Between 2019 and 2022, the Portland Bureau of Transportation completed two of 67 actions outlined in a plan to improve walking conditions across the city. That’s one of the key takeaways from the city’s three-year update regarding its PedPDX project.
PedPDX was adopted in June of 2019 as a revised version of the city’s 1998 Pedestrian Master Plan. Its focus is prioritizing upgrades to sidewalks and crossings with four goals: making pedestrian access more equitable and inclusive, safe, comfortable, and healthy for both people and the environment.
Below, you’ll find a condensed summary of the latest report, broken down by each goal. You can find more information on how PBOT measures and tracks the project’s progress by downloading the full online report.
Equitable + Inclusive
- In areas with low-income communities and communities of color, the number of areas with either no sidewalk or a sidewalk on only one side of the road has slightly decreased. PedPDX reported a 3.2% drop (41.7% to 38.5%) in sidewalk gaps in those specific areas within the Pedestrian Priority Network.
Safe + Secure
- Between 2017 and 2019, the number of pedestrians hurt in traffic crashes dipped by nearly 15%. But deadly pedestrian crashes have been high since 2017, with 27 people killed in 2021, 70% of whom were reported as being houseless.
Comfortable + Inviting
- Similar to the Equitable + Inclusive metric above, progress toward this goal is also measured by the decrease in sidewalk gaps, but it applies to the entire Pedestrian Priority Network. As of 2022, the number had dropped 3.4% thanks to 34 miles of new sidewalks constructed by the city and private developers. PBOT has also added or improved 2,084 crosswalks and brought 98 deficient crossings up to city standards.
Healthy People + Environment
- The most recent data from the League of American Cyclists Benchmark Report showed a 6% walk-to-work rate in 2018.