and pleasant. Another reason there’s not likely to be a debate about bike lanes on this section of Chavez is because it’s not a commercial main street (like SE Hawthorne or Sandy) full of interesting places bike riders want to go.
North of Powell might be another conversation. PBOT says they’re launching a study to plan for the future of that section of Cesar Chavez that will, “explore opportunities to improve safety for everyone traveling on this stretch of the corridor.”
For now the focus is south of Powell. PBOT says they plan to build this project in 2028.
If you care about Cesar Chavez Boulevard in Southeast Portland, check out the online open house and be sure to take the project survey. It’s open through March 23rd.
