A bicycle rider died in a traffic collision in northeast Portland this morning. It happened around 9:00 am — less than seven hours after a separate fatal collision involving a cyclist this morning.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, this crash happened in the area of Northeast 105th and NE Marx. The driver remained at the scene and the investigation is ongoing. No other details have been released at this time.
Two cycling deaths so close together is rare and will likely lead to a large response from local bike activists. Beyond the timing, what’s also notable is the locations. This more recent fatality happened just 3.4 miles north of the one on NE Glisan earlier this morning.
NE 105th and Marx is an industrially-zoned area of the Parkrose neighborhood just a few blocks north of Sandy Blvd (US 30). 105th is known to some bicycle riders because it’s the road that runs adjacent to the I-205 path just south of where it connects to NE Alderwood Road. I’ve hopped onto 105th to access this industrial area. There are no bike lanes, sidewalks, or curbs, and the shoulders are often full of gravel.
This is the fifth person killed in a bicycle crash on Portland streets so far this year.
I’ll share more as I learn what happened. For now, if you have any information about the incident, please contact crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, attention Traffic Investigations Unit, and reference case number 24-269938.
Thanks for reading.
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Please people! His name is Damon…my 32 year old son. The grief is crushing my entire family. Politics aside for a moment to honor his memory. Thank you.
We hear you. Thank you for coming here to share. Our hearts are with you and your family at this time.
If safe streets in District 1 is important to you, here are the answers given to BikeLoud by Dist 1 candidates. Unfortunately, some candidates did not respond or did not want their answers published according to BL, but there are a few candidates that appear to care about this subject.
This area is horrible, but I’ve been forced to ride it a few times when the underpass on the 205 trail has been blocked by camps. I await more information on this incident, but I hope that isn’t the case here.
Yes I too have taken to riding surface streets due to blockages and hostile behavior from campers on the paths. TBH to me they seem like loiterers more than “campers”, because I don’t see much “camping” happening.
I rode under Prescott on Sunday and there was a large dog, pit mix, chained up in in a tent on the path, snarling and barking at everything that came near. Poor pup, it deserved better. Around the next corner a clearly mentally unstable / intoxicated woman was swinging a large stick wlldly as she ran down the embankment towards the path. My fight or flight reflexes were on high alert and I made sure to warn the trail users up the path from that mess.
When is enough enough? Are deaths of cyclists forced onto surface streets by hostile persons not compelling?
I’m sure the folks in this comment section will blame drivers as usual but I find it ridiculous that we built the separated infrastructure you all demanded 30 years ago. It’s only in the last 5-10 that irresponsible leadership has allowed it to become unsafe and nearly unusable.
It’s not clear that the person killed here was forced off the 205 path by camping or any other behavior you’re describing. Could’ve been someone going to work, or someone for who the route on 105th was just more convenient.
It’s deeply problematic that so much of the 205 path is unusable, but to say that this death was caused by that without any corroboration when the death was in fact caused by a car hitting a cyclist is unfair. It should be safe and comfortable to ride on 105th regardless of the existence of the 205 path
As usual, two things can be true at the same time.
John’s comment resonates with me, and I’ll never forget the time Chloe Eudaly told us all, “Get over it. We have a housing emergency” when we pointed out that mentally unstable people had taken over the MUPs.
Oh no. Both Glisan and Marx are part of my cycling and driving world. I’m in Parkrose/Gateway and doing my best to be safe and be seen while using our streets. Thank you for publishing these. I hope all Portlanders take notes and do better.
I can’t help but notice that the title of the article changed.
huh?
I realized a few minutes after I wrote that, but too late to edit, that this is a whole new article: two different articles about cyclists killed with cars, right next to each other.
Nothing has changed. Perhaps you’re thinking of the “other” car v cyclist that was a hit and run around 2-3am not too far from here.
Despite massive infrastructure improvements for cyclists and pedestrians traffic fatalities continue to be a major crisis in Portland.
2 of the big factors are:
1) Unsanctioned camping with people living in tents dangerous areas. Many of the homeless are addicted to drugs and/or mentally ill which makes street camping even more perilous.
2) Lack of enforcement of our traffic laws.
It also remains that in addition to not being homeless, if you are not a motorcyclist, not driving under the influence, not eluding police at speed and not crossing major streets mid-block you’re chances of ending up on the fatality tracker go down by about 85%. I am not sure what the statistically expected rate of fatalities on the roads of a sprawling 650,000 person city are, but if avoiding the worst behavior and highest risk activities reduces it to 7, I don’t know if that counts as a crisis.
PS, I’m not sure what you mean. There is no “expected rate of fatalities” based on population. There are cities that have eliminated road deaths. Hoboken, for example, has had no traffic deaths for approximately 7 years. Helsinki and Oslo have had several years of little/no traffic fatalities. There are also cities that have seen a steady increase in road deaths such as those in Russia and the US, who have very similar death rates (~12/100k). Currently the US is the 85th safest country in the world with respect to road deaths.
Keep in mind the current traffic fatality count in Portland is ~48 for 2024. What number is acceptable to you? What constitutes a crisis?
A good friend is running for City Council & I have been talking to them about how unsafe many of our roads feel for people on bikes. For the last week, I’ve kept track of people violating traffic laws just to be able to report to my friend what I see on a regular basis. In 7 days, I witnessed 4 driver blatantly run red lights long after the light had changed—2 of them at speeds far over the limit. As long as there are no consequences for this kind of behavior in Portland, people will continue to be killed.
As far as I can tell no one in the world takes the hands off approach to suspended/unregistered drivers and moving violations that Portland does.
In India which has some of the most negligent drivers anywhere, police are constantly stopping people and checking if you have a license/suspension.
They’ll send you a ticket by text, after snapping a pic of your plate, no stop even. What would the roads be like without these police? More exhausting than they already are.
England is rigorous about ticketing speeding and having all your papers.
No thinks them doing so is against social justice.
In many countries of the world, police issue “on the spot” fines: pay up or they tow your car!
Best if paid in cash.
lol,why should the government get the fine instead of a nice police officer and his family? He’s got to help pay off the loan his dad took out to pay the police commissioner who gave the officer the job.
Yeah well, that part of the system doesn’t work as designed but even the bribe you pay to the cop in India, which is a fraction of the official fine is a deterrent.
The red light cameras and speeding cameras which are ubiquitous in Delhi have done more to change driving behavior there than anything else.
But actual police on the road pulling people over for suspended licenses, careless driving etc. would be an interesting thing to try again.
If it doesn’t change anything then get rid of it again.