The deadliest highways and corridors in the Portland metro area

Portland logged 39 traffic deaths in 2025, down from a record 69 in 2023 and the lowest count since 2018, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT)¹. That's real progress, but it doesn't mean the roads got safer everywhere at once. Crash risk in this region piles up on a short list of the same streets, year after year, and knowing which ones they are matters if you drive, walk, or bike here.

A small share of streets, most of the danger

PBOT's High Crash Network, 30 streets and 30 intersections, makes up just 8% of the city's street mileage but accounted for an average of 67% of traffic deaths between 2020 and 2024². The city has put $193 million into safety work on these corridors since 2017, with 66% of that spending directed to neighborhoods with higher shares of people of color and lower-income residents². Vision Zero traces back to a 2015 City Council commitment and a 2016 action plan, and in 2023 the city won $33.8 million in federal funding aimed largely at SE 122nd Avenue and the Burgard Bridge replacement in North Portland³.

Even with 2025's improvement, pedestrians made up 51% of the people killed, and East Portland, long the epicenter of the problem, saw deaths fall 56% to 11, its first year under 20 since 2018¹.

NE Marine Drive

No street in Portland's network has recorded more deaths than NE Marine Drive, which runs along the Columbia River past Portland International Airport. It logged 16 traffic deaths between 2017 and 2021, four of them pedestrians, more than any other High Crash Network street in that stretch². Its long, straight sightlines and light development have also made it a draw for illegal street racing, and fatal racing crashes there keep turning up in local news.

SE Powell Boulevard, a state highway through a neighborhood

SE Powell Boulevard doubles as US 26, which means the Oregon Department of Transportation, not the city, owns and designs it. It recorded more total serious and fatal pedestrian crashes than any other Portland street from 2017 through 2021². BikePortland's crash tracker counted 10 fatal crashes on Powell between SE 24th and SE 62nd since 2017, six of them concentrated between 24th and 37th⁴. Sarah Pliner, riding a bike, was killed at SE Powell and SE 26th on October 4, 2022, when a truck making a right turn onto Powell struck her; ODOT had removed a protective bike box from that corner in 2019 while widening the turn radius for trucks⁴. In March 2025, an 86-year-old man was struck and killed by a motorcycle near SE 67th moments after stepping off a TriMet bus.

ODOT and the city are now rebuilding outer Powell in phases through the $25.1 million Outer Powell Transportation Safety Project, funded by the 2017 state transportation package. The first phase, from SE 122nd to SE 136th, wrapped in 2020; a second phase covering SE 99th to 122nd and SE 136th to 174th broke ground in spring 2025 and is expected to run for roughly five years⁵.

82nd and 122nd Avenues

SE/NE 82nd Avenue killed nine people between 2015 and 2019, five of them pedestrians, out of 142 recorded crashes, half of which involved someone on foot². Four more people died on the corridor between January 2020 and mid-2022. Six of Portland's 30 highest-crash intersections sit along 82nd, clustered around the 82nd Avenue MAX station and the stretch between SE Division and SE Foster². The turnaround has been dramatic: PBOT recorded zero deadly crashes on 82nd Avenue in all of 2025¹.

Parallel to it, SE 122nd Avenue shows up again and again in the intersection data. Its junctions with Halsey, Stark, Division, and Shaver streets are all named among the city's most dangerous, and the corridor drew the bulk of that 2023 federal safety grant²³. Among the individual worst spots citywide from 2020 to 2024: SE Foster Road at the I-205 ramp (57 crashes, 2 deaths), NE Halsey at 122nd (75 crashes, 1 death), NE Glisan at the I-84 ramp (78 crashes), SE Stark at 122nd (61 crashes, 1 death), E Burnside at 82nd (39 crashes, 1 death), and NE Broadway at 15th, which recorded two pedestrian deaths².

Washington County's TV Highway

West of Portland, Oregon Route 8, better known as Tualatin Valley Highway or TV Highway, carries much of the same risk profile through Beaverton, Aloha, and Hillsboro. Washington County data cited by BikePortland put 3,355 crashes and 16 fatalities on the corridor between 2010 and 2014 alone⁶. Like Powell, it's an ODOT-owned multi-lane arterial that doubles as a commercial main street, a combination that keeps producing some of the region's worst pedestrian crash numbers.

East Multnomah County and Clackamas County

Outside city limits, the pattern repeats. An East Multnomah County safety plan covering Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview, and Wood Village found 104 deaths and 473 serious injuries on the area's urban roads between 2013 and 2022; the county board adopted a formal safety action plan in January 2026 using federal Safe Streets for All grant funding⁷. In Clackamas County, ODOT and the county studied a 5-mile stretch of McLoughlin Boulevard, Highway 99E, between Milwaukie and the Clackamas River after finding that seven people, all of them walking or using wheelchairs, were killed there in five years, alongside 53 more crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists from 2016 through 2020⁸⁹.

I-5 through the Rose Quarter

Portland's stretch of I-5 through the Rose Quarter is the state's worst freight bottleneck and the 27th-worst in the nation, carrying roughly 11,700 trucks and about $115 million in commodities every day¹⁰. ODOT's project materials describe a crash rate 3.5 times the statewide average for I-5, though Oregon Metro has pushed back on how that figure gets framed, noting other ODOT-owned highways in Portland see higher crash rates¹¹. Either way, congestion and crashes there cost the region an estimated $250 million a year in lost time and productivity¹⁰.

Work zones, statewide

The risk isn't confined to fixed corridors either. Oregon logged 621 work zone crashes in 2024, a five-year high, killing 14 people and seriously injuring 36 more, almost entirely drivers and passengers rather than road crews. ODOT points to speeding and distracted driving as the two leading causes¹².

If you're hurt on one of these roads

A crash on a known high-crash corridor doesn't automatically simplify a claim. Fault, road design, and whether a state or local agency bears some responsibility for the conditions can all become contested issues. If you've been hurt in a crash on any of these roads, an attorney from the legal directory can help you sort out who's responsible and what the claim is worth.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Portland Bureau of Transportation, "News Release: Traffic deaths decline for a second consecutive year, 38 percent below recent years, with significant improvement in East Portland," March 5, 2026. https://www.portland.gov/transportation/news/2026/3/5/news-release-traffic-deaths-decline-second-consecutive-year-38-percent

2. Portland Bureau of Transportation, "High Crash Network streets and intersections," Portland.gov. https://www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero/high-crash-network-streets-and-intersections

3. Portland Bureau of Transportation, "About Vision Zero." https://www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero/about-vision-zero

4. BikePortland, "The problem with Powell Boulevard," October 6, 2022. https://bikeportland.org/2022/10/06/the-problem-with-powell-boulevard-364911

5. Oregon Department of Transportation, "Outer Powell Transportation Safety Project." https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=19690

6. BikePortland, "This morning's death on TV Highway underscores need for reform, investment," January 14, 2020. https://bikeportland.org/2020/01/14/this-mornings-death-on-tv-highway-underscores-need-for-reform-investment-309625

7. Multnomah County, "News Release: Board adopts collaborative plan to improve safety on east Multnomah County's urban roads." https://multco.us/news/news-release-board-adopts-collaborative-plan-improve-safety-east-multnomah-countys-urban-roads

8. BikePortland, "'Investment Strategy' sets course for a more bike-friendly McLoughlin Blvd," July 6, 2023. https://bikeportland.org/2023/07/06/investment-strategy-sets-course-for-a-modern-mcloughlin-blvd-376946

9. Oregon Department of Transportation, "McLoughlin Boulevard Investments Strategy." https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=MBSI

10. I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project, "FAQs." https://www.i5rosequarter.org/faqs/

11. Streetsblog USA, "Boondoggle: Portland Takes a Step Backward," June 28, 2019. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/06/28/boondoggle-portland-takes-a-step-backward

12. Oregon Department of Transportation, Work Zone Safety. https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/Safety/Pages/Work-Zone.aspx