Pedestrian Legal Clinic


Willamette Pedestrian Coalition would like to invite you to a Pedestrian Legal Clinic

REI-Portland
May 20, 2008, 6:30 – 8:00 pm,
1405 NW Johnson, Portland

Tired of Dodging Cars? Do you feel unsafe walking in your neighborhood? People on foot have rights. Have you almost been hit crossing the street when walking, running, getting to school or out for a stroll? On sidewalks and in crosswalks pedestrians have the right of way: Unite with others. Learn more about your legal rights as a pedestrian. Ray Thomas will present from his new guide “Oregon Pedestrian Rights: A Legal Guide for Persons on Foot”.

REI – Portland is located two blocks south of the street car and on bus lines 17 and 77

Register in advance (walk-ins ok): 503-223-1597
Pedestrian Legal Clinics are a joint project of lawyer activist Ray Thomas and the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition.
This session is hosted by REI-Portland

The next Pedestrian Legal Clinic will be: June 10, 2008, 6:00 – 7:30,
Portland Building, Broadway Room on the 9th Floor
1120 SW 5th Ave. Portland


0 responses to “Pedestrian Legal Clinic”

  1. I’m glad to stop for pedestrians who are obvious waiting to cross the street at an intersection. However, sometimes people are standing there but apparently preoccupied momentarily with something else. Are they going to cross now, or 30 seconds later? Or someone approaches on the sidewalk from a cross street. Will they continue across, or turn the corner? What about people who cross in the middle of the street?

    I can appreciate that some pedestrian may become frustrated waiting to cross at an intersection when the traffic is heavy. But this new law has added more confusion to a complicated interaction between autos and pedestrians.

  2. Many pedestrians have never or seldom driven and cannot understand what it is like to worry about hitting a jaywalker, and many drivers have been insulated for so many years that they have no idea what its like to try to take a walk and fear for your life. The lifestyles – cultures, even, are completely opposing in their native assumptions. Walking is safer, healthier, and more energy efficient though, so I think the city’s priorities are on track.

  3. I am glad to see that more emphasis is being given to pedestrian safety. I have noticed a big difference in “pedestrian-savvy(ness)” between Portland and Salem. Drivers here are downright hostile toward pedestrians. I had a different experience in Portland. However, I think drivers are more courteous toward other cars down here – just not peds. or bicyclists.

  4. GT: Portland used to be much more hostile than it is now, I think. Many of the unlighted crosswalks in town were routinely ignored until recently –for instance, the ones crossing Burnside at the Park Blocks.

    My opinion is that the change has come, in large part, from pedestrians being more assertive.

    It certainly hasn’t come from any sort of effort to enforce the law. (Oh right, there was that “pilot program” a couple of years ago.)

    I’d bet $10 no one here can produce a single ticket given by the City of Portland to a motorist for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. It simply has never happened, because our “community” police can’t be bothered to get out of their cruisers, even when violations happen 20 feet away from them.

    John

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