Cathy Tuttle

Portland is one of 4 large US cities without #police #traffic #enforcement https://katu.com/news/katu-investigates/portland-one-of-few-major-american-cities-without-proactive-speed-traffic-enforcement.

On the one hand, keeping police out of enforcement is good. It prevents #DrivingWhileBlack harassment + excessive policing.

On the other hand, #USDOT ranks #Oregon in top 10 #TrafficViolence

In 2021 Oregon had 1.54 traffic deaths for every 100M miles traveled vs nearby WA at 0.94 death/100Mvmt.

#Portland has lots of #EntitledDriver #StreetRacing, but few #speed cameras or safety engineering.

Portland is one of few major American cities without police traffic enforcement

Portland is one of at least four cities among America's 50 largest cities without a team of law enforcement officers dedicated to proactive traffic enforcement

KATU
Dec 29, 2022 at 7:43pmWeb
Show threadFrank VehafricDec 29, 2022
@CathyTuttle How useful is it to use statewide statistic to assess the effectiveness of traffic enforcement in Portland? And does traffic law enforcement actually correlate with traffic mortality rates?
Show threadCathy TuttleDec 29, 2022

@fvehafric I don't know what causes 50% more traffic death and serious injury in Oregon v. Washington roads per 100 million miles. Road conditions, construction standards, weather, and geography are similar. Policing might be a factor.

Portland does have about 50% more traffic fatalities than Seattle, but I don't have good stats on serious injuries in the 2 cities. I suspect they are also much higher in Portland than in Seattle.

Show threadFrank VehafricDec 29, 2022
@CathyTuttle Thanks. I didn't realize the difference was that dramatic.
Show thread😀🚲Dec 29, 2022
@CathyTuttle @fvehafric only one of these depts of transportation has ever dynamited a whale
Show thread😀🚲Dec 29, 2022
@fvehafric @CathyTuttle enforcement rate is a poor proxy for violation rate / speed. The conversation needs to be about #trafficEngineering and VMT reduction, besides unarmed and automated enforcement, a system which doesn't forgive bad drivers just because removing the privilege of driving is seen as restricting mobility.
Show threadCathy TuttleDec 29, 2022

@enobacon @fvehafric Agree that safety engineering needs to happen. Plus land use that discourages people from driving has a major role to play via more clustered housing with nearby walkable schools, shops, transit stops. Engineering and land use changes take time.

In the meantime, we've got #EntitledDrivers who make street use dangerous for all. Haven't seen stats (I'd like some!) but more cars in PDX than SEA seem to have missing/obscured license plates. Makes it hard to use cameras on them.

Show thread😀🚲Dec 29, 2022
@CathyTuttle @fvehafric parking enforcement (PBOT) used to get the scofflaw plates. Engineering is (should be) an ongoing operations and maintenance issue, but ours are just chasing capital project funding. Leadership failure at multiple levels.