EVEN BEFORE a 15-year-old girl was run down on Southeast Hawthorne last Friday, it had been an exceptionally bloody month on Portland roads.
From July 30 to August 19—the day incoming Franklin High sophomore Fallon Smart was hit by a reckless driver—six people died in car crashes throughout the city. Others were seriously injured.
It’s an alarming tally, and not where we’re supposed to be. Last year, Portland officials formally adopted Vision Zero—the notion that no fatality or serious injury on roads is acceptable—and promised the ethos would “guide all aspects of our work.”
Fourteen months later, Portland’s headed in the wrong direction. The city’s seen 30 traffic deaths so far this year. At that pace, there could be roughly 47 by year’s end—ten more fatalities than 2015, and the most deaths on Portland roads since 2003.
That’s one reason a new plan being cooked up by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is overdue. For the first time ever, Portland’s about to take pedestrians and cyclists into account when adjusting speed limits.
