After the worst crash in TriMet history, the April incident where a bus downtown killed two young people in a crosswalk, the public transit agency hired a consultant to do a head-to-toe safety analysis. We reported on the firm’s initial findings over the summer, but the big final report came out this week with a list of recommendations about how to improve both TriMet’s culture and practices. Here’s five interesting recommendations:
1. Erase the word “accident” from TriMet’s vocabulary. The report notes that “accident” makes collisions seem inevitable. Instead, TriMet should use words that describe the “predictable and preventable nature of most collisions.” BikePortland.org and the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition have been linguistic activists about this issue for a while, so it’s great to see TriMet might actually strike “accident” from crashes where someone is definitely at fault.
2. Hire a high-ranking safety chief. TriMet needs a new director of safety who can serve as an executive director within the organization—a position with real power that reports directly to the general manager.
3. Start bus drivers at full time. Right now, all operators are hired as only part-time employees who can snag more hours as they gain seniority. Hiring only people looking for part-time work “could limit the talent pool.”
4. Review how the transit mall works. TriMet should systematically review “hot spots” where conflicts often occur, drawing suggestions from TriMet operators, regular drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Based on employee feedback, the new transit mall is a “hot spot.”
5. Install CCTVs in buses. Closed circuit TV cameras that watch the operator’s compartment have “been used to enhance safety and customer service.” The report doesn’t recommend them in all cases, but says TriMet should evaluate installing them. More security cameras could be coming to a bus near you!
Thanks to Portland Afoot for originally putting the report online.
Hey, thanks for the nod, Sarah, and for covering an important issue.
I agree 100% with the Transit Mall being a “hot spot.” My building’s front door is on it, and there’s not a single day I don’t see some non-TriMet vehicle in an incorrect lane. I would hold the drivers responsible if there were signage in place that CLEARLY explained which lane is for these cars. TriMet overestimated the intelligence of downtown-drivers-of-leisure, especially those from out-of-state where nothing remotely close to our transit mall exists.
We live in a legal world where it seems putting up a sign is enough to enforce a law. The trouble is that there is no actual law requiring you to read every sign, making enforcement of the laws legally specious. And if such a law were passed, one would have the excuse “I’m sorry I ran that little old lady over but at the moment I was reading a sign, as required by law.” Anyway, I’m pissed off that instead of bus stops being 2 blocks apart, it seems they are more like 6 blocks apart, which will have people sprinting across intersections against pedestrian controls and being run over by cross traffic. TriMet needs to be redesigned from the ground up.
Oh, and how true about the term “accident.” Accidents, technically, imply no one is actually responsible. If the fatality that spurred this study had resulted from a meteorite hitting the bus and jamming the steering while simultaneously lurching the bus over the pedestrians, THAT would be an accident. If the accident were the result of a combination of badly-placed mirrors and bus structures and a not 100% alert driver, that’s ain’t no accident. It’s an incident.