Think freeway curves are the most dangerous roads in the Portland area?

Think again.

The region’s bustling arterial streets, such as 82nd Avenue or McLoughlin Boulevard in Clackamas County, have much higher rates of roadway fatalities and severe injuries. These workhorses of the transportation system also are the most hazardous places for bicyclists and pedestrians. They have far higher fatality rates than neighborhood streets or even freeways.

The high risk on arterial streets is a key finding of a new Metro report that takes the first look at the special needs of transportation safety in urban areas, as opposed to rural areas that often are the focus of state transportation efforts.

Across the Portland area, 159 people were killed on the region’s roads and more than 1,400 were severely injured from 2007 to 2009. Crashes and the resulting injuries and deaths cost the region $958 million a year in property damage, medical costs and lost productivity — not to mention the pain and suffering from the loss of life.

Reason for crashes

Lots of people have ideas or perceptions about what might make roads safer. But to get to the root causes, Metro dug deep into transportation data to understand the high-risk locations, patterns and factors that contribute to serious crashes. To head off any preconceived biases, Metro worked with a regional safety workgroup of federal, state and local transportation agencies, researchers and safety specialists.

The workgroup identified the most significant findings in the region:

n Arterial streets have the highest rate of fatal and severe injury crashes, for all road users: motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Crash rates rise on surface (non-freeway) streets with more lanes, and are significantly higher on those with six lanes or more.

n Surface (non-freeway) streets with four lanes or more have particularly high fatal and severe injury crash rates for pedestrians.

n Excessive speed and aggressive driving are the leading contributing factors in severe injury crashes.

n Alcohol or drugs are a contributing factor in most fatal crashes.

n For pedestrians, fatal and severe injury crashes happen especially often after dark.

For pedestrian and bicyclists, nighttime fatal and severe injury crashes occur especially often in areas without street lighting.

The report focused on serious crashes — those that cause fatalities or severe injuries — not fender benders that result only in property damage.

Dangerous streets

A panel of 17 elected officials and agency leaders recently urged action on the findings. The Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation told Metro to propose how to pursue some short term next steps.

Those include identifying the most dangerous arterial streets in the region, convening regional professionals to develop safety fixes for them, and working with police and emergency medical personnel to focus on alcohol use and other behavioral factors.

Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder said safety improvements could help the economy more than fighting congestion. Political leaders rallied around a Cost of Congestion study in 2005, which predicted that traffic jams could cost the region $844 million a year in lost productivity and freight costs by the year 2025.

By contrast, the safety report suggests that crashes cost the region $958 million a year right now.

“This is actually a bigger problem, it’s a current problem and we do have solutions to it through design,” said Burkholder. “This is really critical work. It’s great to have it localized.”

Some of the most dangerous streets are also those in poorer neighborhoods where people are most dependent on walking to bus and light rail service, he said.

Jason Tell, manager of for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Region 1, the Portland area, said policymakers should focus on the short-term recommendations in the report.

“This is really great work,” Tell said. “This is really where our attention should be.”

Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette, chairwoman of JPACT, said the report confirms what many residents have been saying for years about roads like McLoughlin Boulevard.

“The citizens keep saying, ‘We need crosswalks at every bus stop, we need safer ways to cross the McLouglin corridor,’ “ Collette said. “These streets are dangerous to cross and this confirms that information.”

Investing in changes

Clackamas County is working on solutions that can make McLoughlin safer, said Clackamas County Commissioner Ann Lininger. When the MAX Orange Line opens there, it could generate more interest in walking to public transit.

“One of the things we can do to help people welcome that transit is invest in some of the very things that this paper calls for,” she said. “Let’s do these things.”

The report adds to a growing focus on safety among transportation agencies, said Neil McFarlane, TriMet general manager.

“I would really emphasize short-term implementation of cost-effective solutions. I very much endorse the recommendations.”

Several Metro transportation projects include safety improvements as high priorities and some have even used the data from the safety report as it has emerged, including the East Metro Connections Plan and the Regional Active Transportation Plan.

Dylan Rivera is an employee of Metro who writes news stories about Metro issues and projects. His stories are independent coverage of the agency and are not altered by Metro officials.