What’s the Rush, Lents?

To the Officials at PBOT and the City of Portland: We need your help!

This website is dedicated to shedding light on traffic safety issues in Lents by sharing real stories from neighbors who are urgently calling for investments to make our streets safer, no matter what mode of transportation they’re using.

Our current focus is on a few key corridors: SE Harold, SE Holgate, 103rd, 104th, and 111th — all streets that lack a complete and connected sidewalk network. These gaps in infrastructure make daily life more dangerous for everyone, especially those walking, biking, or using mobility devices. SE 92nd, a street nearly all neighbors accessing the Lents Town Center, has had some nice updates lately, but that hasn’t stopped people from driving extremely recklessly, making it hard for neighbors to choose to travel down this street by wheelchair, bike, or on foot.

We are committed to pushing for changes throughout our neighborhood that will improve the safety and livability in Lents. Our ultimate goal is to slow drivers down and encourage respect for basic traffic safety rules through immediate small interventions like local access only signs and through longer-term traffic pattern modifications like green infrastructure and pedestrian crossing signals, and fixed-speed safety cameras. 

We know that the process for planning and implementing infrastructure projects is long and complicated, so we want to ensure that the problems in our area are well understood and remain top of mind as you move forward with planning on projects that impact our streets. 

Please click through the pages of our site and reach out to us at lentsneighbors [at] gmail.com if you have any questions or if you are ready to discuss our ideas further!

Lastly, we want to acknowledge that we notice and appreciate the recent safety traffic improvements in our surrounding area (including on Harold, especially from 92nd–101st!). We look forward to helping create a safer and more peaceful existence for ourselves and our neighbors. 

Thank you so much for your time!