Waiting in the car near an intersection,

I watched five pre-teen kids walk across the street and not one of them looked for cars,trucks, traffic in general.
Then four teen aged kids crossed as well

Christmas vacation I guess.
Only two of them looked for on coming vehicles.

And for adults ,all over 30 crossed ,all of them stopped and looked both ways before proceeding.

My parents must have really really cared about me.

I wondered if this was just a Portland thing, or if this is happening everywhere.


Portland pedestrian deaths have reached a 70-year high, police say

PORTLAND, Ore. — Since the beginning of the year, at least 31 pedestrians have died on Portland streets after being hit by a vehicle, according to Portland police. That number ties death tolls last seen in 1952 and 1950.

"It is clear, that despite advances in technology, infrastructure, education and awareness, we are still not solving the problem and our traffic fatalities are at epidemic levels," said David Baer, an officer with the Portland Police Bureau's Major Crash Team.

One of the latest pedestrian deaths was Sunday night on North Columbia Boulevard and North Interstate Place in the Kenton neighborhood. Police said a man was hit by a car and was dead when officers got to the scene.

One man who works in the area and frequently walks that route said he's seen how dangerous it can be.

"Everybody flies through here so fast," said Joe. "It's ridiculous. People should use more caution."

In 2021, 63 people died in traffic crashes in Portland, 27 of whom were pedestrians, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. This was the highest number of traffic deaths since 1990.

According to Portland police numbers so far this year, 66 people have been killed in traffic crashes. There were 67 people killed in crashes throughout 2021 by PPB's numbers, which was a 35-year high.

PBOT is also tracking traffic deaths this year, but they do not count cases that police conclude to be the result of suicide, resulting in slightly different numbers between the two agencies.

Hannah Schafer with PBOT said some of the biggest factors in these crashes are speed and impairment. Most of the crashes are also in high-crash corridors. North Columbia Boulevard, where the man was killed Sunday night, is one of them.

"On this date last year, we were at 61 fatalities for the year. This year we are at 60, so we are on track at this point, which is of course not good news," Schafer said.

Schafer said PBOT is dedicating the majority of resources to implementing safety improvements in those problem areas.

"Broader investments and transforming and changing roadways, whether it's through changing the actual number of travel lanes and creating more space and adding additional crosswalks," Schafer said.

Schafer is calling on the community to be vigilant really watch their speed limits.

"There's still a lot of work for us to do at PBOT to make our streets safer but we need partners in this and we need Portlanders to step up and do what they can to make our streets safer," Schafer said.

On Monday, Portland police arrested a driver on suspicion of driving under the influence after he crashed into a man working on his disabled vehicle on Marquam Bridge. The victim was last reported to be in "grave condition."

Later that day, just before 6:30 p.m., Portland police responded to a crash involving a pedestrian on NE Sandy Boulevard near Argay City Park. They arrived to find a man suffering from life-threatening injuries. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

The driver of the vehicle in the NE Sandy crash stayed at the scene, PPB said. The Major Crash Team took over the investigation and NE Sandy was shut down during the investigation between NE 141st and NE 147th Avenue.

This crash means that Portland's number of fatal pedestrian crashes rose to at least 32 by the end of the day, beating those previous numbers from the 1950s. According to PPB, the next highest number was in 1948, when the city saw 34 pedestrian deaths.

https://www.kgw.com/article/ne...eaths%20since%201990.

Culling the Herd...

Same here, seems worse in Parking lots, people will walk right behind a car that's already backing out of a space.

Claim right of way or whatever, common sense says you don't do that, self preservation. Maybe they think all vehicles have Back up Cameras... Most are buried in some social media/text app and not paying attention...

Really doesn't matter that it's in motion. Right or wrong, it doesn't matter if an F450 is parked on your head because you felt you were in the right.

They do that in Seattle, too. First time I've ever seen that. Didn't even look, just absolute faith that all traffic would stop.

Bendable, were their eyes glued to their phones?

I wonder how many of these pedestrians being slaughtered by uncaring drivers are beggars/panhandlers/homeless standing in the road, or taking a mis-step off the median?

People are idiots.
Even though the pedestrian may have the right of way, cars usually out weight them 10:1 or more. Who do you think wins in that encounter.

My wife and I got off a cruise a couple weeks ago.

First stop was Tortola in the British Virgin islands. As soon as you got near a cross walk cars would come to a complete stop to let you cross.

Next stop was St Thomas in the US virgin Islands, complete opposite.

The best part was if you were not used to the Islands, they drive on the opposite side of the road. At one point I had to stop a friend that was with us from crossing the road because he looked the wrong way.

Add to that kids who have never been taught pedestrian safety. I almost hit the same kid twice early in the mornings. Stopped at the end of my street trying to get a gap in three lanes of oncoming traffic with limited visibility to my left. Twice I took my foot off the brake to find he had walked out from behind a fence to my right and was right in front of my bumper. I clearly had my face turned the opposite direction. We were taught to always make eye contact with a driver before walking in front of a car to confirm the driver has seen you.

We notice this many times when we drive. You can’t drive through a Walmart or Costco parking lot without someone wandering in front of you.

Fake news Radioman. If you look up those Portland traffic fatality's, (Columbia blvd-Argay Terrace are homeless spots) most of them are occurring super late at night. The vehicle drivers often say something like: I didn't see them". In fact, most of those are homeless, yes, those that Portland is encouraging to come there and live on the streets. So yes, per the article you quoted, perhaps the "biggest factors in these crashes are speed and impairment." but the impairment is pedestrian drug users wandering around out of their minds and right into the vehicle paths. Portland has dropped speed limits, so roads that should be and were 45MPH are now 30 etc . When locals go 40 now, which is less than they drove in the last 30 years on that same road but still 5 mph over the previous limit, and they kill a homeless person who walks right in front of them, it's still "speed". "Impairment" is often not the drivers, but the pedestrians. The pedestrians are impaired to the point of passing out, falling over and getting narcan from a Samaritan.

In Portland, they can legally get blotto on drugs that should be illegal -your heroin and meth drugs, and then wander off to the local 24 hour package store ignoring lights and walk signals and crosswalks. They don't have lights or reflective vests (although portland gave them all reflective coats a year or so back it was reported, but they rarely wear them).

The mayor had pledged that he was going to move them all away from freeways and high speed highways, that was apparently simply a talking point and never happened. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...ous-roads/ar-AATrOJJ
The freeways are lined with homeless as everyone who has driven through there knows. There is trash everywhere, like, extreme amounts of it, where they live next to the freeways.

It's primarily homeless drug users getting pegged by cars and killed that account for the increase in deaths in Portland. Interesting that the article doesn't mention that, or did I just miss it?

I phone for normal folks is making it worse, but legally using, and often overdosing on heroin laced with fentanal isn't helping either.

I often drive thru college a college campus The campus is not segregated, but separate buildings in town. I came to a stop one day and a young lady wearing earbuds put her hand on the hood of my car and slid her ass across it. Not a safety violation, but rude and stupid.

Unglue the phone from your hand.

I've notice folks walking along the side of the road or even crossing at night... all in dark cloths.... don't they realize they are pretty much invisible?

Couple years ago, a person on a bicycle crossed the intersection and T-boned a car's rear door and bounced off. Both the car and bicycle had to be doing 30+ MPH. The bicycle's front tire was destroyed and the rider shaken up.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I've notice folks walking along the side of the road or even crossing at night... all in dark cloths.... don't they realize they are pretty much invisible?

I’ve remarked to my kid several times that almost everyone here in Temple walk with the traffic instead of against traffic….

Flip side is drivers are not much better. pre-COVID I would risk getting killed crossing in a marked crosswalk in Arlington VA. And only 10% of the time does the driver have their phones out. My phone is on my hand, only to dial 911 if one of these drivers does actually hit me.

I've told my kids to never walk around looking at that stupid phone, always be aware of your surroundings. I've seen people literally walk into poles and signs because they can't stop looking at the dawn phone.

Sad part is, the drivers are held responsible for the idiocy of the pedestrians. It's like holding a train conductor responsible for hitting a car on the tracks. Even at 25MPH, the time it takes to stop a vehicle coupled with reaction time means stupid pedestrians are going to get smucked and innocent drivers are going get ruined.

Pedestrians should NOT have the right of way.

Put your phone in your pocket, look both ways before entering the street, and know the Law of Gross Tonnage.