By Daniel Perez-Crouse
A beloved neighbor of South Tabor died in a fatal accident on SE Powell Blvd. prompting local outcry to address one of the city’s most dangerous streets and finish plans to improve it from over a decade ago.
On March 9, Roger Lee took the Line 9 home after a Blazers game and was struck and killed by a motorcycle as he tried to cross SE Powell Blvd. from his bus stop at SE 67th Ave. This incident happened one month after a woman was seriously injured in a hit-and-run crash at the intersection of SE 84th Ave.
A South Tabor Neighborhood Association (STNA) post described Lee as “a lifelong transit rider, diehard Blazers fan, avid stamp collector, brother and friend.” A gathering of his neighborhood association on March 20 mourned his loss and prompted questions on how to make SE Powell Blvd. safer.
Large stretches of SE Powell Blvd. from 82nd Ave. to downtown have few pedestrian and bike crossings on a wide street where cars tend to go fast.
It’s not just perception. Data shows that SE Powell Blvd. is dangerous for pedestrians and drivers. The City of Portland’s High Crash Network, which has data collected from 2017 to 2021, identifies 30 streets and intersections with the most serious crashes. Of those 30 intersections, nine are on SE Powell Blvd. Moreover, the street was ranked worst on the list of streets where pedestrians and people in motor vehicles have been killed or seriously injured.
As reported by BikePortland in 2022, SE Powell Blvd. has been a difficult corridor to make safety changes to because it’s designated a state highway and under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). PBOT, ODOT and TriMet have gone back and forth over the years addressing the safety concerns.
TriMet drafted plans to improve the streets in 2013; eventually, funding was secured for a Powell-Division Corridor Safety & Access to Transit Plan. This plan was reportedly funded in 2016 as a companion to the Division Transit Project and part of a corridor development strategy. A PBOT archive also outlines crossing improvements on SE Powell Blvd. that were supposed to start by 2019. For example, the intersection at SE 79th Ave. was expected to receive a pedestrian refuge island, rapid flashing beacons and crosswalk striping. But these projects never happened.
Neighborhood associations, advocacy groups and locals have voiced their concerns over this for years. In 2022, BikeLoud, APANO and Oregon Walks penned a letter to the agencies in control of the road stating that their proposed designs would be insufficient to protect Portlanders. They claimed “the current plan would continue to reinforce the car-first design of the Powell corridor, and building it as currently envisioned would lock in that compromised design for decades to come.”
In an open letter to the TriMet Board of Directors, STNA said they have “been communicating with TriMet about it since 2019. We have raised our concerns directly to this board three times already. While we cheer the groundbreaking, we lament what has already been lost.”
Their letter also laments that, “the timely delivery of this project was a chance to address serious safety concerns in the corridor and to earn the trust of those along Powell who saw the high-capacity bus alignment—and the funds and attention—shift to Division.”
STNA reported that TriMet confirmed a new start date for the SE Powell Blvd. project in early to mid-April, with work beginning at SE 79th Ave. However, as of this issue’s date, no noticeable construction or work can be seen at this intersection. Additionally, there is no online resource or page for people to find information about this specific improvement project.