To a school or TriMet bus? For the dog? The excercise?
Do you do so on a sidewalk?
Many of your fellow SWHRL residents (and for that matter, SW Portlanders in general) do not have that basic foundation of pedestrian safety: a sidewalk, or any other travel surface separated from traffic, often rendering a simple stroll down the block a nerve-wracking game of Dodge-Em. There are myriad reasons why this is so, and myriad reasons it isn’t an easy fix, but we have an opportunity to improve things… but time is critical.
The Portland Bureau Of Transportation is updating its Pedestrian Design Guide, and is accepting comments on it before finalizing the document. In this update, PBOT recognizes that on some streets (like ours) it will be very difficult to get sidewalks, so they came up with some creative ways to blend cars, bikes and pedestrians in as much safety as conditions allowed.
Ironically, the way these new rules are written, many of SWHRL’s roads MOST in need of improvement will not be eligible for even these measures; Lisa Caballero wrote an article for BikePortland which explains the issues (Lisa is SWHRL’s former Transportation Chair). While SWHRL appreciates the efforts being made by PBOT, it sounds like most of these guidelines will be one more way for PBOT to throw up its hands and say they can’t give us safety improvements… but we WILL be getting more traffic! Please take the time to read pages 40-47 of the guide (https://www.portland.gov/sites/default/files/2021/pbot-pedestrian-design-guide_public-review-draft.pdf), which apply to our roads, and send your comments to PBOT.
An example:
“While overall I support the Pedestrian Design Guide update, I fear that once again the guidelines are being written in a way which continues to deny my neighborhood pedestrian safety – a basic right we should enjoy as residents. In particular, guidelines in Section B.5.4 and Table B.6 seem so narrow as to preclude ANY of the streets in my area from qualifying for safety work; SW Broadway Dr and SW Dosch being two glaring examples of omission-by-criterion, particularly walking-path and shoulder widths. Unless PBOT is willing to broaden the boundaries for approval of these approaches, on-the-ground conditions will continue to give an excuse to do nothing. Please rewrite this section to add more flexibility in design decisions.”
For more information on their organizations and how you can help, visit the SWHRL website at https://www.swhrl.org