Residents and business owners have shared many challenges facing the Highway 99 area. As part of Bethel Area Neighborhood Planning, the community is calling for a transformation of Highway 99. Reimagining Highway 99 is a broader effort across City departments to address economic vitality, transportation conditions, housing availability, personal safety, and other community priorities.

Opportunities to engage with the City on these topics will occur on various timelines and will be listed here as they come up.

Current Opportunities to Engage with the City on Highway 99:

Highway 99 Multimodal Transportation Safety Plan

Highway 99 is one of Eugene's most important transportation corridors. It helps people access jobs, shopping, schools, community services, the Eugene Airport, and bus service throughout West Eugene and beyond. The street serves residents, businesses, visitors, and people traveling to destinations across the community. Yes, Highway 99 is also identified as a high-crash corridor in Eugene's Vision Zero Action Plan.

The Reimagining Highway 99 Multimodal Safety Plan builds on past planning efforts to identify practical improvements that make the street safer and more accessible. This plan will build on community priorities already identified for Highway 99 and then focus on moving transportation improvements toward being built.

Plan Outcomes

The corridor faces ongoing safety challenges for people walking, biking, and riding the bus. Long crossing distances, limited crossing opportunities, and barriers to reaching destinations can make it hard to travel safely and comfortably along and across Highway 99.

The goal of the Reimagining Highway 99 Multimodal Safety Plan is to make it safer and easier for people to get where they want to go while improving safety for everyone who uses Highway 99, no matter how they get around.

The result of the project will be a set of practical design recommendations that help guide future transportation improvements and investments along Highway 99.

Highway 99 Transportation Engagement

The City ran a short survey for transportation on Highway 99 that sought to confirm priorities for the street. That survey closed on August 9th, 2026. Results are below.

The first question asked respondents to rank their top transportation priorities for Highway 99. The closer the number is to 10, the more people agreed on that priority being a high priority.

The survey found that eliminating traffic injuries and fatalities ranked at 8.4, improving walking conditions ranked at 6, improving crosswalks ranked at 5.3, improving biking connections ranked at 5, reducing speeding ranked at 4.8, improving access to bus stops ranked at 4.4, decreasing bus delays ranked at 4.1, accessing businesses and destinations ranked at 3.8, and improving bus stop amenities and quality ranked at 3.3.

The next question asked respondents to rank the different transportation elements for the greatest community benefit for Highway 99. The closer the number is to 10, the more people agreed on that element having high community benefit.

The survey found that safer crosswalks ranked at 6, medians and crossing islands ranked at 4.9, separated bicycle lanes ranked at 4.9, bus only lanes ranked at 3.6, landscaping, trees, and streetscape improvements ranked at 3.6, wider sidewalks ranked at 3.5, and on-street parking ranked at 1.6.

In fall 2026, the City will launch another survey looking at design options for River Road that can help achieve the priorities from the first survey. Sign-up for the project newsletter(External link) to stay informed.

Bethel and Trainsong Vision and Priorities

The Office of Equity and Community Engagement worked throughout 2025 with the Bethel area to identify priorities for the neighborhood, including Highway 99. Check out the Bethel Area Vision and share your opinions and perspectives with OECE via the Bethel Area Vision Comment Form.

Learn more about the Bethel Area Neighborhood Planning Process.