Eugene plans safety upgrades for Highway 99, River Road corridors

Eugene is moving to reshape two of its most stressful corridors after traffic deaths hit a three-year record, with 50 fatal crashes and 51 deaths from 2022 through 2024. The city says its River Road and Highway 99 Corridor Study will focus on making both streets safer, more reliable and better connected, with faster buses, safer walking and biking routes, and street designs that calm traffic instead of rewarding speed.

The study’s stated priorities are practical and visible: bus lanes or bus-and-turn lanes to improve speed and reliability, better intersection controls, stronger crossings and bikeway connections, and broader fixes such as medians, roundabouts, street lighting and intersection upgrades. Eugene is folding the work into its Vision Zero program, which dates to a November 2015 City Council resolution that made zero traffic deaths and serious injuries official city policy. The current draft Vision Zero Action Plan sets a goal of eliminating traffic-related fatalities and life-changing injuries by 2035.

The urgency is already clear on River Road. Eugene’s first protected intersection opened at River Road and Irving Road in November 2024 after being identified as a high-crash location in the Vision Zero Action Plan. Transportation planner Reed Dunbar said the design was chosen to address documented fatalities and injuries there and to reduce right-hook crashes while better protecting people walking and biking. The city’s fatal crash report shows the scale of the problem has grown sharply, with 22 people killed in traffic crashes on Eugene streets in 2024 alone, compared with 21 fatal traffic crashes total on city streets in 2019 through 2021.

The corridor work is also tied to a second round of street changes already scheduled. River Road from the south side of the Beltline interchange to Green Lane is set to be repaved in summer 2026, with sidewalk access ramp upgrades, pedestrian signal improvements and changes to three Lane Transit District stops near US Bank, Santa Clara Square Shopping Center and Santa Clara Animal Hospital. Eugene says those stops will be redesigned as floating bus stops to reduce conflicts between buses, drivers and people biking, since the current layout forces buses to block bike lanes and part of the travel lane while boarding passengers.

Neighborhood leaders have already been pulled into the process. On February 10, 2026, the River Road and Santa Clara Community Organizations joined staff from Eugene Transportation Planning, Lane Transit District, Lane County and Safe Routes to School for an annual transportation update, with transportation chosen as one of five key neighborhood-plan areas under review. For residents who travel Highway 99 and River Road every day, the question now is which fixes will come first, and how quickly Eugene can turn plans into safer pavement, safer crossings and fewer crashes.