What Oregon Can Do to Improve Pedestrian Safety

(Besides Closing Crosswalks)

If you’ve been reading #OurStreets from the beginning, you may remember that Portland’s pedestrian death rate broke a 70-year high in 2022. According to the latest NHSTA projections, the increase corresponds with a 2% rise in pedestrian traffic fatalities nationwide.

A new headline illustrates what these statistics mean in the context of daily life. Drivers Killed One Pedestrian Every 75 Minutes in H1 2022. In even simpler terms, “Drivers are killing an average of 19 pedestrians every single day.” It’s critically important to understand that this amounts to a public health crisis, and deserves the same, if not a better, collective response than what we saw to COVID-19.

Ped Report Infographic 1, Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2022 Preliminary Data. Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).

But, as my colleague from Better Eugene Springfield Transportation (BEST) reminded me recently, unlike COVID, this is not a pandemic; it’s an epidemic, with U.S. rates towering above other similar countries.

“In 2019, crash deaths per 100,000 in 29 countries ranged from a low of 2.0 (Norway) to a high of 11.1 (United States). The U.S. rate was 2.3 times the average rate of the other countries (4.8).”

Yellman MA, Sauber-Schatz EK. Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths — United States and 28 Other High-Income Countries, 2015 and 2019. CDC.gov.

Epidemics mandate a public health response. We need to tackle these rising death rates at the root (route) cause: the continued investment and prioritization of the automobile and driving alone at the expense of the health and well being of people, communities, the environment, and the economy. 

This is not new or innovative. We’ve done it before and we can do it again if we choose to solve for the right x. In the U.S., deaths from smoking declined about 35% between 1987 and 2002. This was accomplished through a combination of limiting advertising, media and public information campaigns on the dangers of smoking, and cigarette tax increases(Cummings and Proctor 2015).

I’m not suggesting we replicate this formula to address our traffic safety epidemic. Many people can’t stop driving cold-turkey because there aren’t viable alternatives right now. But a stated commitment to safety from our elected officials, a focus on community engagement, and coordinated safety investments across our siloed governments and agencies would be a start on the right track. 

Portland's Vision Zero safety campaign signs read "Slow the Flock Down,” Twitter. Pedal Portland.

Here are six things Oregon could do this year to get on the right track:

1. Redirect resources from driving alone toward walking, biking, rolling and using public transit. If we don’t explicitly shift investments toward making it easier, safer, faster and more fun to walk or roll than driving, people aren’t going to choose it. There are serious funding opportunities and prioritization conversations happening at every level of government and we need to make clear with our dollars that we’re taking this public health crisis seriously. We’re glad to see VMT-reduction per capita making its way into the Oregon Transportation Plan update underway, but plans only matter if you implement them.
   

2. Be honest when we talk about “safety” and align spending with road user injuries and fatalities. ODOT’s Rose Quarter improvement project is being marketed to the public as a safety project, when it’s actually an economic development project. Fatalities in this stretch of I-5 are comparatively rare to ODOT-owned “orphan highways” like Powell Blvd, where 10 fatal crashes have occured between 24th and 62nd since 2017 (Bike Portland). Yet, they have seen little investment. The lack of clarity, honesty, and accountability on safety spending in our state makes it impossible to reverse deadly trends.
   

3. Enforce reduced speeds with traffic cams and implement fines equitably. There’s an important discussion happening nationwide and locally about the relationship between law enforcement and traffic safety, especially given the recent killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police following a traffic stop. Even if racial bias weren’t a factor in policing, many law enforcement agencies lament staffing and resource shortages. Some cities, like Philadelphia, are moving to decriminalize traffic infractions. In the last legislative session, a PBOT-backed bill (House Bill 4105) passed that will encourage jurisdictions to treat traffic enforcement as an administrative function subject to civilian review—similar to how parking enforcement works. We don’t need more police to review violations and sign citations initiated by fixed photo radar, photo red light, and dual function cameras. As for the fines associated with being cited, Brookings Institute offers six ways to implement them more equitably.
   

4. Establish community-led Fatal Crash Review Commissions to examine the root causes of crashes more holistically and beyond a law-enforcement lens. ODOT has made progress with innovations such as the Pedestrian Safety Rapid Response program, Equitable Active Safety Improvements Evaluation Project, and the planned Bicycle Pedestrian Safety Action Program. But their recent decision to close crosswalks without community input showed a failure to value local knowledge. No one, not even the most advanced traffic engineer, understands local streets and intersections like the people who use them daily, so we should be striving to incorporate their knowledge into our work whenever possible.

5. Develop a statewide ‘Orphan Highways’ Improvement Strategy and Plan. Pitting local jurisdictions and lawmakers against each other for scarce resources and ad hoc improvements on our most dangerous urban arterials is a recipe for disaster. We need unified action and dedicated funding to ensure all streets are great streets for people, by the standards established in the Blueprint for Urban Design. ODOT’s Great Streets program only works if it’s fully funded and there’s statewide buy-in for the program and strategy.
   

6. Establish a task force for a statewide public health campaign around street safety in coordination with state and local health departments and partner agencies. The Street Trust has invited Ryan Sharp, director of transportation and parking for the city of Hoboken, which has achieved Vision Zero for four consecutive years, to keynote our Oregon Active Transportation Summit. One key factor in their success is a strong political backing from the mayor on down to the average resident. We’re hoping to learn from him how the Hoboken community came together around the cause of ending traffic fatalities. But, we don’t need to wait for Ryan’s advice to start educating Oregonians in the scope of the problem and how everyone can contribute to the solution.

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