I went to the St Johns traffic safety forum yesterday. It was great, and 100+ people turned out, mostly people that live in St Johns. This was put together largely by Travis Parker, one of the St Johns NA board members. It sounds like he's been focused on safety for a while, but pushed to hold the forum after two bad crashes: a student being hit crossing N Columbia to get to school, and a person riding a bike being hit and killed on the St Johns bridge. The big issues brought up were speed of cars, freight routes and their incompatibility with neighborhoods, and large amounts of cut through traffic all over the neighborhood. The most common feeling residents had was a lack of safety, specifically walking and cycling. Basically, people said they didn't feel the streets were safe for people. To be clear, this was signaled consistently among nearly everyone present, who represented all ages and genders.
Tina Kotek was there for the whole meeting. She's the current Speaker of the House in the OR House of Reps. S