No, a reduction to 35 mph likely won't help much. The relationship between death and life relative to the speed of the car that strikes someone is a very steep curve from 20 mph to 30 mph. Over 30 mph, almost everyone dies; below 20 mph, almost everyone lives. A speed reduction actually aimed at saving pedestrian lives would have reduced the speed limit to 25 mph. In an ODOT world, where roadway deaths are up something like 40% over the past two years (yes, that's higher than the miles driven were up and much higher than the national numbers were up), safety always takes a back seat to speed.

Realistically, the only way to reduce deaths in that corridor is to lower the speed much more, probably by reducing the number and width of lanes. In this sedentary culture, that's not likely to happen. We'd rather die and kill than have safe transportation infrastructure, and that's too bad.