PORTLAND, Ore. — Some of Portland's most dangerous streets are getting some much needed safety improvements.
Southeast Holgate is among them.
Thursday, City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Chris Warner walked along Holgate to get a look at the recent safety improvements added after the city council approved $450,000 in general funds for street safety.
"What that really does is really accelerate those investments. investments that we might make over a number of years, we can do in one construction season." PBOT Director Chris Warner said.
Where Holgate meets at Southeast 92nd Avenue, you've got what the city said is an intersection of two high crash corridors coming together.
"In the last five years, two people have been killed at this intersection, 49 people have been injured," Warner said.
To make drivers aware of the dangers of that intersection, PBOT recently installed a sign that reads, "CAUTION. High Crash Intersection. SLOW DOWN"
"A lot of times people don't pay attention, but if they see that this is a high crash intersection we're hoping that people will pay more attention and actually will drive with more caution," Warner said.
These two streets are among the 30 represented in orange on this map the city labels high crash corridors.
Portland Police said 53 people have died in traffic-related crashes in Portland this year, the most recent one happened when an 18-year-old motorcycle rider died after getting hit by a car at Southeast 97th Avenue and Holgate Boulevard.
At 350 intersections, no parking signs were placed to keep cars from parking right up to the intersection
"For both pedestrians and automobiles that are coming out into a high traffic street like this, it's really hard to see if cars are parked all the way to the curb," Warner said standing near one of the no parking signs.
PBOT also installed what are called 'leading crosswalks'. It's where the walk signal lights up before the traffic light turns green.
"We want to get to a place in Portland where nobody dies on our roads because of a lack of transportation infrastructure," Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said.
Commissioner Hardesty said she hopes to secure more funding for safety improvements in the next fall budget management process.