PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland has an ambitious goal: Eliminate all traffic deaths in the next ten years. And today the members of a task force will be announced, to try and make it a reality. The task force will consist of elected officials and experts from city to state level, along with others with and interest or knowledge in ending serious injuries and deaths related to crashes.
"We also have community activists, transportation activists who are really looking a little further than just transportation, and for vision zero to be a public safety and public health concern," said Andrea Valderrama, policy advisor for Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick.
The Vision Zero task force will convene today after its members are announced.
The city council approved its "Vision Zero" initiative in hopes of making streets safer.
"You don't want your mother, daughter, sister, or brother, or anybody in your family or loved ones dying on the roadway," Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat said. "There's no loss of life that is acceptable."
So far this year, 10 people have died in traffic-related crashes in Portland. Last year, 28 people died.
The Vision Zero resolution calls on the city to adopt a goal of zero fatalities on the road by 2025.
"It's meant to be bold. It's meant to kind of shock you a little," said Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.
The Oregon Department of Transportation will provide a $150,000 grant to help develop the plan.
Advocates hope to improve safety on the streets through research, new technology, safety equipment, and police enforcement.
"Can we look at traffic fatalities as an epidemic as we do diseases and start approaching it that way?," asked Sadowsky.
Several other cities, including Seattle, San Francisco and New York, have made a similar Vision Zero pledge.
The Center for Disease Control reports Portland's traffic fatality rate is among the lowest of the 50 largest cities in the U.S.
"To anybody who would question whether Vision Zero is the right policy to adopt, I would ask them, 'Who do you think is acceptable to die on our roadways?,'" asked Treat. "No one."
The Vision Zero task force will convene for the first time today after its members are announced. It will have a year to set plans to reach the lofty goals of Vision Zero,
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