The City of Portland has secured a $2.12 million federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant to carry out a slate of roadway, pedestrian, and bicycle safety changes along Brighton Avenue.
The funding will support the Brighton Avenue Safety and Demonstration Project, a six-month pilot covering a one-mile stretch between City Hospital Drive and Wayside Road.
The project includes quick-build safety measures such as roadway reconfiguration, restriping, a center turn lane, buffered bicycle lanes with green conflict markings, delineators, planters, improved lighting, and vehicle feedback signs. Pavement leveling will also be completed to ensure proper installation and visibility of the pilot features.
City Manager Danielle West said the funding will advance Portland’s Vision Zero initiative, which seeks to eliminate the kind of traffic fatalities and serious injuries the corridor has seen within two decades, while generating data to inform long-term transportation planning.
Mayor Mark Dion credited assistance from the office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R) in securing the federal funds, saying the improvements will increase safety for pedestrians and bicyclists and help guide similar efforts elsewhere in the city.
In addition to physical changes along the corridor, the project will include a public education campaign, before-and-after multimodal traffic counts and speed studies, and a findings report to support future Vision Zero initiatives and capital investments. The stated goal is to evaluate how the measures affect roadway safety and serious injury reduction.
Conceptual design work is expected to begin in fall 2026, with final design and installation planned by June 2027.
