The corner of SE Ellis and 48th where Melissa Kostelecky saw an elementary student on a bike get hit by the driver of that grey Subaru Monday afternoon. The child rolled out of the curb cut right behind that maroon SUV that is parked too close to the corner. (Photo: Melissa Kostelecky)
“Just saw a kid get hit by a car right across from Woodstock Elementary,” read a message from Portlander Melissa Kostelecky posted to a local advocacy forum on Monday. “This is exactly why we need to get on the city to enforce daylighting.”
Daylighting, or what the City of Portland refers to as “vision clearance at intersections” is a way to improve visibility by prohibiting on-street auto parking all the way up to the curb. It’s a well-known concept to local road safety advocates and one that should be well-known to local elected officials and policymakers.
Over the years we’ve seen lots of attention on the issue in the form of advocacy campaigns, promises from leaders, even a lawsuit from a bereaved family of a man killed as a result of poor intersection visibility. Despite all that, Portland has still not made enough progress on ridding corners of the scourge of parked cars.
Kostelecky was shaken-up after watching that crash on Monday. Luckily the child on the bike and the driver were going slowly and the driver was able to react before serious damage could be done. Kostelecky has since filed a report with police and with PBOT’s 823-SAFE system just to make sure it’s accounted for.
Kokopeli’s brilliant testimony at council this morning.Another local advocate, Peter Kokopeli, used his three-minute testimony in front of Portland City Council this morning (watch it here) to raise awareness of daylighting. “This kind of situation is not safe for drivers or for anybody else,” Kokopeli said as he held up a printed sheet of paper showing a car parked over the corner on SE Belmont and 68th. He urged Mayor Ted Wheeler, PBOT Commissioner Mingus Mapps, and other council members to direct more funding to daylight intersections on all school routes, neighborhood greenways, bus routes, and all streets where pedestrians are prioritized. “They cost only $800 per intersection. It’s a really good deal,” he said.
“It’s truly one of the rare low-hanging fruits in the transportation space and I hope that we can work together to make this more widespread practice.”
Wheeler beamed at Kokopeli and he and Mapps said they appreciated his presentation. While they talked about funding, no promises were made. “It’s relatively cheap fix and it would be great to make progress in this area,” Mapps said. Then he added, “It’s truly one of the rare low-hanging fruits in the transportation space and I hope that we can work together to make this more widespread practice.”
If it’s “low-hanging fruit” and relatively cheap to implement, it’s surprising PBOT hasn’t done more of it. And of course, even if they took the step of painting curbs or adding “No Parking” signage — given the extreme entitlement of many Portland drivers who feel they can park wherever and however they want — it would only be effective if it were implemented with robust and impenetrable infrastructure and/or strong enforcement.
Speaking of enforcement, there’s already a state law (ORS 811.550) that prohibits cars from parking within 20-feet of a corner (with some exceptions), but it is rarely enforced.
One way to compel the City of Portland to take daylighting more seriously is to sue them, and that’s what local lawyer Scott Kocher is doing on behalf of the family of Elijah Coe, a man who was hit and killed by a driver while riding his motorcycle on E Burnside in 2019. In that case, a driver attempted to make a left turn onto Burnside (from SE 17th) and collided with Coe. “Mr. Coe’s death in the resulting collision, could have been prevented if the City complied with the law,” reads a statement from the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Attorneys for PBOT have leaned very heavily on discretionary immunity (a legal concept backed up by state law that says cities are immune from liability, even if they made decisions that led to less safe infrastructure) to argue they should not be liable for crashes that result from a lack of visibility at intersections.
On the ground, PBOT is slowly working to daylight thousands of intersections citywide that need it. After former PBOT Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty dedicated $200,000 toward the effort in 2021, PBOT says they completed 350 daylighting treatments on high crash streets. But current city guidelines only call carfree corners if a street is repaved or if it’s part of a large capital project — a policy that leads to far fewer installations than Kokopeli asked for at council this morning. The only way to get more of them done is to request specific locations one-at-a-time.
Meanwhile, Portland parents like Kostelecky and advocates like Kokopeli will have to hope drivers learn about the issue and simply stop parking so close to corners. But for some drivers, even awareness of the law doesn’t stop the dangerous behavior.
Kostelecky told BikePortland she’s discussed the issue near the school with leaders of the nearby neighborhood association. They’ve told her that many parents intentionally ignore the daylighting law and tell her things like, “I’m just trying to get my kid to school.”
With attitudes like that from some drivers, no amount of paint or “pretty please” will work.
Kocher says his lawsuit is pending a decision from the Oregon Court of Appeals and he expects a decision within the next year.
