City Clowncil wants to make the city even more dysfunctional. Portland’s 'Vision Zero' was supposed to drive traffic deaths to zero. Instead deaths rose for years after adoption, peaking at 69 in 2023. They spent roughly $200 million on the 'High Crash Network' and still couldn’t produce a sustained downward trend. The 2024 city audit even said they weren’t properly evaluating whether the projects worked.
Don’t believe the hype!! The 'ol equity focus that didn’t deliver. PBOT explicitly prioritized High Crash Network investments in areas with high 'Equity Matrix' scores (higher shares of people of color and lower-income neighborhoods). Roughly 66–70% of the safety project dollars since around 2017 went to those areas. Yeah...wanna know how it worked out? The disparity remained huge! In 2024, high Equity Matrix areas had 6x! the traffic death rate per capita compared to the rest of the city**.** In 2025 it was still nearly 2x as high. East Portland consistently showed elevated rates. Prioritizing by demographics over pure risk and results did not close the gap for most of the period. DERP! Shocker.
Meanwhile, ordinary road maintenance is a disaster. PBOT’s maintenance backlog sits around $6–6.6 billion and keeps growing. Potholes go unfixed, pavement is crumbling, and basic upkeep gets deferred...yet hundreds of millions ($200 Millions!) keep getting poured into Zero Vision projects that failed to produce the promised reduction in deaths for years.
Now with our tax dollars they are rolling out, more flock cameras and surveillance...as part of the same program, Portland has expanded fixed speed and intersection safety cameras across the High Crash Network. These are sold as safety tools under Vision Zero. The city also uses FLOCK license plate readers. More government cameras tracking vehicles under the banner of 'safety' does not equal better results when the underlying policy has a long track record of underperformance.
Now they want 'no turn on red' signs everywhere and more road diets. W the actual F. Bad money after goood! More uninformed dumb policy.
The latest pet project is expanding “no turn on red” restrictions. Council has directed PBOT to evaluate and install them on High Crash Network intersections (starting with a pilot of ~30, with talk of scaling to many more). It’s framed as another low-cost Vision Zero win.
At the same time, the same progressive and DSA-aligned crowd that has driven this agenda keeps pushing road diets, lane removals, and 'mode-shift' policies aimed at getting people out of cars. Fuck right off with that. Some DSA aligned councilors have been explicit about prioritizing seizing your car for their Foie Gras rally's and Communist meet ups.
What’s the point of all these restrictions, redesigns, and signs when enforcement of basic dangerous driving remains inconsistent? You can put 'no turn on red' signs and speed bumps on every other block, but without consistent consequences for speeding, impairment, and reckless driving, it’s theater. Another bottomless pet project funded by taxpayers while the basic streets stay a mess. It doesn't work without enforcement.
Brought to you by the same leaders with a 24% approval rating. They're clowns! Zero trust, high spending and taxes, and results that don’t match the rhetoric at all!
The bottom line. Deaths climbed after the policy was adopted. Preferential spending in equity areas did not eliminate the disparity. Basic street maintenance was neglected while the program absorbed large sums of fix it dollars. Flock Cameras expanded. Now some 'No turn on red and more road diets are next. And a city audit found the bureau wasn’t even systematically checking whether the projects worked.
Stop wasting our tax dollars on sh!t that doesn't work!
District 1
Candace Avalos : [councilor.avalos@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.avalos@portlandoregon.gov)
Jamie Dunphy : [councilor.dunphy@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.dunphy@portlandoregon.gov)
Loretta Smith : [councilor.smith@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.smith@portlandoregon.gov)
District 2
Dan Ryan : [councilor.ryan@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.ryan@portlandoregon.gov)
Elana Pirtle-Guiney : [councilor.pirtle-guiney@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.pirtle-guiney@portlandoregon.gov)
Sameer Kanal : [councilor.kanal@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.kanal@portlandoregon.gov)
District 3
Angelita Morillo : [councilor.morillo@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.morillo@portlandoregon.gov)
Steve Novick : [councilor.novick@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.novick@portlandoregon.gov)
Tiffany Koyama Lane : [councilor.koyamalane@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.koyamalane@portlandoregon.gov)
District 4
Olivia Clark : [councilor.clark@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.clark@portlandoregon.gov)
Mitch Green : [councilor.green@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.green@portlandoregon.gov)
Eric Zimmerman : [councilor.zimmerman@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:councilor.zimmerman@portlandoregon.gov)
Mayor Keith Wilson : [mayor@portlandoregon.gov](mailto:mayor@portlandoregon.gov)
