A stop on the Inner Eastside For All Ride on Sunday, November 12th. (Photo: Portland: Neighbors Welcome)
Portland’s bicycling goals are inextricably linked to housing. If we don’t get our land-use right and create smaller circles between where people live and work and shop and play, we will never get over the hump with cycling mode share.
That’s why it came as no surprise that bike advocacy nonprofit BikeLoud PDX co-organized a ride this past weekend with Portland: Neighbors Welcome. The ride was part of the launch of P:NW’s Inner Eastside for All campaign that seeks to “End apartment bans throughout inner Portland neighborhoods.”
That campaign is buoyed by a coalition of over 20 local housing, environmental and transportation nonprofit organizations who signed onto a letter in October to the Portland Planning Commission to influence their thinking on a directive from the State of Oregon to boost housing production.
Campaign coalition.
P:NW wants to re-legalize the fourplexes, apartments and other multi-family dwelling types that were once legal in Portland’s inner neighborhoods until the city updated its Comprehensive Plan in 1980. In a move known as the “Population Strategy” that is now considered part of Portland’s racist planning legacy, city leaders outlawed housing types that they felt were leading to “white flight.” That strategy, “laid out a policy justification for prioritizing middle-class, educated families and wrote policy that favored housing types and neighborhood character that were attractive to those populations at the expense of others. The result was downzoning of inner southeast neighborhoods so that multi-family dwellings were legal only on ribbons of streets adjacent to buy streets.
“This decision helped pave the way to terrible housing shortages and rent hikes, both here and elsewhere in the city, in the 1990s and 2010s,” P:NW says on their campaign website.
The focus of this campaign is from about SE 12th to 60th, and NE Fremont to SE Powell.
P:NW’s vision is to create more walkable neighborhoods with a mix of housing types (including some single-family homes) that are well-served by transit lines and bikeways where you can find bustling commercial centers, corner stores, and public spaces.
The campaign mantra is “Four floors and corner stores!”
“The Inner Eastside is rich in public transit; in walkable, bikeable jobs and services; in mature, beloved street trees,” said Jennifer Shuch, the equitable zoning team lead for P:NW . “Allowing four floors and corner stores to exist anywhere in these neighborhoods is a natural, efficient way for Portland to share those assets while it keeps evolving and growing. We’re urging the city to start exploring the details of such a change.”
On Sunday’s ride, over 40 people showed up for a tour of southeast Portland. “We love policy rides, and this was a very educational experience that included stops throughout inner eastside neighborhoods to discuss the past, present, and future of multi-family housing in this area of the city,” BikeLoud posted on Instagram. “Increasing bicycle ridership will in part depend on the degree to which we build housing in neighborhoods with existing bicycle infrastructure.”
PBOT says they’ll make a list of locations where plastic will be replaced with concrete. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
(Source: PBOT Vision Zero Action Plan Update 2023-2025)
A person was killed while walking on SE McLoughlin Blvd (Highway 99E) early this morning. It’s the fifth death on the State-owned highway since early 2021 and three of those were pedestrians.
According to our Fatality Tracker, this was the 61st death of 2023 — that’s three more than we had last year and puts us on the same pace as 2021 which was our highest toll since 1990.
Portland first passed its Vision Zero Action Plan in 2016 with a goal to the goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on Portland streets by 2025. It’s now crunch-time for that effort. Despite efforts from the Portland Bureau of Transportation and its partners, 372 people have been killed in traffic crashes since 2017 and the numbers are going in the wrong direction.
That’s the sad but true context for the publication of an update to PBOT’s Vision Zero Action Plan released earlier this month. Among the list of actions PBOT says they’ll embark on in the next two years is to pilot new “no turn on red” and “rest on red” traffic signal projects and rekindle their enforcement relationship with the Portland Police Bureau. Here’s what else you need to know about this report…
This is the first update on Vision Zero PBOT has published since 2019 and the 48-page report is meant to guide their work through the 2025 target date. The new action plan provides a helpful snapshot of where things stand and gives advocates a helpful resource to hold the City of Portland accountable.
The report opens with a somber listing of names of everyone who has died in traffic crashes between 2017 and 2022 (above). The 311 names in small font, stack high like skyscrapers above a map of dots that marks where they died. And these are just the dead. The list doesn’t include names of people with seriously, life-changing injuries or the hundreds of family members and friends whose lives will be forever incomplete.
And while the numbers are outrageous and unacceptable, it’s important to remember that PBOT is just one of several government agencies in our city who are responsible for street safety. Metro, Multnomah County, the Portland Police Bureau, and of course the Oregon Department of Transportation, all play major roles. For instance, one of the four main focus areas for “getting to zero” is a new emphasis on “basic needs,” which they’ll lean on partners in housing, job access, drug abuse and mental health services to address.
For their part, PBOT points to some success in the report. They say a pilot program to install left-turn calming bumps at 42 intersections citywide has led to a 13% reduction in turning speeds. The number bike riders hurt or killed on our roads has also trended solidly downward in the past decade. And perhaps PBOT’s best success story comes from their years-long war on speeding. Their analysis shows that speeding is down 71% and top-end speeding (people driving 10 mph or more over the speed limit) has dropped 94% where automated enforcement cameras have been installed. PBOT has also seen an average 72% reduction along corridors where they’ve reconfigured lanes to reduce space for driving.
PBOT also wants the public to know that Portland is not alone in this struggle for safer roads. The report points out that in the last five years there’s been a 17% increase in traffic deaths across the U.S. “Compared to Vision Zero peer
cities in the U.S. with similar population, Portland’s traffic death rate is in the middle,” the report states, next to a chart showing Portland’s rate at 8 deaths per 100,000 residents compared to the national average of 12.
Here are a few more notable stats from the report:
Pedestrians face the greatest risk in Portland’s transportation network. Roughly 5.7% of Portlanders primarily walk to work, yet 40% of all traffic-related deaths from 2018-2022 were pedestrians.
Housing status data from 2021 and 2022 police crash reports indicate that 55% of pedestrians killed—30 out of 55—were unhoused when they died.
Impairment and speed are the two largest contributing factors to fatal traffic crashes, playing a major role in 69% and 42% of all deaths respectively.
Recent Portland data shows that Black and Indigenous community members died in traffic crashes at about twice the rate relative to their proportion of the population.
70% of pedestrian deaths and serious injuries occurred at night (2017-2021).
Wide streets, which make up 4.5% of Portland streets, accounted for nearly half of all deadly crashes in Portland from 2017-2021 and more than half of pedestrian deaths and serious injury crashes (52%).
Hit-and-run crashes were up 27% in the last fve years (2017-2021) compared to the fve years prior. Hit-and-run crashes represent one in seven deaths or serious injuries of pedestrians and people biking.
The section on “actions and performance measures” shared a few new things that caught my eye.
PBOT plans to launch a “no turn on red” pilot (above) to reduce risk of turning crashes, “that are particularly dangerous for pedestrians and people bicycling.” This follows growing national attention on the risks of turning on red signals and how that policy is woefully outdated. PBOT has already implemented it at several intersections, but this appears to be an expansion of the policy. Another traffic signal pilot PBOT wants to launch is called, “rest on red.” Here’s how PBOT describes it:
“At night, at some intersections with a history of speed-related crashes, display red lights in all directions to require drivers to slow down as they approach the intersection. Technology at the intersection will detect the vehicle and give a green light.”
The report also addresses a growing push for more physical protection of bike lanes with a promise to develop a list of locations and find funding to “upgrade temporary materials (such as rubber curbs and flexible posts) to permanent materials (such as concrete).”
And it looks like a partnership with the PPB that iced over during the racial justice protests in the summer of 2020 is beginning to thaw. PBOT says they will partner with the (newly bolstered) Traffic Division on “focused enforcement” and to, “ensure training for new police recruits includes data about traffic safety, how to process DUII offenses, and city and state protocol and laws around making traffic stops.”
The narrative that a “massive investment” is needed to stem the tide of deaths is woven throughout the report. As we’ve reported, PBOT is facing its most daunting budget in history and is contemplating vast cuts to staff and programs unless new revenue can be found.
Regardless of the budget situation, the clock is ticking loudly on the City of Portland and their partners when it comes to the woeful trend of tragedies on our streets. We have two years left to make the bold moves necessary to reach our Vision Zero goal.
Rep. Emerson Levy at a legislative hearing Wednesday, November 8th.
A state lawmaker who represents Bend says her proposed electric bike legislation will be called “Trenton’s Law” to memorialize the tragic death of 15-year-old Trenton Burger. Burger was killed in a collision with a van after its driver made a right turn as Burger biked on a sidewalk along Highway 20 back in June.
Representative Emerson Levy presented her ideas at a meeting of the Senate Interim Committee on Judiciary in Salem last week. Since we reported on Levy’s efforts back in August, she has dropped the provision that would have made helmets mandatory for all e-bike riders (regardless of age).
As presented on Wednesday (11/8) Levy’s proposal would:
update Oregon to the three-class definition system that was recently adopted by the Biden Administration as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Oregon is one of 13 states that don’t use the Class 1 (20 mph with no throttle), Class 2 (20 mph with throttle), and Class 3 (28 mph max without throttle) system to regulate e-bikes;
make e-bikes with throttles illegal for ages 15 and under;
include grant money for bike safety education programs.
During her presentation to members of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Levy implored them to not dismiss this as a niche issue that only impacts affluent people. “It’s an incredible safety problem,” she said. And right now it impacts four cities in particular — Hood River, Bend, West Linn, and Lake Oswego — but Levy believes they could be canaries in a coal mine as the market for the bikes matures elsewhere.
And if safety issues don’t persuade lawmakers to prioritize the issue in this short, interim legislative session (Oregon only has full sessions on odd years), the political saliency should. “I get more emails about e-bikes than homelessness, measure 110, housing — there’s no comparison,” Levy said. “And they’re all organic emails, several pages long. This is an issue.”
To make her case, Levy painted a picture that e-bikes with throttles are very easy to modify and can be made to go 45 mph just by connecting a few wires. She was also careful to not vilify this popular new mode of transportation:
“The fundamental value is that I do think kids should be out riding bikes, they should have the freedom. These are incredible tools, they’re incredible anti-poverty tools. But the line for me, and I think for the community, and all the testimony we receive is that we don’t need 13-year-olds on things that are functionally de-facto motorcycles. And so this is the compromise.”
Levy hopes her legislation will allow educators to go into schools to teach e-bike safety. That can’t happen now because it’s technically illegal for most students to even ride e-bikes — but that doesn’t stop them from being very popular.
Levy’s focus on making throttle use illegal is different than several other states that have opted instead to prohibit young riders from riding Class 3 e-bikes that can go up to 28 mph. This approach runs the risk of singling out throttles as being inherently problematic. Oregon Senator and Judiciary Committee Chair Floyd Prozanski responded to Levy’s presentation with a comment that’s indicative of this perspective: “I personally think full throttle bikes should not be in the bike lane,” he shared. “I think that they are basically modified little motorcycles and they should be in the lane that is equipped for that.”
Prozanski and several other Judiciary Committee members seemed grateful and very supportive of Levy’s work thus far.
Oregon’s E-Bikes for All Working Group met the day after Levy made her pitch in Salem. There was relief among some members that the mandatory helmet provision was dropped and one person noted that the possibility of requiring licenses and registration was a political non-starter inside the Capitol. There was also some concern expressed that Levy might add provisions to limit the potential of e-bikes in the future. She mentioned in her presentation she felt the 1,000 watt maximum power mentioned in the current law was “outdated.” That spurred one member of the group who represents a company that uses electric trikes to deliver cargo, to say 1,000-watt motors are essential to their business and their entire fleet would be illegal if a 750-watt max was enforced.
E-bike advocates in the working group also expressed an ongoing concern that lawmakers might be too influenced by anecdotal evidence and hard data needs to be a larger part of the conversation. And several members of the group expressed that the real safety hazards on our roads come from cars and trucks, and e-bike deaths and injuries are “just kind of a rounding error” by comparison.
You can learn so much in the Comments sections. In last week’s story about the concrete drums PBOT installed on NE 21st, Jonathan issued a correction. A commenter had pointed out that PBOT has jurisdiction of the 21st Avenue overpass over I-84, not ODOT, as he had written.
Jonathan then took to the comments to bemoan how “confounding” are the jurisdictional boundaries of Portland’s streets. And don’t you know that started a long, informative, sub-thread? A couple of commenters offered links to the maps they use to determine road ownership, testiness ensued, finally Quint stepped in. What I liked about Quint’s comment is that they explained why things are the way they are. I always appreciate that.
Here’s Quint’s explanation of jurisdictional control of overpasses in Portland:
Correct, most of the bridges across I-5 and I-205 are owned by ODOT, even the ones with PBOT roadways going over them. I think it has to do with the fact that I-84 was built inside a natural gulch. Because it was a gulch, most of the bridges already existed and were owned by PBOT, and I-84 was just built underneath the bridges. Even when a bunch of them were partially rebuilt in the 80s for the MAX project, there must have been some agreement that they remain under PBOT ownership.
From what I can remember looking at the bridge maps that used to be on PBOT’s old website (they seem to be missing from the new one), the only I-84 bridges that belong to ODOT are the ones that carry roads that used to be ODOT highways. So basically there seems to be a practice where even if a highway is transferred from ODOT to PBOT, ODOT keeps ownership of the bridges. So the Grand/MLK bridges are still ODOT, even though Grand/MLK (aka US Hwy 99E) was transferred to PBOT sometime in the 90s (I think). The Sandy Blvd bridge is still ODOT, even though Sandy Blvd (formerly designated as US Hwy 30) was transferred to PBOT in the 00s. And the 82nd Ave bridge is still ODOT even though 82nd Ave (aka OR Hwy 213) was transferred to PBOT last year. The Halsey bridge over 82nd Ave is also ODOT-owned, even though it’s a PBOT roadway, probably because it was built as part of a complex interchange and was not a previously-existing bridge.
I-5 and I-205 were built later, and created new trenches that needed new bridges to cross them, so in those cases ODOT built them as part of the project and kept ownership over them long-term.
Thank you Quint! We all know a bit more now. You can also read Quint and all the other comments in context.
Here are the best stories we’ve come across in the past seven days — from sources you can trust.
Let’s copy Paris: The amazing rise of cycling in one of the world’s greatest cities has happened in large part because officials “massively amplified the supply” of safe bikeways, which led to induced demand for bicycling. (Le Monde)
Size matters: When it comes to lane widths, a few feet can make a big difference in safety outcomes, says a detailed new study from Johns Hopkins University. (Streetsblog USA)
Really? Really?!: One of the world’s most respected media outlets managed to publish a story praising cars while making no mention of their impacts on road safety or the environment. Tone deaf, yet fascinatingly revealing. (The Economist)
By George: A noted columnist for a major American newspaper penned a rant against “climate scolds” and said warnings about oil use are nothing more than a scare tactic and that smart people will figure out how to keep the fossil fuels coming. (Washington Post)
E-bike licensing: Advocates in NYC are fighting back against a bill from city council that would require licenses and registration for all e-bikes by telling stories of people who rely on them. (Streetsblog NYC)
ODOT burning through cash: For an agency that says it has to cut back on plowing roads because of funding problems, it seems like a very inconvenient truth that 1) they almost always choose the most expensive projects (freeway expansions) and 2) go way over budget on them. (City Observatory)
Pick your poison: The march toward mainstream awareness of tire pollution continues as the Environmental Protection Agency recently joined the chorus of concern that it’s not just tailpipe emissions that makes driving so terrible for our planet. (Slate)
Motorized malice, manslaughter, and murder: Several important insights in this article about how the U.S. legal system treats car drivers who kill people. (LA Times)
“Wild [bike] parking”: It would be a wonderful problem to have so many people biking and locking up on light posts and other unauthorized locations that your city needs to launch an education and enforcement program to deal with it. Dreamy. (Guardian)
22 new speed bumps* have been installed on Northeast Ainsworth between NE Grand/6th and 15th. Almost as soon as they went in, I heard from various sources that they weren’t doing anything to slow people down. Since I ride this route and it’s an important neighborhood street with a history of speeding and tensions between drivers and bike riders, I wanted to get a closer look at these bumps.
So I headed over with my cameras to document how they’re being used.
According to the Portland Bureau of Transportation, they installed speed cushions in both directions of NE Ainsworth between NE Grand and 15th last week. There are 11 speed cushions in each direction.
(*A quick note on verbiage: I’ve always called these speed “bumps” because that’s the general term most folks understand. But I realize there’s an important difference between speed bumps and speed “cushions” (a.k.a. “humps” or “tables”). Speed cushions, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) have cutouts for wheels and elongated humps that are much less intrusive to auto users. From here on out, I will differentiate and use “cushions” to match PBOT’s language.)
Like I shared back in June, this section of NE Ainsworth has a 20 mph speed limit that is regularly exceeded by drivers. This is a problem because it’s two very narrow streets (so narrow that people who park on it often roll up onto the curb and sidewalk strip) separated by a wide grassy median in a dense residential neighborhood that is often shared by bicycle riders and drivers. It should be a pleasant, safe place to be; but with so many speeders it can be intimidating.
As for bicycling on it? I know there are many people who think bikes don’t belong, but I personally favor Ainsworth over the nearby neighborhood greenway on Holman because it’s much smoother and more direct. I only use it if I feel like going fast, which is easier these days with my e-bike that can maintain 20 mph with ease. The thought of speed bumps was exciting because it could mean that I (and others) would be able to use Ainsworth at or near the speed limit without being harassed by drivers who insist on tailgating (or worse) and going too fast.
What I found from personal observation is that they will likely have some impact, but the cushions are easy to avoid — especially for larger, wider vehicles that make up an increasingly larger portion of the fleet — and many people simply go over them without slowing down at all.
PBOT says Ainsworth is a secondary emergency route (NE Dekum a few blocks north is the main one), so their only option to address speeding was to install cushions. This installation is part of a larger effort to reduce and tame cut-through traffic on residential streets. PBOT understands that Ainsworth further west is a vital link in the bike network that carries a lot of bike traffic even without much dedicated bike infrastructure (they also recently installed bike boxes at N Interstate as part of a future neighborhood greenway as per the North Portland in Motion plan).
So do these new speed cushions work? My first impression is yes and no.
(Still from video showing drivers (including a jerk in a big truck who yelled at me) behind me while biking the speed limit.)
You can see a lot of evidence in my video and photos that many people speed right over them, using the channels meant for emergency vehicles. Some folks in larger vehicles might not even know the cushions exist. That being said, you’ll also notice some people do feel the cushions and slow down and/or attempt to navigate around them. Those behaviors mean they’re having some impact that will lead to lower speeds overall. I also think the symbolism of infrastructure is important. And these cushions send a signal to people that the city expects them to drive more slowly and use caution on this street.
What about the harassment and road ragers who tailgate bike riders on this street? Don’t miss the end of my video where I test this by riding 20 mph and filming drivers behind me. You’ll see some folks give plenty of breathing room, but others are clearly peeved they can’t drive faster. One guy in a truck was so mad he dangerously tailgated the driver immediately behind me and then yelled an obscenity at me as he turned off.
Six months from now PBOT says they’ll have speed data to report and I’m eager to see what they find.
Regardless of the impact this has on safety or cut-through traffic, one guy who I met while I was out there summed up what I think is a very important point: “It’s such a waste we had to spend money on these things just because people won’t drive the speed limit.”
If you didn’t make it out to Bike Happy Hour on Wednesday night, you missed something special. A few dozen Portlanders sat and stood in the crisp, cold night in a plaza on a public street (thanks PBOT!) to take part in an interview with a candidate for local elected office.
I planned to interview Portland City Council Candidate Steph Routh inside Ankeny Tap & Table, but it was such a nice night that everyone was already camped out in the plaza. So we decided to just go with it and I brought the speaker and mic outside, set it on a wooden picnic table, and went for it. We talked for about 35 minutes and then took questions from the audience. It was delightful and I think you’ll really appreciate learning more about Steph and her thoughtful approach to important issues.
(Photo: Aaron Brown)(Photo: David Kurushima)(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Steph, who was born in Parkrose and now lives in Lents, has been a part of our cycling and transportation advocacy community for many years. In 2006 I photographed her bike wedding (yes she married her bike, she wore a veil and kissed the bike and everything) and have followed her ever since. Since then she’s been a leader in our community. Steph was the first-ever executive director of Oregon Walks (where she led the org on an office move by foot!), she worked in communications for Community Cycling Center, Sightline, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. In 2013 she authored a book on how to move by bike (and has taken part in over 80 bike moves). Steph is also an adjunct professor at the PSU School of Urban Planning and was part of the strategy team that helped win Portland’s local gas tax increase campaign in 2016. In 2017 she interviewed women for a series on BikePortland. And since 2019 she’s served as a member of the Portland Planning Commission (service she called a “love note to my city”).
Asked by someone Wednesday night why she’d never run for office before, Steph said she always assumed being a planning commissioner (a position she “begged to be on”) would be her highest calling. But then she saw that major policies she worked to pass hit road blocks at city hall. “And then when I saw the council district lines drawn and I saw that, on Day One of the new administration, east Portland would have more representation than in the cumulative history of Portland City Council — that was just so meaningful. And I couldn’t say no.”
Here are a few other notable exchanges from our interview:
What can you bring to council so that we make sure great programs and policies [like bike infrastructure plans, Portland Street Response, etc…] aren’t diluted or dismantled?
“I think it’s important to remember I am running for city council because I care and I want to be part of a solution. No one candidate, no one politician is going to solve our problems. And government cannot be the hero of our story. Communities are the heroes of our story. And it has to be. The town is the hero. And the goal and the role of government and I think of politicians, is to create the conditions where communities can thrive and community-based solutions can find purchase and endure.”
I’ve seen activists gain power and office, then become silent and a part of the machine. Are you confident that you can be an elected official in a position of power and still sort of like, keep it real?
“You just described all of my nightmares!… I’ve also started to try to build a ‘Team of Rivals,’ if you will. People who are naysayers, people that I have disagreed with; because I think it’s important to have people who can call me to account… I think it’s important to seek the honorable opposition.”
On her opposition to federal funding for bike share in 2011 because it would only serve the central city, and the argument bike share advocates made that downtown has some of the lowest income census tracts in the city:
“I think that we were right on this, and I am very glad that we got bike share, I love it. But being near poor people, is not the same as being for poor people, there is a difference… We don’t get to say that something that excludes people who are unbanked, at that time, is a social justice project. We just don’t get to say that.”
In response to an audience question about how to reach our cycling mode share goals:
“Making the case for cycling is a lot easier when you have places to cycle to. And I think as the former executive director of Oregon walks, I think walkability and roll-ability is the elegant solution to so many of our issues and makes the abundant case for cycling clear. And I think there’s that triptych of transit and walkability and cycling, and we need to do all three. I think we need to really look at how transit is funded and how, how we’re working on operations, because transit is the backbone to a land-use that makes both cycling and walking inevitable.”
I hope you listen to the full interview. Steph is someone who gives me hope for the future of Portland and I always learn something when I talk with her. I think you will too.
Listen in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. You can read a full transcript below or download it here.
Soak up the fall colors while you can! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Welcome to the weekend.
Check out our ride and event picks below.
Saturday, November 11th
Dig Day – 10:00 am at Rogers Camp Trailhead (Tillamook State Forest) Join local nonprofit NW Trail Alliance for a satisfying trail maintenance session in the forest. Put in the work to preserve great trails, meet cool people, and do something that just feels good. More info here.
PSU Farmers Market Ride – 10:00 am at SE Clinton and 41st (SE) Everyone is welcome at this weekly ride that stops in a few places to pick riders up and then rolls into the market on PSU campus. Buy great food and then eat it with friends old and new. More info here.
Fall Colors of PDX – 12:00 pm at PSU Urban Center (SW) Join ride leader Scott B at the end of the PSU Farmers Market Ride to see some fall color hot spots on the west side of the river. More info here.
Sunday, November 12th
Cyclocross Crusade Race #6 – Rainier High School (Rainier, OR) It’s the final race in the 30th anniversary Crusade series and this classic course is sure to bring out memorable duels and hijinx. More info here.
Monthly Overlook Ride – 9:30 am at Stacks Coffeehouse (N) Join a member of the Overlook Neighborhood Association (who also happens to be chair of BikeLoud PDX) for a roll around this very cool part of town. You’ll get plugged into local issues and, who knows, maybe meet some fellow bike-loving neighbors you never knew you had. More info here.
Southerly Ladies Ride – 10:00 am at Trolley Trail trailhead (SE) Ride leader Maria “Bicycle Kitty” Schur says, “This is a chill pace road ride, friendly to beginners and experienced lady* riders alike (*trans-ladies this means you too!). Lady-powered bikes only – no dudes, no e-bikes, no offense.” More info here.
Inner Eastside 4 All Kickoff Ride – 2:00 pm at Cartopia (SE) This is a great opportunity to join forces with housing advocates from Portland Neighbors Welcome and learn about their new campaign to encourage more housing types in inner neighborhoods. More info here.
The Exploding Whale Day Ride – 5:00 pm at Salmon Street Springs (SW) Did you know ODOT once exploded a real whale on the beach and the guts and stuff flew hundreds of yards away and slammed down onto cars in a nearby parking lot? It’s a wild-but-true story and this ride will mark its 53rd anniversary with all the nerdy quirks you’d expect. More info here.
— Don’t see an event? Please tell us about what’s going on in your neighborhood by filling out our contact form!
NE 21st Avenue looking north across I-84. (Photo: PBOT)
On Wednesday, crews from the Portland Bureau of Transportation placed four large, 2,000-pound concrete drums (PBOT refers to them as “planters” because they also use them for that purpose) on the southeast corner of the Northeast 21st Avenue overpass of I-84. It’s the exact location where a woman was hit and seriously injured by a car driver while biking in the previously unprotected lane.
In posts on social media, PBOT said the move was aimed at providing “hardening protection for bicyclists.” The bureau added that new signage warning car drivers of a curve in the road and a restriction on truck use on NE 21st Circle is also in the works. This is a great and very welcome upgrade that has very real safety benefits.
PBOT installed the two-way bike lane with plastic flex-posts (aka delineators”) in 2016. When we reported on the project, commenters predicted that head-on collisions were likely. And that’s exactly what happened on August 31st when the driver of a Honda Civic failed to negotiate the curve, slammed into a woman biking in the opposite direction, and then sped off.
If these barricades were in place from the start, that woman would not have been hit. In the video, the driver of the Civic plowed right over the plastic posts as if they were not even there.
Tactical urbanist installation by Block Ops. (Photo: Block Ops)The unprotected corner in 2016. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Crews installing the drums on Wednesday, November 8th. (Photo: PBOT)Looking south at the corner in 2016. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Another view of the location where the drums have been installed in 2016. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
That collision was shocking and terrifying. Video taken by a driver’s dashcam and shared with BikePortland showed that the flex-posts were useless as the driver careened into the bike lane and the impact catapulted the rider into the air — flipping her body head-over-heels two times before she landed on her face on the adjacent sidewalk. The woman suffered gashes requiring stitches on her cheek and eyebrow. BikePortland ultimately removed the video and the story (which included a graphic photo of the victim’s bloodied face) by request of the victim*; but not after it had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. (*The victim only wanted it posted to catch the driver and asked me to remove it all after police apprehended them.)
The collision spurred even greater urgency from the community for protected bike lanes. A week later, a group of guerrilla activists placed concrete curbs in the curve. Those curbs were quickly removed by PBOT and the agency said in a social media post that they were “unauthorized safety hazards.” The collision video also inspired a letter from BikeLoud PDX to PBOT staff and Portland City Council members (dated September 12th) that made the following request: “Use physical protection rather than plastic delineators in new bike lane projects, especially at curbs, corners, or where the speed limit is greater than 20 miles per hour.”
This context is why many Portlanders have taken umbrage at PBOT’s claim in their post yesterday that, “There have not been reported traffic deaths or serious injury crashes at this location.” That statement appears to create a narrative that this wasn’t a reactionary move. As if PBOT would have done it even if there wasn’t a violent, predictable collision caught on video.
Beyond any operational, policy, or budget issues PBOT faces in deciding whether or not to harden bike lanes to defend against increasingly reckless drivers, an additional challenge at this specific location was that it is on a bridge surface. That means PBOT engineers need to be careful about doing anything that might erode the structural integrity of the bridge — especially by placing heavy objects and/or drilling into the pavement.
According to PBOT each one of these planters that is filled with concrete cost about $5,000 to build and install.
Asked about their statement that there have been “no reported serious injury crashes at this location,” PBOT Public Information Officer Dylan Rivera told BikePortland that, “To our knowledge the person bicycling in the August crash did not suffer life-threatening injuries resulting in a Major Crash Team investigation by Portland Police. That would be one indication of a serious injury crash. Through the course of our work on traffic safety, Portland Police and PBOT staff are regularly exposed to the horrific details of how traffic crashes impact human beings on our streets. A crash doesn’t have to produce life-threatening injuries to cause very significant harm.” PBOT then explained that they don’t receive official reports of all injury crashes, only the ones that the PPB’s Major Crash Tam responds to and investigates. The other major source of injury data PBOT uses comes from the DMV through the State of Oregon and those reports lag about 18 months due to ODOT’s reporting process. “We share the public’s frustration that it takes so long for this data to be available,” Rivera said.
CORRECTION, 12:22 pm: This story initially said ODOT had jurisdiction of the overpass and had to be notified by PBOT as part of this project. That was incorrect. PBOT owns this bridge. I regret the error and any confusion it might have caused. – Jonathan
Shoes spread at a vigil site under the Morrison Bridge during a World Day of Remembrance event in 2016. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Advocates behind the annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims want to make the impact of this year’s event last more than one day. They’ve coupled the usual demonstration and demands for action with a traffic safety pledge they want politicians to sign.
The World Day of Remembrance is backed by the World Health Organization and has been held in many cities around the world since it started in 1995. Portland’s edition has happened since 2015 and is led by the local chapter of Families for Safe Streets, a national nonprofit for survivors of traffic violence.
On Sunday, November 19th, Families for Safe Streets of Oregon & Washington will join with The Street Trust, Oregon Walks, and other nonprofit organizations for a walk that will begin at 11:30 am at Lloyd Center. Then at noon there will be a demonstration and rally at the plaza in front of Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
“This year, we are recognizing the epidemic of traffic violence affecting our communities statewide with a memorial walk which leads to an installation representing the lives lost in our community,” reads a statement about the event from The Street Trust.
Despite years of advocacy and attention on traffic violence, the number of people who are killed and injured using roads in the Portland region continues to climb. So far this year there have been 60 traffic-related fatalities in Portland — a troubling toll also reflected statewide that marks a major trend upward in the past decade.
To help garner more support for changes and reforms that would reverse this trend, advocacy groups have released a “Traffic Safety Pledge for Oregon’s Leaders & Decision Makers.” The pledge spells out the crisis and details the consequences of dangerous streets in detail. It then asks officials to make the following seven commitments:
Reverse racial inequalities and barriers to safe streets, focusing on marginalized communities that have been disporportionately affected by transportation decisions.
Understand and educate the public about the significance of road fatalities, treating each loss of life with the same concern and outrage as any other type of death in our community.
Use precise language that attributes agency and employs the active voice when discussing fatal crashes, emphasizing accountability.
Prioritize the safety of all road users over vehicular speed and throughput, reflected in budget allocations, policy decisions, budgets, and spending.
Champion measures such as lowering speed limits, enhancing street design and infrastructure (e.g., crosswalks), and limiting parking near intersections, especially in areas with vulnerable users like school zones.
Reduce vehicle size – I recognize the correlation between larger vehicle size and road safety issues, and will promote safer, cleaner, and more sustainable transportation options while discouraging heavier, deadlier vehicles.
Advocate for equitable traffic laws and enforcement, supporting comprehensive Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) initiatives with progressively assessed fines, and dedicating revenues to enhance safety and accessibility in our transportation system.
The list of signers and any comments they wish to share will be presented to the public at the event on Sunday the 19th.
Organizers want attendees to wear yellow. Learn more and register for the event here.
