Portland sits where the Willamette River meets the Columbia, and its freeways are shaped by those two rivers. I-5 runs north and south along the east bank of the Willamette, crossing the Columbia into Vancouver on the Interstate Bridge, and I-405 loops around downtown on the west side, crossing the river on the Fremont Bridge. I-84, the Banfield, heads east toward Gresham and the Columbia River Gorge, and I-205 runs along the east side past the airport and over the Glenn Jackson Bridge into Washington.
US 26 climbs west out of downtown as the Sunset Highway, through the Vista Ridge Tunnel toward Beaverton and Hillsboro, and runs east as Powell Boulevard and then the Mount Hood Highway. OR 217 links Beaverton with Tigard and I-5. The bridges over the Willamette, from the Sellwood and Ross Island in the south to the Burnside, Broadway and St. Johns farther north, are the pinch points of daily traffic, and a stall on a bridge deck or the Sunset tunnel approach leaves nowhere to go.
Portland International Airport sits on the Columbia in northeast Portland, and the MAX Red Line runs straight to the terminal. TriMet's MAX lines also reach Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Milwaukie and Clackamas, and the streetcar loops through downtown, the Pearl and the inner east side. Plenty of Portlanders ride transit or bike to work, which makes it easy to leave the car at home while it is repaired.
For a mobile mechanic, Portland is a mix of driveways and curbs. The inner east side's bungalow neighborhoods often have narrow driveways or none at all, downtown and the Pearl run on garages and permit parking, and the West Hills have steep, winding streets with little room to pull over. Outer neighborhoods and the suburbs usually have driveways and garages that make the work simple.
