We are neighbors who live around the intersection of 7th & NE Tillamook. Our streets are flooded with runoff traffic from MLK and for a long time it has been dangerous. Now, its about to get worse!
Please make it “SAFE on 7th!”
Longtime neighbors who have lived here since before the traffic circles remember dangerous vehicle volumes and speeds—including drag racing! The circle was installed over three decades ago after a neighborhood child was killed by a speeding driver less than a block from 7th and NE Tillamook. The purpose of the circle was to slow traffic, particularly non-local vehicles who use 7th to avoid traffic lights on MLK, Jr. Blvd.
The traffic circle is the only meaningful traffic calming device we have, and PBOT intends to remove it.
Our neighborhood is asking to participate in the decision making process that directly impacts our safety where we live. Please read our second letter to PBOT and our Land Use Board Appeal asking that they invite community participation before they proceed.
We are asking PBOT for the following:
1. INVITE US TO PARTICIPATE in the planning and decision process for Lower 7th
2. Prioritize the goal to REDUCE TRAFFIC SPEED and VOLUME from 6,000 cars p/day to 1,000 (this is the existing PBOT recommendation for the lower 7th area designated as residential street)
3. Halt this current plan and any other plan that will likely increase both volume/speed of cars.
This street is unsafe. I grew up here. I do not support this project. I think you are prioritizing cars, not the people that live there. Children, cats, dogs, bicyclists, and people who live here cross the street, and some have been hit by cars! PBOT’s project only makes it worse.
8-year-old girl, 7th & NE Tillamook resident
My wife and I operate the preschool on Tillamook. We also live here and both of us would happily trade access changes and car commute modifications for ourselves and our customers for a better neighborhood with lower car traffic. . .
Zac 7th & NE Tillamook resident
PBOT needs to pay attention to the real complexity of diversity within our communities, which requires them to listen to organizations AND individuals, over time scales of decades and over time scales of months.”
Helen, 7th & NE Tillamook resident
Even those in support of PBOT’s plan, and PBOT themselves, can’t point to anything that will prevent speeds from increasing as a result of this project. All the mitigations in the design are directed at improving visibility and mode separation. Nothing in the design will mitigate drivers speeding and it’s therefore not the clear cut “net improvement in safety” that PBOT claims it is. The neighbors are united in their concern about speeds for good reason. Speed kills.
Mitch, Elliott neighborhood resident
I don’t want a life to be taken and PBOT to realize afterward it was a mistake. We can’t get that life back once that life is taken.
Yulinda and Wayne 7th & NE Tillamook lifetime residents
We want our brown skinned daughter to be able to walk across Tillamook Street without living in fear that someone will run her over.
Steve & Rose, 7th & NE Tillamook resident
Safety issues are big concern by moving the roundabout. As a family with a young child I am already worried about speeding cars down our street…. Many people go well over 35 miles per hour down our street with speed bumps. There has already been a death of child and many pets on 7th. By removing the barriers that protect our neighborhood from being a highway it will increase speeding and make our street a cut through street for aggressive drivers.
Sabra S. 7th & NE Tillamook resident
The difference on 7th street since the barriers have gone up is night and day. Listen to the community that actually lives there, not just motorists that want to use it as a high speed cut through. Literally MLK is a block away.
Jay Cee, Elliott neighborhood resident
I don’t understand what the rush is; they’ve waited 4 years already, a little longer isn’t going to hurt anyone. Surely there’s a way to delay the contractor for a few weeks and work this out with residents.
Watts, Elliott neighborhood resident
Speed bumps do nothing. They are not a solution. It’s a waste of concrete. We need stop signs.
Mollie, 7th & NE Tillamook resident
As a resident of this area for over 50 years, I can say that the removal of the traffic circle is not going to make the traffic flow safer. When the circle was installed it did deter some speeders, but I can remember people racing down 7th. I have my worries about my neighbors with ambulatory issues. I would hope that my concerns are not falling on deaf ears. Throughout my life this area seems to be where the city uses this area as a place to test things out. I would hope that PBOT would do more than lip service for this area. I personally have to pull into the southbound and back into my driveway, if I pulled in head in I’d never get out on 7th. I also had an accident on 7th when I was waiting for a cyclist to get past my driveway when I was rear ended and knocked head on into a southbound vehicle. We have children in this area and the new plan seems to endanger the elderly and the kids.
Jerry, 7th & Thompson resident
Our concerned neighbor, Randy Haj, petitioned the state to have the work on 7th & NE Tillamook halted in order to allow for the neighborhood residents to participate in the planning process. Our goal is to ensure any modification to the intersection does not increase risk to pedestrians or allow for increased traffic volume and speed.
DOWNLOAD 7th & NE Tillamook Neighborhood LETTER from our neighborhood to PBOTDOWNLOAD copy of petition signed by people walking and biking through our intersection for only a few hours on one day! (Pretty much EVERYBODY signed, especially those using wheelchairs or walking with children. Cyclists were unanimously supportive. These are people who use this route regularly and understand how dangerous it is!)
The Eliot Neighborhood Association (and the Irvington Neighborhood Association) support our neighborhood in the effort to bring the traffic volume and speed into the range appropriate for a residential street.
Safe on 7th! 