Safe Streets briefing: Tigard analysis flags high‑risk corridors, equity impacts and 12 priority sites

City transportation staff and a consultant on Monday presented preliminary findings from the Safe Streets Action Plan funded by a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant, identifying Tigard corridors where changes to design and speed management are most likely to reduce deaths and serious injuries.

Principal transportation planner Tiffany Gerke summarized the project and its data foundation, saying the city received a $240,000 SS4A grant to develop a safety action plan and that the study combines historic crash records with a proactive risk analysis. “The idea is that we want to eliminate fatal and serious injuries for all road users,” Gerke said.

Consultant project manager Talia Jacobson told the council the team analyzed five years of crash reports (through 2022) and developed two complementary maps: a high‑injury network, which reflects where serious crashes have happened, and a high‑risk network, which predicts locations likely to experience future serious crashes based on street factors. Jacobson reported nearly 3,000 reported crashes in the five‑year period, including 90 serious injuries and six fatalities; pedestrians and cyclists were disproportionately likely to suffer the worst outcomes.

The analysis also produced a set of “speeding concern corridors,” where observed driver behavior or posted speeds increase the risk to people outside vehicles. Jacobson said the team identified 10 such corridors in the city and that wider streets with posted speeds above 25 mph, higher traffic volumes and certain neighborhood‑level characteristics were most strongly correlated with higher risk scores.

Jacobson and staff flagged equity concerns: five Tigard neighborhoods with higher social vulnerability are also more exposed to high‑injury or high‑risk streets. “These neighborhoods are more overexposed to crashes and to safety risks,” Jacobson said.

Using a three‑step filter (ownership, documented safety need, alignment with plan goals), staff built a draft list of 12 Tigard‑owned priority corridors for further study. Two corridors on that list already have design work and some funding under way, staff said. For each priority location the team will return to council with short‑term (quick‑build) and long‑term project concepts, cost estimates and benefits/cost ratios intended to support grant applications.

Councilors asked about next steps: how the plan will incorporate sidewalk completeness and school locations, how staff will evaluate whether recently built projects reduced risk (monitoring), and how low‑cost “quick‑build” tactics — temporary striping, flexible posts, curb extensions, cone treatments — can change driver behavior without large capital work. Staff said the final plan will include a “toolbox” of speed‑management tactics, performance metrics and an online dashboard to track progress.

Staff said the project will move into a “resolve” phase that will prepare project scopes, cost estimates and draft policy recommendations; staff also said they will expand public outreach and bring refined project packages and proposed metrics to council before the plan is finalized.