PORTLAND, Ore. — Some significant changes are coming to one of Portland's most dangerous stretches of road along Southeast Powell Boulevard.
Traffic deaths in Portland have continued to rise, and in 2023, the city saw the most deaths in the past three decades. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) said speed is a factor in more than half of those crashes and hopes that a new pilot program, "Rest on Red," can make a difference.
"These are early days for this technology, but we are really excited about what it could mean for the city," said Hannah Schaffer of PBOT.
Traffic signals in certain intersections would be upgraded to include microwave sensors, which would be able to detect how fast cars are going and could act if vehicles are moving too quickly.
"If a car is going above the speed limit, it will be able to change the traffic signal into a red light — in theory, to stop a vehicle from being able to speed through that intersection," Schaffer said.
Another change PBOT is looking at is to have all red lights at some intersections at certain times of the night, forcing drivers to completely stop. A sensor would then trigger a green light while vehicles are waiting. The goal of this is to reduce speeding on long corridors.
"We see a lot of speeding in the nighttime hours. The roads are generally more empty; it feels like an opportunity for some people to do what they want to do," Schaffer said. "By making these changes to the traffic signals, we can signal to the people that are out there that this is not acceptable."
PBOT said it is working with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to upgrade the traffic signals on Southeast Powell Boulevard between 21st and 33rd avenues to implement "Rest on Red."
There are nearly 1,000 intersections in the city, and upgrading thousands of signals will take time, but PBOT said it hopes that the technology will eventually spread across the city.
"There are tons of benefits," Schaffer said. "The technology is changing rapidly and making it to where we can do a lot more with our traffic signals to manage traffic efficiently and also make traffic move more safely."