After a number of serious accidents involving pedestrians and automobiles, including multiple fatalities, over the past few years, the city of Portland is stepping up efforts to improve safety for walkers and bikers.
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After a number of serious accidents involving pedestrians and cars in recent years, including multiple fatalities, the city of Portland is stepping up efforts to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
The most recent city initiative is the installation of new traffic signal timings along the outer Washington Avenue/Auburn Street corridor, intended to improve pedestrian safety.
The updates are active along Washington Avenue at the intersections of Veranda, Presumpscot, Ocean and Allen streets, Canco Road, as well as on Auburn Street at the intersections of Chapman and Lyseth streets.
Additionally, the city recently installed more signage on Franklin Street, added more clearly marked crosswalks at multiple locations along busy Commercial Street, and tested temporary traffic calming installations on sections of Brighton Ave. and along the stretch of Washington Avenue at the base of Munjoy Hill.
Increased vigilance
On Aug. 3, Portland Police conducted an enhanced traffic safety enforcement operation, making 115 traffic stops. Drivers were cited for distracted driving, failure to stop at signs and signals and failure to yield to pedestrians. The result was 64 citations and 42 warnings.
The efforts are part of the city’s Vision Zero campaign, which seeks to curb accidents and injuries by adding bike lanes, addressing street and intersection designs, assessing driving speeds and raising public awareness.
The city is also producing quarterly and annual crash reports and trend analyses, using crash data compiled by the state.
In 2025, four pedestrians were struck and killed by vehicles on Portland roadways. This past June, a man was fatally injured at the intersection of Marginal Way and Preble Street, near Trader Joe’s.
Other measures
City Council member Kate Sykes, who represents District 5, noted in an email that the city has improved its Vision Zero webpage, where residents can find the action plan and follow the crash data and reports.
“The administration plans to expand those reports so that they don’t just show what is happening on our streets; they will also document the specific actions the city is taking in response,” Sykes said.
She said the city is also beginning to get better tools for measuring what happens between crashes, and that the Public Works Department is procuring a new platform that can provide much more current information about prevailing traffic speeds.
“That could help us see, for example, whether speeds actually change after enforcement or other interventions rather than waiting months or years to draw conclusions from crash statistics alone,” she noted.
Another piece of the Vision Zero work is a push for a “20 is Plenty” policy, which would lower speeds on most Portland streets.
“Vision Zero is not one ordinance, one police detail or one street redesign,” Sykes said. “It is a commitment to steadily change the way we think about transportation safety across city government.”
