Give law a chance
It was a bad Saturday night for pedestrians in Portland. One was killed by a hit-and-run driver at the ramp from Naito Parkway to the Morrison Bridge downtown, and another was fatally mowed down by a van at 82nd and East Burnside. That makes 53 traffic fatalities in the city so far this year. In each of the last two years, we've had 63, the worst in at least 30 years. We're on pace for 66 this year. The driver in the Burnside wreck was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Why is this happening, despite the millions upon millions of tax dollars being spent by the car-hating bureaucrats in the city "transportation" bureau? It's because people can, and do, drive like maniacs here, with no consequences. Tailgate. Cut people off. Speed wildly. Road rage with guns. No license plate? No problem. Laws are for suckers. You never see a traffic cop in Portland any more, never. Especially on the freeways.
They can put up all the "Speed Limit 20" signs and micro-aggression sticks they want, and take away as much road as they want for the bike children, but until there are cops with ticket books out there enforcing the motor vehicle laws, "Vision Zero" is a sick joke. All it does is turn the rage up a little further, like from 9 to 10.
And call me crazy, but I think all the graffiti covering every surface on and around the highways (including the directional signs now) isn't helping. You drive around Portland, and it's immediately apparent that there is no law here, just a legion of mentally ill people acting out, spray-painting their garbage all over the walls, bridges, and road signs. With utter impunity, of course.
When the place looks like an apocalyptic science fiction movie, it's no surprise that some people behave like characters in such a movie.
Hey, Mingus Mapps, you want to be mayor, right? You're the transportation commissioner. Lay off some car haters and hire some graffiti cleaners and traffic enforcers. Because what you and your "road diet" minions are currently wasting time on is doing absolutely nothing to stop the carnage on the city's roads. Or should I say, zero.
Instead of cleaning the graffiti put some teeth in the penalty for defacing others property and stop it with enforcement . The cleaning is endless if you don’t stop the source.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Vera always made sure that Schrunk prosecuted graffiti idiots. I think most of them saw the light after spending many hours cleaning it up to avoid jail.
DeletePortland's "Vision Zero" plan isn't working because it is focused on the wrong problem. Most pedestrian fatalities are at night and involve pedestrians crossing streets away from designated crosswalks. A large of these pedestrians are inebriated and at least one report says that a majority are homeless. Instead of addressing those issues, perhaps by moving homeless camps away from areas where residents are likely to jaywalk across busy streets, Portland is focused on slowing down cars during daylight hours. Because it is focused on the wrong problem, fatalities have increased since the plan was adopted.
ReplyDeleteThe whole premise of the “Vision Zero” push in Portland is that nobody should be able to drive fast enough to kill anyone. Just so we’re all clear, that is the ultimate goal for every street that PBOT maintains. And they don’t believe enforcement is a viable alternative.
DeleteWhy blame it on drunks? They are entitled to cross streets safely too. Vision Zero isn't working because the city is too cheap to install flashing lights at pedestrian crossing. That, coupled with the insanely dangerous drivers out there who refuse to drive safely make crossing streets a life threatening experience. It's way past time to put cameras up at intersections and give huge fines to the jerks who speed. The City needs the money, and the cops aren't going to do it.
DeleteA few idiots got together and created an environment that made “defund the police” a battle cry. I don’t think they’re happy with the current environment.
ReplyDeleteThe police aren't de-funded, they are just disinterested.
DeleteHard to stay interested when the arrests are largely meaningless.
DeleteExpose the taggers....arrest them, identify them, and have them elucidate what motivates their expensive vandalism. Then put them to work cleaning and painting over their shit. Arrest and prosecute again and again if they persist. The current state of affairs is unacceptable!
ReplyDeleteIt’s not “vision zero” it’s “ZERO VISION”
ReplyDeleteYour comments are spot on. I drove yesterday on 405 and downtown, after having been away for 2 weeks. In general the city looks worse than when I left. The graffiti and tents along the highway are beyond out of control. Can you imagine what a prospective hire at Nike or OHSU thinks when they come into town? Portland looks like a city where general order has totally broken down.
ReplyDeleteNever cross a street unless it is 2-block clear or you make eye contact with the driver. Sad but it is better to live then be in the right "I have the right-of-way".
ReplyDeleteIf we think speeding and dangerous driving is actually a problem, we could simply solve it rather than pouring resources into a giant make-work system of designing and building roads for much higher speeds and then trying to insist that drivers ignore every signal the road gives them (that higher speeds are fine) and then trying to punish the drivers with a random few fines. We have all the technology needed for radio-controlled speed governors. On all roads within the urban growth boundaries, speed cameras along all roadways and at intersections are also emitting the radio signal for the posted speed limit. Presto, 80% or better compliance immediately, and then it's easy to identify violators -- people passing. Add income-based fines for speeding instead of fines that are mostly only punitive to the working class, and presto, you'd actually get somewhere in terms of speed control.
ReplyDeletePerhaps someone of position might call for a rally at the Capitol calling for a Special Session of Legislature to fix ballot measure 110!
ReplyDeleteManaging the problem means continued employment. Solving the problem means the employment is over.
ReplyDeleteAmen, bro.
ReplyDelete