Portland residents were taken by surprise recently when the city received its first snowfall of 2016. Over an inch of the white stuff fell in the metro area, causing chaos on city roads. Gridlock trapped drivers for several hours throughout the city and on major highways. Public transit delays abounded as drivers abandoned their parked…

Does your mother ever worry about you being on the road after you’ve engorged yourself on an elaborate Thanksgiving feast? How about after the Times Square Ball Drop? Most people perceive driving during the months of November and December as more dangerous than at other times of year, as there are many more car accidents. The…

To prevent a repeat of last winter’s extreme snow and ice accumulations that paralyzed the city for days at a time, Portland plans more widespread use of road salt this year. City Unprepared for Last Year’s Thaw and Freeze Event Last year’s storm was complicated by a short thaw followed by a days-long deep-freeze that…

As soon as the Thanksgiving Day turkey is consumed, there is a heightened awareness of impaired drivers on the road. The holiday season marks the most active for drunk drivers, with the day before Thanksgiving Day, the Thanksgiving Day Weekend, and New Year’s Day experiencing the highest concentration of intoxicated drivers and car accidents in Portland….

Traffic fatalities caused by distracted drivers are increasing every year, and cell phone use is largely to blame. According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving overall was a factor in almost 3,200 traffic fatalities in 2014 and nearly 3,500 in 2015 in the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. Of those…

Cyclists in Portland shouldn’t have to wait until the annual World Naked Bike Ride to capture your attention. Each year, hundreds of cyclists’ lives are lost in collisions with automobiles. Thousands more are injured. Though cyclists sometimes break the rules of the road just as drivers do, we feel that it is crucial to highlight…

While state law requires cars to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, marked crosswalks have shown time and again to be more dangerous than unmarked crosswalks. In 2006 a pedestrian in Millbrae, California suffered extensive brain damage after being struck by a passing car while she was in a marked crosswalk at an intersection without…

Volvo, Ford and other car makers have said they will accept “full liability” in the future when a car crashes in autonomous mode, because the technology will be that good. An accident involving a fully autonomous vehicle, with or without a driver behind the wheel, will then be an issue of product liability, assuming the…

In the coming weeks, Winter is due to grace the Pacific Northwest. The stretch between Halloween and Thanksgiving weekend usually marks the opening of the winter ski season as a few resorts open their doors and welcome ski enthusiasts. Although peak snowfall won’t come around until at least December, avid skiers are eager to bring their…

If you’re an avid cyclist in the Portland area, you have likely had some close calls with cars or known people who did, or maybe you are reading this right now because you or someone you know has just been seriously hurt by a car-on-bike accident. For many Portlanders, cycling is a way of life….