Sam Secures Funding for Safer Streets Inititative

By Roland Chlapowski

Using general fund monies to fund transportation projects has never happened before, at least according to institutional memory.

But, as part of a larger package of requests, Sam procured $5.6 million from City Council to fund his "Safer Streets Initiative."

This Safer Streets Inititative focuses on Portland's 40 most dangerous and deadly intersections, and employs our most cost-effective engineering, education, and enforcement solutions. For instance, a $40,000 pedestrian island will cut the pedestrian collision rate by 40%, on average. For some corridors, such as SE 82nd and SE 122nd, where there are numerous hits and multiple deaths each year, these are a smart investment.

PDOT has compiled all of its data on serious injury collisions -for all modes, cars, bikes and peds- and mapped them to give people an idea of how concentrated these collision hotspots really are. (For instance, just 4% of Portland's intersections account for fully two-thirds [66%] of all pedestrian fatalities in the city.)

Other projects in the Safer Streets Initiative include upgrading safety beacons near schools, adding crosswalks to "Main Streets" streets with both high auto and pedestrian traffic), adding new crosswalk signals to dangerous pedestrian crossings, re-engineering intersections with the highest crash rates, giving bicyclists safer, alternative, neighborhood routes to reduce crashes on high-traffic streets, expanding the hugely sucessful Safe Routes to Schools program, neighborhood traffic calming, and more!

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