Auditor finds PBOT's Vision Zero falls short on pedestrian safety
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The Portland Bureau of Transportation will need to thoroughly evaluate whether their Vision Zero Action Plan to reduce traffic deaths and injury crashes is actually accomplishing its promised goals, the Portland City Auditor said in a report released Wednesday.
According to the report conducted by Portland City Auditor Simone Rede, PBOT has made improvements in reducing speeds in the city and designing safer streets, specifically in high-crash corridors. However, protecting pedestrians and providing more smaller-scale safety improvements is where the city falls short.
In fact, the audit shows Portland has continued to see an increase in traffic violence since launching Vision Zero in 2016 with 69 recorded deaths in 2023 - more than the previous two years.
While the audit notes that PBOT made some pedestrian safety improvements, they did not add as much lighting or crosswalks as they anticipated due to limited staffing, resources and supply chain issues from the pandemic. The audit asserts that proper lighting would prevent traffic deaths, as 70% of them between 2019 and 2022 were in low light conditions.
To take further steps in reducing speeds, the audit suggests PBOT not only install more speed cameras, but use their partnership with Portland police to better enforce speed limits.
Further, since PBOT has no established way of measuring outcomes on completed safety projects to see if they improve safety, the audit recommended PBOT actually measure this data.
Since PBOT's safety improvement projects have primarily been large-scale and focused on high-crash corridors, the audit additionally noted that finding other data sources could help identify smaller-scale improvements which could have "positive equity impacts" as well as quicker short term results.
When the report was provided to city officials, Deputy City Administrator Priya Dhanapal and PBOT Director Millicent Williams jointly responded, agreeing to the audit's recommendations.