Portland last year adopted Vision Zero, a philosophy with European roots that traffic deaths can be eliminated outright. On Friday, the Portland City Council adopted a 32-point plan for getting there by 2025.
It will no doubt be an uphill climb. Portland had already recorded 37 traffic deaths in 2016, an increase from the year prior.
"Right now, we have to acknowledge that we're swimming against the current," said Commissioner Steve Novick, who oversees the city's Transportation Bureau.
Here's an overview of what's in the plan and a couple of things that aren't:
What's in the plan
More "road diets" and street redesigns: The Vision Zero philosophy leans heavily on slowing the speed of traffic to reduce the risk of injury or death in the event of a crash.
Transportation Bureau Director Leah Treat said the city should focus its efforts, and its funding, on infrastructure projects like "road diets" -- that is, reducing the number of auto lanes -- and other street redesigns.
"That's going to have the most impact on slowing people down and reducing injuries and fatalities," Treat told the council.
The plan calls for the city to redesign four to six streets a year.
Lower speed limits: The city will ask the state Legislature for the authority to set lower speed limits on its streets without permission from the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Treat said the bureau sees that authority as key to realizing the Vision Zero plan.
Reducing impaired driving: When a driver is arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants, police ask where they had been drinking. The plan aims to more closely track the establishments linked to drunken driving and work with them to reduce it.
The city also wants to partner with transportation companies like taxis, Uber and Lyft, and public transit providers to encourage alternatives to drunken driving. That could include subsidizing rides home from drinking establishments and festivals.
Education: The plan calls for more safe driving education, including programs targeted to middle and high school students -- future drivers -- through the Safe Routes to School program.
What's not in the plan
More police enforcement: The plan specifically leaves out increasing police enforcement because of concerns it could promote racial profiling. However, it does call for training more police officers as drug recognition experts.
Funding: The Transportation Bureau and other city agencies must return to a new City Council to seek funding for the policies it approved in principle on Thursday.
The council did amend the report to note that Portland voters last month approved a 3 percent tax on marijuana, expected to raise $3 million a year, and that part of the revenue can be put toward public safety programs to reduce the effects of drug and alcohol abuse as well as street safety projects.
-- Elliot Njus
enjus@oregonian.com
503-294-5034
@enjus