Just about 10 years have passed since Portland City Council first adopted a Vision Zero resolution in June 2015, setting the goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on the city’s streets. At the time, city leaders said that even though it didn’t set target dates to accomplish its goals or dedicate funding to the mission, the Vision Zero resolution represented more than just words. 

Today, Portland is further from reaching its Vision Zero goals than it was a decade ago. In 2024, 58 people were killed in traffic crashes on Portland’s streets. That number represents a decrease from the record high set in 2023, when 69 people were killed, but is still much higher than the average number of deaths during the first few years after the Vision Zero resolution was adopted. 

To Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, these deaths are not just tragedies—they’re policy failures. Next week, Koyama Lane will introduce a resolution to reaffirm Portland City Council’s commitment to the Vision Zero plan, hoping to mark the 2015 resolution’s tenth anniversary as a turning point for the city’s response to traffic violence. 

“I know that we can and have to make different choices,” Koyama Lane tells the Mercury. “We’re a new City Council. I think it’s really important that we come together and reaffirm the city’s vows to Vision Zero, and make traffic safety a real priority.” 

Koyama Lane’s resolution also includes a plan to convene a Vision Zero task force, consisting of staff from across city bureaus. After the city first adopted the Vision Zero resolution in 2015, transportation leaders created an action plan outlining more specific ways to meet traffic safety targets, and organized a task force to oversee its implementation. But the group was disbanded in 2021. 

Now, Koyama Lane wants to bring the task force back, hoping it can be an opportunity for collaboration between city bureaus and community advocates. The resolution sets parameters for the new task force, asking deputy city administrators from the Public Works, Public Safety, and Community and Economic Development Service Areas to report to the City Council on a quarterly basis. The task force will also be asked to coordinate with other public agencies, including the Oregon Department of Transportation, Metro, and TriMet, as well as community advisory committees and subject matter experts where appropriate. 

So far, she says, Vision Zero has stayed mainly within the purview of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), which has led to a siloed approach. Her plan is in line with sentiments expressed by leaders at PBOT and the Public Works Service Area, who say the work of curbing traffic violence is too big for just one bureau.

“Vision Zero impacts and is impacted by the work of many bureaus. I want to see every bureau feel like they need to commit to it,” Koyama Lane says. “This task force is going to de-silo the work of Vision Zero.” 

Koyama Lane says her experience as a teacher at Sunnyside Environmental School and resident of the surrounding neighborhood shaped her views on the city’s traffic violence epidemic. The school is located in Southeast Portland a few blocks west of SE Cesar Chavez Boulevard just south of SE Belmont Street. It’s a relatively walkable neighborhood, with access to a greenway on Salmon Street and conveniently-located grocery stores and cafes. 

Still, several people have been killed in the area surrounding Sunnyside School in recent years, including 15-year-old Fallon Smart in 2016 and Jeanie Diaz, a youth librarian at Belmont Library, in 2023. Koyama Lane says she wants families in her community and throughout the city to be assured their loved ones will come home safely. 

“All around my home are these grave sites where people have lost their lives due to traffic violence,” Koyama Lane says. “What I see is there will be a rush of attention or support right after there's a horrible crash, but it's important that we continue to have the conversations and actually change policy and make different decisions.” 

Recently, Koyama Lane connected with Tara Nolan, a Sunnyside School parent who was hit by a truck driver at the intersection of SE 35th Ave and Taylor Street just a few weeks ago. Nolan says she suffered a torn ligament in her leg and injuries to her head, neck, and hand, but is otherwise okay. However, the incident amplified Nolan’s existing concerns about the safety of the streets around the school her children attend. 

Nolan tells the Mercury she believes the area surrounding the school is so frenzied that it’s inevitable something even worse will happen at that intersection. 

“It’s just a matter of time, unless we do something,” Nolan says. She says she’s reached out to the city about her concerns in the past, before she was hit, but was unsatisfied with their response. 

“Vision Zero has been the goal for 10 years, and nothing’s changed. Things need to be done differently, and I’m glad people like [Koyama Lane] are working on it,” Nolan says. “Parents don’t know what to do.” 

Portlanders may look at the proposed resolution and wonder how it differs from previous Vision Zero efforts. For years, city leaders have heard PBOT staff share grim findings from the annual Vision Zero report, and listened to outraged public testimony on the traffic violence epidemic. Each time, City Council members have indicated their concern about the state of Portland’s streets—but haven’t done much else in the way of action. 

Koyama Lane wants this time to mark something different. She sees her Vision Zero resolution as a meaningful step toward addressing Portland’s traffic violence crisis, but says there’s more on the horizon. She hopes to facilitate a more collaborative, community-based approach to the problem. 

“I often see a really clear line, or almost a wall, with the bureaus on one side and the community advocates and the public on the other,” Koyama Lane says. She said she wants the new task force to be “a bit more responsive, nimble, and open to trying pilot programs with community groups” in order to “poke some holes in the line” between city leaders and everyone else. She’s particularly interested in advancing pilot projects to improve vision clearance at street crossings by removing car parking at intersections—a relatively cheap and quick tactic that can do a lot for safety. 

“We need community buy-in and engagement,” Koyama Lane says. “Part of that is making people feel like they’re working with the city and not against the city, or like things are just being done to them.” 

Koyama Lane will bring the Vision Zero resolution to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Meeting on Monday, May 19. In tandem with the resolution, her office has planned an event ahead of the committee meeting to celebrate “Walk and Bike to Work and School Week,” which will be made official by a proclamation from Mayor Keith Wilson. 

“Part of what I love about a lot of the pedestrian and biking advocacy groups is that they see the importance of coming together and celebrating and having joy together, while at the same time pushing forward actionable steps and a vision for safer roads for everyone,” Koyama Lane says. 

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring some joy.”