Several times I’ve seen cars drive in the Northbound bike lane on SE 28th in order to skip traffic making a left onto SE Holgate. My family bikes in this lane and I’d like to report to PPD and/or PBOT.
I have photographs of a driver traveling through a double-line bike lane to skip traffic and make a turn, luckily with my car’s clock in frame. Does anyone know of a way to submit this in the hopes of ticketing the driver? I just emailed 311 and I’ll also try PBOT directly.
I also have a short video clip from last year where a driver drove in the bike lane for 2 blocks to skip traffic and he passed a cop, so I won’t get my hopes up.
Thanks for advocating for safer conditions in Portland! I’ve asked for traffic enforcement near my kid’s school after many close calls and an injury collision when a student was hit while riding his bike home from school.
It was rebuffed. As you probably know we disbanded our police traffic unit and only recently started it up (at a much lower staffing amount). Drivers here have realized there is little chance of any consequences for reckless driving.
Unfortunately, my experience with PBOT is they are anti-enforcement. They like to put up lower speed limit signs but there is zero enforcement and the lower speed limits are routinely ignored. It seems purely performative.
Hopefully you will have better luck that I have had! It won’t be a quick fix I’m afraid. I think the best solution is for people to vote differently. Think Rene Gonzalez types instead of Joanne Hardesty types. We need to prioritize public safety and enforcement of our traffic laws. Take care, stay safe and keep riding!
Excuse me, but please be aware you’re talking about Portland, Oregon.
If you read the State vehicle code, you’ll see that license plates, registration and valid operator’s license are all mandatory, not optional.
In practice though, within the city limits, especially in severely vagrancy impacted areas, enforcement of those state laws are like how federal law on marijuana is enforced.
What you described might become relevant when someone had been injured; and the party responsible for causing the injury is a deep pocketed corporation of enough interest for lawyers.
Even better, and I hadn’t noticed it before, but 311 Cc’d Sgt. Engstrom of the new Traffic Division, and I’ve struck up an email thread directly with him.
There was a story on here years back about somebody close-passing a rider and their child, they had video of the dangerous pass and of the drivers face. The DA filed charges. I don’t know if they will do that with every video of a broken law, or if they even have time these days, but it’s something to consider. Otherwise you can always ticket them yourself (ask a cop to help you with a z-cite) if you have their face.
They’d have to actually require driving license, insurance and license plates in real life, not just on paper. Currently, a lot of vagrancy vehicles have no formal record between the owner of record vs whoever that happens to be driving at the moment.
Parking enforcement, a division of ex-con lead transportation bureau routinely ignores requests for removal of illegally parked vagrancy vehicles even if they meet tow-away criteria. Such removal would help reduce the quantity of plateless and uninsured vehicles out and about.