Thread by @ambrown

my hot take? given this rash of needless traffic violence and the lack of progress towards our zero-traffic-fatalities-by-2025 goal, i think transportation advocates should demand that the renewal of the city's gas tax funnel a larger % of money towards safety improvements.

tonight, a hit and run on division that hospitalized a six year old.

unconscionable.

i missed the first third of us, so someone please correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm about 1000% sure that the epidemic of traffic violence portland has seen for the last week wasn't included anywhere in Wheeler's SOTC speech, correct?

I've struggled for years to try and articulate the senseless grief and trauma i've seen and witnessed at the hands of traffic violence through my work with Oregon Walks. It doesn't translate well to twitter, a platform I usually use for sass or irony or earnest sports enthusiasm

it often makes me a stick in the mud, unfun at parties, to grimly point out while driving across town the exact intersections, years, names of victims. The exercise of finding ways to process this trauma into something productive/mutable to prevent future tragedy is exhausting

I've read the police reports, interviewed parents, hugged strangers at vigils. it's just gruesome. senseless + seemingly random brutal violence - i wish upon no one the grim task of spending the rest of one's life having to imagine a loved one's last moments as road carnage.

It's sobering to put up a memorial on the side of a busy road + reflecting on how deeply cruel this is. We've senselessly designed neighborhoods to maximize car-oriented speed + convenience for some at the expense of other's ability to cross the damn street. We did it on purpose.

Of course it's not ~random~ at all - folks hit + killed by cars are disproportionately vulnerable - low income, youth, elderly, POC, etc, living near dangerous streets. The automobile's burdens - noise, air pollution, traffic violence, + now carbon - are never distributed equally

to be clear - it's not like we don't know how to stop this epidemic. We just lack the political will to reallocate money for these safety investments. ODOT wants to spend $500m on a freeway project framed as a "safety project." it hasn't seen a traffic fatality in over a decade.

Meanwhile, during the public comment period for the RQ project, a 16yo Madison HS student was hit and hospitalized while crossing 82nd avenue near the MAX stop. Why is it that freeways for exurban commuters get billions but ODOT can't find the $$ for 82nd, Barbur, TV Highway?

$500 million, for what it's worth, is 2x the cost to build the highest standard of Safe Routes to School investments (crosswalks, sidewalks, bike lanes, bike parking, etc) at every public school in the city of portland.

Twice over!

We've been saying it for five years! oregonlive.com/opinion/2014/0…

anyway, a six year old was hit by a car while crossing SE Division in East Portland, and the driver fled.

This isn't inevitable. This is preventable. Let's hope the carnage on the streets and our rising voices for change is enough to spur leaders into making systemic change.