Ever been to a transportation-related authorities committee assembly the place somebody reads the names of current visitors victims? It’s a observe that has change into extra frequent in Portland lately as companies have adopted Imaginative and prescient Zero campaigns.
I’m at conferences the place this occurs comparatively usually. It’s carried out on the outset of a gathering and I discover it a strong and somber reminder of what we’re preventing for and why making roads safer is so pressing. It’s usually adopted by a second of silence.
When the names have been learn out loud at Metro’s March sixteenth Joint Coverage Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) assembly, it spurred a notable change between a Metro councilor, a Metro staffer and commissioners from Washington and Clackamas counties. As I watched and listened to the assembly, it made me understand that this studying of the names has much more worth than I’d beforehand thought.
On this quick podcast episode, you’ll hear the audio clips from the assembly together with my commentary interspersed between them.
What I discovered notable was how Washington County Commissioner Nafisa Fai used the studying as a chance to ask Metro about their highway security work. And in doing so, she spurred not only a high quality dialogue with Metro Deputy Director Margi Bradway, but additionally an eyebrow-raising response from Clackamas County Commissioner Paul Savas. Savas chimed in by saying he was in alignment with Fai (“I truly admire what Commissioner Fai is making an attempt to tease out and establish,” he mentioned) after which shared how he feels we shouldn’t simply blame highway design as a result of, “typically individuals are careless, and it’s unlucky if it value their lives and likewise the impacts to the individuals driving their vehicles as properly.”
After Commissioner Savas’ response — which tiptoed a really wonderful line round straight-up victim-blaming — there was an ungainly pause from JPACT Chair and Metro Councilor Juan Carlos Gonzalez. After which Commissioner Fai responded with, “I’m unsure I used to be teasing that out.”
It was an entertaining change. Past the Savas half, it exhibits how studying the names of highway visitors victims on the outset of conferences like this could even have much more worth than you may assume.
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