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. She admitted to not being a road safety expert, and signaled that ODOT-approved freight routes are very difficult to change. She wanted specific asks, so that she can lobby in the house for change. She also mentioned upcoming work on legislation on standards for diesel engines, which will hopefully address some of the air quality issues in North Portland.
An ODOT representative there for the whole meeting, but did not speak, and was not taking questions. Her role was to listen, as it was explained.
A PBOT representative spoke on Vision Zero, and PBOTs recognition of problems. She rides with her kids to school, and was emotional about the student being hit crossing Columbia. She showed a map of high crash corridors that they're trying to improve. None of the streets in North Portland are slated to be improved.
Travis Parker presented on sentiment from the neighborhood on safety, and poor walking access to the school south of Columbia. His quotes were from across the neighborhood, that everyone feels unsafe, and that freight and cut through traffic and speed of both are their problems. He had one quote about the owner of Dubs restaurant nearly being hit by a semi trailer, while walking on the sidewalk in front of his restaurant.
Rob Sadowsky of the BTA/Streets Trust spoke about advocating for safer streets. He commented that in 2017, they're running workshops with interested groups on promoting safety.
At the end, the room broke into groups of 6, and we discussed our top issues. From those groups, we all spoke at the end. Every group said that speeding cars were a problem, and that they felt unsafe walking or cycling. Many commented on poor transit options in St Johns, which tend to force residents into cars. There were no groups that commented on congestion, parking concerns, or a desire to drive anywhere faster.
Some notes:
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PBOT helped clear a law that ALLOWS speed cameras in Portland city limits. They put on on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and saw somewhere between an 80-90% reduction in speeding. They defined speeding as "over 11 mph above the speed limit".
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PBOT mentioned a pilot program for installing speed cameras. I think we should investigate this.
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All speeds on Portland streets are set by ODOT. There is a request queue to lower speeds, and mostly they have approved. Rosa Parks going from 35 to 30 is a good example. The queue is long, and takes at least a year.
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While ODOT sets speeds, PBOT mentioned that speeds may be lowered by request for both school zones and business zones. They said most people do not know about the business zone speed reduction option.
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The crowd got particularly animated when someone brought up that cars parked up to corners causes poor sight lines for people walking and trying to cross the street
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nearly everyone talked about being scared to cross the street. It was so consistent that it's worth noting it again.
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The high crash corridor map shown by PBOT basically looks like a map of Portland's busy streets. Greeley, Willamette, Lombard, Killingsworth, Columbia, Interstate, etc were all present.
Other good stuff:
- Someone along N Willamette applied for an NPNS grant yesterday for recognizing the beauty of the Willamette bluff. He talked about a separated cycling and walking path along the west edge of Willamette to separate people from cars, and to get people to see the beauty we have around us. Also, he rides with his kids to school, and is scared of dangerous and fast cars on the street. It feels like a great idea, and he was pleasantly on-message. He commented that a study has already been done, and that the primary reason it wasn't implemented is people living on N Willamette being concerned about losing parking in front of their homes. Every house along the section he's referring to has a driveway. Robert Ping, robert@walklive.org. I'm going to reach out to him to see what he's thinking about.