Phone: 503-823-5185
Fax: 503-823-7576
1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 1331, Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-823-5185
Fax: 503-823-7576
1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 1331, Portland, OR 97204
In 2015 Portland became one of the first cities in the country to adopt Vision Zero—an ambitious plan to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes on our roadways. Since then, PBOT has worked to:
The alarming numbers of fatalities that have already occurred on our roads in 2019 is a reminder about how much work we still need to do to achieve our Vision Zero goals.
As our city continues to grow, so too does the number of cars on our roads. National and international research clearly shows that an increase in driving reduces safety for everyone on our streets—drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists alike. Simply put, as Portland grows, and more cars take to the roads, our transportation system becomes less safe.
Moving to Our Future takes two major steps to reverse this trend. First, it continues our aggressive implementation of our Vision Zero Action Plan. Adopted in 2015, the Action Plan aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes from Portland streets. To do this, we focus our efforts on our city’s most deadly streets, called the High Crash Network, and we do this with proven Vision Zero strategies—building safer streets, encouraging safer behavior, and deploying effective and equitable enforcement. The High Crash Network represents only a fraction of the total streets in Portland, but this is where the majority of fatal and serious crashes occur. If we can make these streets safer, we will make Portland safer.
Of course, traffic safety is a citywide issue. Not every fatality and serious crash occurs on the High Crash Network. For this reason, Moving to Our Future adopts a citywide approach known as Safe Systems which prioritizes safety in everything we do. Safe Systems means we design and build streets, sidewalks, bike lanes, and infrastructure safe enough to compensate for the inevitable mistakes that people make.
Pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable people on our roads. To better protect them, we will focus investments on our dangerous High Crash Network as well as pedestrian-priority streets.
Speed kills. The faster drivers involved in a crash are going, the higher the likelihood of fatalities and serious injuries. For this reason, we must focus on reducing speeds on Portland streets. We will use policy, education, enforcement, as well as design and engineering to achieve this objective.
Gather data to better understand safety risks, prioritize safety improvements, and evaluate safety outcomes. Identify technologies that can improve safety citywide.
Objective 4: Make safety a core priority in everything we do