Comm. Mapps: Addressing Portland’s record traffic fatalities is PBOT’s ‘job one’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – As Portland nears record-breaking traffic deaths, transportation commissioner Mingus Mapps says mitigating loss of life is his agency’s “job one.”

Mapps calls the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s plan a “multi-modal transportation system” for the city’s streets, including speed cameras and traffic enforcement.

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Currently, city data shows nearly 40% of traffic deaths reported from 2018 to 2022 were pedestrians. To date, there have been 66 traffic deaths in 2023 – three more than the 63 deaths reported in the last two years, and the highest number recorded in three decades.

For instance, Mapps said his team has worked to separate the street’s protective bike lanes from bus and car lanes on Hawthorne Street, one of the city’s high-crash corridors.

The area already has red light cameras, but PBOT is installing one of eight new speed cameras that he expects will be up in running by the end of the year.

“We’ve done some major changes in recent years. So we’ve lowered the speed limit here at roughly Grand and Hawthorne to 20 miles an hour,” Mapps said. “I’ll tell you the difference between a car accident and or car fatality is basically the speed that people are going.”

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As state and city police bring back traffic enforcement, Mapps adds that all Portlanders can help mitigate traffic violence by driving sober and within speed limits.

A recent report from Multnomah County found that, of 170 traffic-related deaths reported from 2020 to 2021, 84% had tested positive for at least one substance, and 24% were homeless.

Those living on the streets represent nearly a quarter of those killed in all traffic accidents, but make up 42% of the pedestrian-related deaths.

Mapps said this is one of the reasons Portland City Council recently passed an ordinance that banned camping near high-crash corridors.

“We are trying to deter our houseless neighbors from doing that, but of course, to make that a reality we’ve got to do a better job working with our friends at the county to make sure Portlanders have a place to go,” he said.

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But as days get shorter and winter weather sets in, Mapps says it will take a joint effort to reverse the deadly trend.

“I am so sorry for the losses that nearly 70 Portland families have suffered so far,” he said. “My condolences may also want everyone to know that we bought and might be in really good work. That’s why we’re out there working every day to make our streets safer.”

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