Serious Tip - Don't Go Back to the Moon

“If you promise to stay alive just a little bit longer I promise that we are going to make this world a place worth living in by any means necessary. I ain’t giving up. I swear.” 

That’s the 72, the most-ridden bus route in the entire state. It’s also the most-delayed bus route in the entire state, because half of its run is up and down 82nd Avenue, which is historically a high-traffic and high-crash “orphan highway”.

See, in its early days, 82nd Avenue was a state-owned highway outside of town – OR 213 – designed to carry high speed traffic across the state. Eventually the city of Portland expanded across it and it got renamed to 82nd Avenue, but the state continued to own it and manage it as a highway. The surrounding city neighborhood was heavily Asian and Asian-American, known as the Jade District, full of housing and restaurants and schools and community centers, but even though this vibrant community existed all along 82nd Avenue, the state continued to manage it as a highway, not as a neighborhood street. Unsurprisingly, it became the deadliest street in Portland, so many pedestrians were killed while trying to cross it. If you look at heatmaps of crashes in the city of Portland, there 82nd Avenue is, bright as day, lit up brighter than almost anything else on the map.

For twenty years, activists in the Jade District tried to get 82nd Avenue transferred from state to city authority, so that it could be managed as a street that ran through a neighborhood where people live, rather than a state highway. It was a major effort, which finally required getting an Asian-American caucus elected both to city government and the state legislature, but they finally did it! 82nd Avenue is finally owned by the city! And the first thing the city did–in consultation with the Jade District activists!–was put in a slew more lighted and signaled crosswalks. Already they’ve started building other things: medians, to slow traffic down and give pedestrians a safe place of refuge when they’re crossing the street. Protected bike lanes. And there’s plans for giving the 72 bus – the most-ridden bus and also the most-delayed bus in the state! – its own dedicated transit lanes, so it can run on time, without being delayed by traffic.

This is a major win, and it will absolutely save lives. All because two generations of neighborhood activists worked for it, and worked for it, and worked for it, and worked for it.

Or as someone wrote on this bus stop for the 72:

WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS MY FAVORITE TELEVISION SERIES OF ALL TIME (it's not out yet)