As part of a federal Safe Community Grant, the Portland Office of Transportation has been able to fund Police Bureau Traffic Division Sargeant Mark Fort and his work on various pedestrian safety issues. The main focus of of his work is improving safety on SE and NE 82nd Ave.

He recently conducted a Crosswalk Enforcement Action in the area of SE 82nd and Holgate. Here are the resulting citations that were written:

• Fail to Stop for Pedestrian - 9
• Other moving violations - 4
• Non-moving violations - 3
• Pedestrian disobey signal - 2
• Warnings for Fail to stop for Pedestrian - 19

And here’s an excerpt from his report:

“Officers initially worked the intersection of SE 82nd and Holgate with our PDOT decoy. The traffic signals worked very well, and we saw no violators during a 45 minute time period.

Officers then moved to the unmarked, and unsignaled crosswalk of SE 82nd and Francis. Neighborhood activists told us that lots of kids from Marshall High School cross 82nd at Francis to get to the southbound bus stop.

Traffic was generally heavy in the five lanes of 82nd Avenue. Also, Francis is a major entry into Eastport Plaza so there was a lot of things going on in this intersection.

Initially, the decoy crossed 82nd whenever there was any opportunity. Since there was so much activity, this proved unsafe for everyone involved. So, I directed the decoy to cross only when the two lanes nearest her were completely void of approaching cars. That left three lanes open for the decoy to cross, and it gave cars approaching in the two far lanes ample opportunity to react, then stop for the pedestrian.

Often times, the decoy stopped in the center turn lane while cars continually passed by her without stopping. There were so many violators that officers only stopped the most egregious. Also, most motorists told us that they thought if the pedestrian was stopped in the center turn lane, the pedestrian would wait until it was clear to cross.

Busy, unmarked intersections are extremely dangerous for pedestrians to cross. I recommend future pedestrian missions be done only in marked crosswalks. And, I recommend an engineering study to make high-traffic intersections safer for pedestrians to cross.”

PDOT Traffic Investigations specialist Sharon White had this to say about Sergeant Fort’s report,

“Sergeant Fort’s description reminds us that we need to continue our outreach efforts to educate motorists of their responsibility to yield to the pedestrian “lane plus one”, to educate and encourage pedestrians to cross safely at traffic controlled intersections along very busy stretches of roadway like SE 82nd Ave., and when resources are available, provide engineering enhancements to make crossings as safe as possible.”

PDOT plans another Crosswalk Enforcement Action on January 31st, from 2-3:30pm at the un-marked, non-traffic controlled crossing at N. Lombard and Richmond.

If you’d like to attend, or for more information contact Sharon White at (503) 823-7100 or Sharon.White@pdxtrans.org