Published in the Sunday Oregonian, December 17th, 2023
About a year ago, I contacted Portland City Commissioner Mingus Mapps’ office about how dangerous the intersection of North Lombard Street and North Mississippi Avenue is. The city already knows Lombard poses considerable hazards – the transportation bureau designated the street as the third deadliest in Portland for traffic crashes. But as someone who lives and works within a few blocks of the street, I wanted to alert them to the numerous issues I see at the Mississippi intersection on a daily basis.
As I explained in the email, the intersection is the site of frequent car wrecks, from fender benders to serious-injury collisions. While the posted speed limit is 35 mph, actual speeds are much higher. In addition to cars, there are many pedestrians along Lombard. Although the crosswalk is not painted or signalized, people frequently cross here to get to bus stops and businesses on either side of the street.
I told Mapps’ staff that the students at the 6-12th grade school where I teach, just south of the intersection, often witness wrecks at the intersection—once there were two in a single school day—and pointed out that this can have a psychological effect. Further, families drop their children off at this intersection, and students and teachers who walk to school cross here. We can moralize at people for not walking the extra 400 feet to the signalized crosswalk, or we can realize that this is a convenient crossing for pedestrians and do something to make those people safe.
It was only a matter of time, I wrote, before someone from the school would be maimed or killed at this intersection if action were not taken.
Spoiler: I was more correct than I realized (in case you missed the title)
I now live within about a 10 minute walk of three major grocery stores, two hardware stores, a pet store, a sporting goods store, and an auto store. Soon a brand new public library and children’s playground will be available there too. Just about anything I could need should be a simple stroll to reach. But I do not walk to any of them.
The issue is that all the stores mentioned are just on the other side of McLaughlin Boulevard–one of the worst stroads around. At the end of my street there is an (unmarked) crosswalk across McLaughlin. Before trying this, I didn’t realize how walking across a street can be a dehumanizing experience. The only way to reach the other side, is to make a mad dash (while cars rush towards you) to the center divider. There you wait, stranded, completely cut off, while traffic torrents around you. At this point, there is no going back. You just wait (long minutes it feels) for a signal to change upstream somewhere.
I still do this sometimes. If I want to take the bus, then crossing McLoughlin is pretty inevitable at some point. There is a crosswalk at a intersection with a traffic light, about 400 feet from my street. However that doubles my walking time (and requires walking along McLoughlin, which is pretty miserable, and not entirely safe anyway), and I am not convinced that crossing at a traffic light is safer for me. It is nice that cars (mostly) stop for the red light, but since they can turn on red, I have to be watching several different directions at once as I walk. At least with the crosswalk without the intersection, I only have to look one way at a time.
A couple weeks back, I saw someone waiting at an unmarked crosswalk on McLoughlin. He started crossing, but failed to notice a car hurtling his way. The way he was walking, he was going to be dead in front of the car as it passed through the crosswalk. Fortunately, as he entered that lane, he happened to look to the side, and jumped back, out of the way, as the car sped past.
The driver did see the pedestrian. He did slow slightly (maybe to 42mph, down from 45), but somehow he seemed convinced that the manifest destiny of cars on roads gave him the right to continue. It’s not like there was a red light or anything.
All this to say, being a pedestrian in the Portland Metro area is a harrowing and dehumanizing experience. And I’m really glad that you are safe, Patrick!
Meant to leave a short comment, ended up leaving one half the length of the article commented on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Hemingway I am not.