The City of Portland, in its continued efforts toward the Vision Zero goal of eradicating traffic fatalities and serious injuries, has embarked on a new partnership with NovoaGlobal to manage its Speed and Intersection Safety Camera Program. As per an announcement from the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and Portland Police Bureau (PPB), this program is an integral aspect of Portland's strategic approach to traffic safety, leveraging technology to crack down on dangerous driving behaviors.
The program, which receives its financial backing from camera citations and fees from traffic safety courses, enables the use of such cameras to bolster vehicular safety on the streets, and with NovoaGlobal, the sole supplier and operator for Portland's initiative, it will be employing state-of-the-art technology for 32 existing camera locations, including 15 dedicated speed safety cameras and 17 that monitor both speed and traffic signal adherence, the implementation comes in addition to two mobile enforcement vans currently overseen by the PPB Traffic Division, with installations expected to conclude by November 1.
In what marks a broadening horizon for the safety measures, three fresh locations are poised to join the city's camera network: SE Powell Boulevard at 34th Avenue, NE 82nd Avenue at Fremont Street, and NE 82nd Avenue at Klickitat Street. Each site will undergo a 30-day warning period preceding the initiation of active citation enforcement. The expansion doesn't end there; two new speed safety cameras are slated for SE Powell Boulevard, around 60th Avenue, prepping to roll out by January 2026, and plans for additional cameras on SW Barbur Boulevard are currently brewing in the design phase.
This autumn figures to see PBOT and PPB engage in an expansion planning process, intent on extending the camera network beyond the 40 currently established or planned locations, new sites are chosen with the aid of traffic crash data alongside the suitability of each site for installation and in the interest of covering even more of Portland's High Crash Network, which accounts for only 8% of its streets yet witnessed 70% of deadly crashes in 2022 according to the city's metrics.
