PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – In an effort to crack down on reckless driving, the Portland Bureau of Transportation has begun installing new safety and traffic cameras across the city.
There are currently 20 cameras that issue citations in Portland. By the end of the year, PBOT says they hope to have eight more. By next year, an additional 12 could join the list.
The 40 total cameras will all be mounted on poles in high-crash areas and intersections to enforce speed limits and red lights.
City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, who oversees PBOT, said he hopes to send a strong signal that reckless driving is “unacceptable” in Portland.
“These cameras are a tremendous supplement to the essential work of our Portland police officers,” he said. “With more enforcement, and more investment in rebuilding our streets to make them safer for everyone, we can get people to slow down and drive safer.”
According to a 2020 speed study conducted in four corridors, speed cameras led to a 94% decrease in “top end speeding” – or, cars going 11 mph or more than the speed limit – from 2016 to 2020.
Speeding is also a top contributing factor to deadly crashes in the area, officials say.
PBOT Director Millicent Williams said the ultimate goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate traffic deaths.
“With these cameras, we are giving people a strong incentive to slow down and drive more safely,” Williams said. “We have seen a decisive drop in dangerous driving very soon after we added camera enforcement on several high crash corridors, so I am eager to grow this program as quickly as possible.”
