After decades of SWHRL and SW Broadway Dr residents advocating for safety improvements along this busy road, our efforts have begun to pay off – and Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) figures show it!
In 2021, SWHRL brought notice to PBOT that not only were speeds on SW Broadway Dr (SWBDr) an issue, but another major factor was the volume of traffic using this street as a cut-through to avoid the Highway 26 tunnel. In the morning, this added traffic was especially dangerous to schoolchildren walking to or waiting for their buses along this corridor. SWBDr is designated a “Major Emergency Route” for fire trucks, ambulances, etc., so this limited PBOT a bit, as some traffic calming methods, like speed bumps, are prohibited. Working with Portland Fire and Rescue, PBOT came up with a design and spacing of speed cushions that met requirements of all involved.
And they work! Traffic and volume counts taken by PBOT before and after show a clear drop in top-end speeding, and over-all speeds.
In some cases, impressively so: a counter placed by the 9th Avenue Aprtments on SWBDr in 2019 showed 27% of drivers were exceeding the 25 MPH speed limit by more than 10 MPH; after installation of speed cushions that rate dropped to 3% (although no doubt that is also affected by the placement of stop signs at SW Hoffman, another safety improvement SWHRL long pushed for).
Not only that, volume of traffic dropped as well; while various factors are also at play here, clearly some drivers felt using SWBDr as a cut-through to avoid the tunnel was no longer faster or more convenient.
The best news is that if PF&R figures show no notable increase in response times due to the cushions, PBOT will have the experience and data to help PF&R approve these cushions along other Major Emergency Routes previously unable to get traffic calming… routes that would include the notorious stretch of SW Fairmount Blvd between SW Talbot and SW Marquam Hill Rd. No promises made by PBOT, but at least a major impediment to safety improvements on that street will have been removed.
Speed cushions are not perfect and they can be annoying… but they work.
SWHRL would like to thank Wendy Cawley and Scott Cohen at PBOT, Safe Routes To School, Fixing Our Streets, Portland Fire and Rescue, Michelle Marx, and all the staff in various positions who helped bring this project to fruition.