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I live in SW Portland where only 15% of our streets have sidewalks.  Many of our streets are narrow and carry a lot of traffic at speeds that are not safe.  Oregon state law requires pedestrians to face traffic, and that is a suicide mission on many of our SW streets.  

The law needs to be changed to allow pedestrians to legally walk with traffic where there is no continuous place to walk facing traffic.  I say continuous because the crossing of streets is the cause of more pedestrian accidents than walking along the streets.  

We also need to have Oregon law changed to clarify the relative rights of pedestrians and bicyclists both using an extended shoulder.  Current law give the rights to bicyclists if the extended shoulder is marked as a bike lane.  

Oregon Dept of Trans also needs to properly mark midblock crosswalks to assure they are legal.  Currently, the midblock crossing at 4900 SW Barbur (Rassmussen Village Apartments) and others have warning lights and a center pedestrian island, yet ODOT has doubts this is a legal crosswalk and PBOT will not do traffic enforcement at this site due to the uncertainty of the legal status.  This is WRONG!  

ODOT needs to improve all these uncertain crosswalks to assure they are legal and no longer mislead pedestrians.  

Don Baack, Chair SWTrails 

posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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