The Portland Bureau of Transportation is offering discounts on Uber and Lyft rides for New Year's Eve revelers, part of the bureau's on-going push for safe travel as the city nears its second consecutive year with a dramatic drop in deaths on streets and highways.

As of Monday, Dec. 22, there were 39 traffic deaths in Portland, a 32% drop compared with a year ago and a 39% decline compared with the same period in 2023.

If people continue to travel safely through Dec. 31, Portland appears to be making significant improvement from the pandemic era travel patterns that saw traffic deaths by people in vehicles triple from 9 in 2018 to a high of 32 in 2023. Excessive speeding – traveling highway speeds on city streets – also grew during the pandemic but has dropped significantly in the last two years.

It takes five years or more for trends to emerge, but recent travel patterns are encouraging.

As of this week, Portland had 20 pedestrian deaths this year, down 29% from the 28 at the same time in 2022.

The City of Portland's efforts to end traffic deaths and serious injuries, with a multi-agency approach known as Vision Zero, appear to be paying off. Safety improvements have reduced speeding on high crash corridors and are showing signs of reducing crashes as well. Incentives for ridesharing will reduce dangerous driving at a risky time for all road users. The city is deploying more safety cameras to reduce speeding and red-light running.

"While it's encouraging to see traffic deaths on the decline, we must stay focused on our Vision Zero goal," Mayor Keith Wilson said. "No one should be killed or suffer a life altering injury just from traveling in our city. I will continue to work with the City Council to invest in safety improvements, camera enforcement and public education that can continue the downward trend and make our community safer and more resilient against national trends."

As we approach the end of the year, PBOT urges everyone to use caution, look out for one another, and practice safe travel behaviors:

Slow down and travel at or below the speed limit
Take care when making turns and approaching crosswalks and watch for others
Always turn on headlights
Maintain a safe distance between vehicles
Stay alert and avoid distractions – it’s illegal to drive while holding and using a cell phone
When traveling outside of a motor vehicle, dress as visibly as possible or use a light or safety reflector

All deadly crash data for 2025 are preliminary until at least the spring of 2026. It can take months for the Portland Police Bureau to complete traffic investigations and for the Oregon Department of Transportation and federal government to publish final tallies.

As we get closer to the end of the year, the public and news media may want to refer to recent traffic death figures for Portland:

57 people were killed in traffic crashes in Portland in 2024.
69 people in 2023, a 30-year record.
48 people in 2019, before the pandemic.
Average of 41 people killed in the five years before the pandemic, 2015-19.

More details and annual traffic crash reports are available on the Vision Zero website.

Portland Police often report a different number of traffic crashes within a year than PBOT. That's because PBOT adheres to the federal definition of a traffic crash, which excludes homicides, suicides, medical events, private property crash sites, and collisions not involving a motor vehicle. It also excludes any crashes where the victim died more than 30 days after the crash, leading to a delay in final figures.

The city expects to publish a final deadly traffic crash report with preliminary 2025 figures in the first three months of 2026. Vision Zero staff analyze all deadly and serious injury crashes for all modes – pedestrians, people on bikes, people on motorcycles, and people in motor vehicles. The program also analyzes all other crashes involving pedestrians and people on bikes, regardless of severity.

To help everyone get home safely this New Year’s Eve, PBOT is offering coupons for $10 off Uber and Lyft rides, downloadable from the Safe Ride Home website. Rides must begin in Portland and are valid from 7 p.m. Dec. 31, 2025, to 4 a.m. Jan. 1, 2026, while supplies last.

Want to get home using public transit instead? PBOT encourages the traveling public to hop on any TriMet bus or MAX or Portland Streetcar after 8 p.m. for free service. C-TRAN will also provide free rides starting at 6 p.m. through the end of the service day.

Last year, PBOT’s Safe Ride Home helped over 2,100 partygoers celebrate New Year’s Eve in Portland responsibly and get home safely.

While it's a time of celebration, New Year's Eve can also be dangerous on streets and highways. As one of the shortest days of year, more people travel when it is dark and visibility is limited. People driving while impaired by alcohol or other drugs corresponds with higher rates of traffic deaths in Portland and in cities across the country.

Nationwide, nighttime driving in December 2023 was significantly more dangerous than daytime driving, with 30% of drivers involved in deadly traffic crashes between the hours of 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. being under the influence of alcohol. Almost half of drivers involved in deadly crashes between the hours of midnight and 2:59 a.m. were impaired by alcohol, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Year after year, dark conditions and impairment are top contributing factors to deadly crashes in Portland. Last year, 86% of pedestrian deaths and 83% of all traffic deaths occurred in darker conditions (from dusk to dawn) while between 2019 and 2023, 70% of Portland’s deadly crashes involved alcohol and/or drug impairment.

Historically, pedestrian crashes increase sharply in the winter months as daylight hours shrink and more people travel in dark conditions. For 10 years through 2023, Portland averaged 20 traffic crashes a month involving pedestrians with spikes in December (27), nearly twice as high in July (14).

The increased risk means it’s even more crucial for everyone traveling – whether driving, taking transit, rolling, biking, or walking – to use extra caution.

Last month, speed and intersection safety cameras on high crash corridors resumed enforcement after transitioning to a new vendor. Currently, there are 16 safety cameras enforcing speed and traffic signal violations across the city. These upgraded cameras will immediately start issuing citations for violations resulting in fines from $170 to $440. The equipment is new, but because the camera-based enforcement at locations is not, warnings will not be issued. The city will continue its protocol to issue notifications and 30-day warnings for all new safety camera corridors.

The new vendor is upgrading the system to replace all cameras with new LiDAR technology monitoring 24/7 for possible infractions. Each week, more safety cameras will resume enforcement until all 32 are upgraded and three new cameras are added.

Safety cameras are part of the city’s efforts to reduce dangerous speeding and save lives.

Learn more about Vision Zero, the City of Portland’s goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets, at www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero.

Source: Portland Bureau of Transportation

Mike Jones