PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The task force charged with eliminating all traffic-related deaths in Portland by 2025 is no more.
Portland adopted the Vision Zero program in 2015 with a mission to reduce traffic deaths. The program has had success in other cities but the numbers in Portland have been moving in the wrong direction.
The city saw 28 traffic deaths the year before Vision Zero started compared to 58 traffic deaths in 2020, which marked the worst year for fatal traffic accidents in Portland in 25 years, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
Two pedestrians were killed this past weekend alone.
City officials said that while the Vision Zero task force has been dissolved, the program itself isn’t ending.
“The committee had run its course and we wanted to change the way we were doing community engagement,” explained John Brady, a spokesperson for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Instead of meetings, Vision Zero will focus on education campaigns through public service announcements and community efforts aimed at convincing drivers to slow down.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said she’s working with PBOT to figure out “both immediate and long-term solutions to keep all Portlanders safe as they move around our city.
“We have a lot of work ahead to realize our Vision Zero goals, but I am committed to that work,” Hardesty tweeted. “We can mitigate danger on our roads by improving street design and developing infrastructure that protects people from the potential damage cars are capable of inflicting.”
The program costs taxpayers $1.8 million a year. In addition, PBOT spends between $30-40 million a year on infrastructure changes led by the Vision Zero program, including redesigning dangerous intersections, widening roads and adding red light and speed cameras to ticket drivers.