“It appears as soon as once more that the burden of protected conduct is being positioned totally on pedestrians and bicyclists. Nothing is being requested of drivers.”
-Tiel Jackson, Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee
When the Oregon Division of Transportation quietly launched the information that they deliberate to close down 181 crosswalks within the Portland metro space two weeks in the past, individuals had plenty of questions — like which precise crosswalk legs have been on the chopping block and why ODOT was making this determination. Transportation advocates have been additionally confused and pissed off in regards to the company’s lack of transparency and public involvement within the course of.
“There was no public course of, no public notification, no public enter of any type. All of those crosswalk closures simply began popping up,” stated Tiel Jackson, co-chair of the Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee (PAC) at a gathering earlier this week. “And that makes it actually troublesome to construct a local weather of belief with ODOT, particularly with these different main tasks that we’ve going ahead.”
These “main tasks” embrace the I-5 Rose Quarter growth and subsequent plan to cap the freeway and reconnect north Portland’s Albina neighborhood, which has confronted scrutiny and backlash for a very long time. Given the significantly harmful circumstances for individuals biking and strolling on ODOT-owned streets in Portland, transportation advocates are asking the company to refocus their monetary priorities away from rising freeway capability and towards making their streets safer.
To ODOT, these crosswalk closures are primarily a formality — the company says the crosswalks they’re blocking have been closed in essence lengthy prior to now — and retaining them open would pose security issues.
“The entire level of it is a security query to ensure we’re directing pedestrians to the protection potential crossing at every state street. We don’t need individuals crossing at unsafe locations throughout the freeway,” ODOT Public Info Officer Don Hamilton stated to BikePortland. “We wish to be sure that they get to the most secure potential crossing particularly on Powell Blvd, the place we’ve had some issues prior to now.”
Lively transportation advocates say this technique is misguided and places the onus of security on susceptible street customers as a substitute of site visitors engineers and planners who might make these streets safer with extra bold — and fewer car-centric — redesigns. However ODOT goes forward with their plan — lots of the crosswalks are already closed. And with none pushback towards ODOT from different native transportation companies, it’s unclear what the trail ahead is for combating these closures.
Causes for closure
The preliminary info ODOT offered in regards to the crosswalk closures was sparse in particulars, however the company has now launched a full record of crosswalk closures in Portland with specifics about which leg of the crossing will likely be closed and the standards for the choice.
Among the standards ODOT outlines for closing these crosswalks embrace: median obstructions in the course of the road with no cut-throughs; lack of pedestrian services or shoulders; insufficient sight distance for individuals driving to see individuals strolling throughout the road and crossings aligned into driveways.
Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) employees have been caught off-guard by the announcement, as ODOT employees didn’t inform them about it forward of time. However they in the end got here to the consensus that these standards have been acceptable and well-informed.
At a Pedestrian Advisory Committee (PAC) assembly this previous Tuesday, PBOT Interim Pedestrian Coordinator Gena Gastaldi gave an replace concerning PBOT’s temperature on the crosswalk closures.
“We didn’t know this was coming — we weren’t briefed on it beforehand, both. It got here as simply as a lot of a shock to us because it did to everybody,” Gastaldi stated. “What my colleagues and I discovered wanting on the record of crossing closures is that plenty of them have been simply formalizing crossings that have been already closed…I feel there was some room for enchancment with the revealing or messaging round [ODOT’s decision], however from what we’ve all mentioned at PBOT, these are all places we might in all probability be closing as nicely.”
This is probably not ample reasoning to individuals who have additionally criticized PBOT for closing crosswalks prior to now.
Another excuse ODOT cites for closing a crosswalk is that if there’s a crossing close by they deem safer that they need individuals to make use of as a substitute.
That is the case for a number of crosswalk closures on Powell Blvd, together with at forty fifth, 57th and seventieth Aves. ODOT additionally cites this as a motive for closing the westerly crosswalk on Powell and 61st, an intersection due for an enhanced crosswalk on its jap facet by a TriMet plan. (ODOT has already shut down the western crosswalk at this intersection — however TriMet has but to ship on its deliberate crossing on the opposite facet of the road. TriMet planners didn’t learn about ODOT’s plan forward of time.)
The ADA lawsuit
When ODOT introduced their determination to shut the crosswalks, they stated it was a approach to adjust to Individuals with Disabilities Act (ADA) curb ramp requirements at crosswalks which might be “unsafe and inaccessible.” However the determination raised eyebrows amongst individuals concerned within the lawsuit, who thought it could have been ODOT’s try and get out of their authorized tasks.
In 2016, a bunch of Oregonians sued ODOT, alleging the state hadn’t construct ADA-compliant curb ramps whereas developing and sustaining state highways. They later settled out of court docket. Per the settlement settlement, ODOT accomplished a survey of curb ramps on state highways and located that 97% of the 26,000 ramps they inspected didn’t meet ADA requirements. Ten Oregon counties didn’t have a single compliant ramp.
In accordance with the phrases of the settlement, ODOT must remediate 7,770 curb ramps statewide by December 31, 2022. Per a 2021 audit report of the ADA Settlement Settlement (pdf), the company had accomplished 3,744, leaving about 4000 extra to be carried out in 2022.
Tom Stenson, a senior lawyer with Incapacity Rights Oregon who has been concerned within the lawsuit, believes a part of why ODOT determined to shut the 181 crosswalks is as a result of they weren’t assembly the timeline for fixing the ramps, and he’s skeptical in regards to the different causes the company cited for the crosswalk closure plan.
“I feel what’s troubling is beneath their very own guidelines, they will’t simply shut a complete swath of crossings. There are literally fairly particular guidelines that they should comply with,” Stenson informed BikePortland. “And it appears unlikely that they’ve been capable of comply with the very exacting necessities for closing on this context for a whole lot of crosswalks in a single go.”
Closing crosswalks is a legally acceptable approach to adjust to ADA necessities, and ODOT has carried out this to meet ADA requirements at quite a lot of crossings throughout the state. However Stenson stated he doesn’t assume it is a good religion studying of the settlement settlement.
On the PAC assembly on Tuesday, Portland ADA Coordinator Lisa Strader — who was ODOT’s ADA Coordinator within the aftermath of the lawsuit settlement — supplied a special perspective. She stated the places ODOT selected to shut are genuinely unsafe and may’t be remedied, and plenty of of them have already been closed for a very long time. The formalizing of the closures is to fulfill the ADA settlement necessities, however not as a result of nefarious causes.
“One of many ways in which they will make a nook or the curb ramp compliant is by closing a crossing…ODOT acknowledged that they already had closers in place, however they didn’t have all of the documentation as a result of the method modified over time,” Strader stated. “It’s largely a clean-up course of to make certain that they’ve formally carried out every part they should do beneath their beneath their settlement settlement associated to the place they shut a crosswalk and successfully then shut the curb ramp.”
BikePortland reached out to ODOT’s communications group for a touch upon the connection between the settlement and the lawsuit, however haven’t heard again.
What advocates are considering
A press assertion issued final week from advocacy non-profit Oregon Walks states the group’s intent to maintain combating these crosswalk closures.
“For pedestrians in Oregon, crossing the road is extra harmful than it has ever been. In simply the month of January, three pedestrians in Portland have been killed on streets that the general public has begged ODOT and PBOT to make safer for years,” the assertion reads. “Be assured that we’re reviewing these closures and the place acceptable will advocate for not solely the reversal of the closures, however an funding of their enchancment.”
Per Oregon legislation, a crosswalk exists at each public street intersection, whether or not or not it’s marked. Lots of the crosswalks ODOT is closing are genuinely unsafe for quite a lot of causes. However advocates nonetheless wish to know why these issues couldn’t have been remediated as a substitute of simply shutting the crossings down totally.
“It appears as soon as once more that the burden of protected conduct is being positioned totally on pedestrians and bicyclists. Nothing is being requested of drivers,” stated PAC co-chair Tiel Jackson at Tuesday’s assembly. “What drawback is that this actually making an attempt to resolve and it’s the easiest way to go about fixing it? In what world does giving us fewer strolling choices really make us safer?”
PAC member Mary Lee Turner, an accessibility advocate who’s blind and makes use of a white cane to assist her get across the metropolis on foot, identified one other security concern in regards to the crosswalk closures.
“What if I’m on the market and I’m going throughout the road and the crosswalk is closed? How am I going to understand it as an individual touring who’s blind?” Turner requested. “Now it’s getting even scarier [to walk in Portland].”
Jackson stated the way in which ODOT went about this course of is barely contributing to the emotions of mistrust many advocates have in regards to the state transportation company. Above every part else in regards to the particular qualms with the crosswalk closures, that is the large takeaway many advocates look like getting from this example.
“I began off very challenged with trusting ODOT,” Jackson stated. “And I proceed to be very challenged.”
Taylor has been BikePortland’s employees author since November 2021. She has additionally written for Road Roots and Eugene Weekly. Contact her at taylorgriggswriter@gmail.com
