About Safe Routes to School

What we do

Our Safe Routes to School program focuses on helping kids and their families walk, bike, and roll to and from school and around their neighborhoods. We use infrastructure improvements and education to improve safety, decrease congestion, reduce climate impacts, and encourage physical activity. 

This job can't be done alone. A successful Safe Routes to School program is built on partnerships. The City of Portland's Bureau of Transportation, schools, neighborhoods, community organizations, and agencies work together to advocate for and implement programs that make walking and biking around our neighborhoods and schools fun, easy, safe, and healthy for all students and families.

Goals

Our high level outcomes correlate to our Portland Bureau of Transportation strategic core goals for a more efficient and sustainable city. We do this work so that: 

1. No child is involved in a serious traffic crash accessing school or school programs
2. Every child who wants to walk, roll or take transit to school knows how to do so safely
3. Community members understand how Safe Routes to School programs are connected to congestion relief and climate change mitigation

Learn more about our plans to create a better future and a better now for Portland students in our Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan 2018-23.

Guiding principles

Developed collaboratively with an advisory committee, these provide a roadmap for improving and expanding Safe Routes to School.

• Equitable: Our programming prioritizes underserved communities.
• Grounded in partnership: We collaborate and build strong relationships with schools, families, community organizations, and other agencies.
• Flexible and inclusive: Our programs respond to those served by them, meet the needs of a variety of schools and families, and provide activities to engage groups in different ways.
• Create culture change: Our programs inspire and empower families, students, and school personnel to be champions for safety and active youth.

The Safe Routes to School and Vision Zero collaboration

Safe Routes to School operates closely with Vision Zero, a program that aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets. Vision Zero was adopted by the City of Portland in 2016 and operates with the philosophy that every traffic death is preventable.  

Both Safe Routes to School and Vision Zero take a Safe System approach to traffic safety. Six principles underpin this approach:  

• Death and serious injuries are unacceptable - We must reject the notion that traffic violence is the inevitable price of mobility.
• People make mistakes - We should account for this when we design our transportation system.
• Human bodies are fragile - Our soft tissue and bones are not able to withstand crash forces.
• Responsibility is shared - Among those who design, build, and manage streets and vehicles, those who use streets and vehicles, and those who provide post-crash care.
• Safety is proactive - The reason we make systemic changes is to prevent serious crashes.
• Redundancy is crucial - If one layer of protection fails, another will prevent serious injury.

There are five elements crucial to the Safe System approach.  

• Safe speeds are core to a Safe System approach and are the first layer of protection. People who are hit at slower speeds face less injury, whereas higher speeds are more deadly.
• Safe streets consider all people who use the streets and are designed to be forgiving of mistakes and human frailty.
• Safe people using the road are alert, unimpaired, and comply with road rules. They take steps to improve their safety and the safety of others.
• Safe vehicles are designed and maintained to prevent crashes and protect all road users - including those outside of the vehicles
• Post-crash response is about timely emergency response and quality treatment

Together these elements act as layers of redundancy to prevent death and serious injury and ensure a safe transportation system.

The Safe Routes to School and Vision Zero programs are organized around the five elements of the Safe System approach, and the principles are integrated into the education and policy development of both programs. 

How do we support schools?

The Safe Routes to School program uses infrastructure improvements (such as crosswalks) and educational campaigns to improve safety, reduce congestion, and encourage physical activity. While Safe Routes promotes active ways to get to school, we also work to promote safe travel to school no matter what method families and students use to get there. We believe student safety is everyone's responsibility, whether you are driving, biking, walking, or riding a scooter.  

Safe Routes to School currently serves more than 100 elementary, K-8, middle, and high schools across five school districts—Portland Public, Parkrose, David Douglas, Centennial, and Reynolds.  

Safe Routes to School and Fixing Our Streets

In May 2016, Portland voters passed Measure 26-173, approving a new $0.10 per gallon gas tax for repairing streets. That same month, Portland City Council passed a Heavy Vehicle Use Tax on companies operating trucks over 13 tons. Combined, those funds resulted in approximately $64 million for road maintenance and street safety projects across Portland. The Fixing Our Streets program dedicated $8 million to make routes safer and more convenient for kids to walk, bike, and roll to school. 

In May 2020, Portlanders resoundingly approved Measure 26-209, a four-year renewal of Fixing Our Streets. In February 2020, Portland City Council renewed the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax. Six million has been dedicated to school-specific safety and access projects, resulting in $14 million in investments for Portland's youth since 2016.  

The original $8 million allocated for school improvements in 2016 was not identified for specific projects. With over 100 schools throughout the city, the need for street improvements to support safe travel to school is greater than the Fixing Our Streets funds available. Fixing Our Streets tasked Safe Routes to School to find out what changes Portlanders would like to see around their schools, and develop a process to target and prioritize safety investments. 

Learn more about Safe Routes to School and Fixing Our Streets 

View a map illustrating Safe Routes to School and Fixing Our Streets projects.

Program history

• 2000
  • A national conversation began when California's Marin County Safe Routes to School program was funded.
  • The Oregon Walk + Bike to School Committee was formed.
• 2001
  • The State of Oregon passed House Bill 3712 (known as the "Safe Routes to School Bill")
  • The City of Portland partnered with five schools to deliver school traffic safety services. Each school received $2,000 in state grants.
• 2003
  • The Portland Community and School Traffic Safety Partnership was established. Safe Routes to School was just one part of that community-based, coalition-led effort to improve traffic safety in Portland
• 2006
  • Safe Routes to School partnered with eight schools in three school districts (Portland Public, David Douglas, and Parkrose) to pilot the "5E Tools" in our programming, referring to: education, engineering, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. 
  • Federal legislation established a national Safe Routes to School program.
• 2008
  • Safe Routes to School received an Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) grant for curb ramps, curb extensions, pedestrian islands, sidewalks, and pedestrian signal head starts at 11 schools.
• 2010
  • Safe Routes to School received an ODOT grant for mid-block crossing islands, stormwater management, and curb cuts at four schools.
• 2011-12
  • Together with community stakeholders, Safe Routes to School established policies to equitably deliver our programs across Portland with a focus on neighborhoods, families, and students underserved by transportation infrastructure and other resources — adding the sixth “E": equity.
• 2013
  • Safe Routes to School extended to middle schools as part of a three-year ODOT grant providing some level of service to more than 100 schools across five districts within the Portland city limits. 
• 2016
  • Portland voters passed Measure 26-173, knowing as Fixing Our Streets, approving a new $0.10 per gallon gas tax for repairing streets. Portland City Council passed a Heavy Vehicle Use Tax on companies operating trucks over 13 tons. Combined, those funds resulted in approximately $64 million for road maintenance and street safety projects across Portland. The Fixing Our Streets program dedicated $8 million to make routes safer and more convenient for kids to walk, bike, and roll to school.
  • Safe Routes to School served almost every permanent public elementary, K-8, and middle school in the city, providing resources to over 100 schools across five school districts
• 2017
  • Safe Routes to School hosted open houses and engages families and schools in all five Portland school districts (Portland Public, David Douglas, Parkrose, Centennial, and Reynolds) to gather information about routes students and families were taking to school and barriers they were facing to get there safely.  
• 2018
  • To keep up with our changing city and growing population, the Safe Routes to School team — with the support and guidance of a Stakeholder Advisory Committee — created the Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan 2018-2023. This plan included updates to the Safe Routes to School program goals and the strategies to achieve them. 
• 2019
  • Guided by the strategic plan, Safe Routes to School worked to make the program more sustainable. One of our goals was to develop a K-12 transportation education program to reach students at each grade level. An example of these updates was transitioning our Bike Safety Education from 4th and 5th grades into a middle school pilot program.
• 2020
  • The Covid-19 pandemic forced us pivot our work:
    • We supported families through food delivery and health resources.
    • We developed a program called RECESS! with activities focused on mental, social, and physical wellbeing.
    • We installed temporary traffic playgrounds and playspaces to give kids and families places to be outside and active.
    • We created videos to encourage safe biking and rolling skills. 
  • Portlanders resoundingly approved Measure 26-209, a four-year renewal of Fixing Our Streets. Portland City Council renewed the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax. Six million dollar was dedicated to school-specific safety and access projects, resulting in $14 million in investments for Portland's youth since 2016. 
• 2021
  • As students returned to in-person school, we offered support, expertise, and resources to districts, schools, community organizations, and families. 
  • We created the Drive Like It campaign with Metro to remind people to drive safely. ODOT took the campaign statewide. 
  • We worked with schools to bring bike and pedestrian education back into classrooms. We started developing the Transportation Academy in partnership with teachers at Alliance High School.
• 2022
  • We started training Parkrose High School Elevate Oregon teacher-mentors to lead the Transportation Academy. 
• 2023
  • We started working with Portland Public Schools teachers from Cleveland and McDaniel high schools to pilot our updated Transportation Academy. Youth designed routes for BIKETOWN bike-share group rides and participated in a civic engagement activity to design their ideal street. Two hundred and thirty students participated in Transportation Academy programming.  
• 2024: 
  • Centennial School District hired their first-ever Safe Routes to School coordinator. 
  • Portland voters renewed Portland’s 10-cent gas tax for a third four-year period. Fixing Our Streets funded $20 million worth of Safe Routes to School projects. Since Fixing Our Streets was first adopted in 2016, it funded over 300 completed projects with another 60 in development, design, or construction. 
  • We made refinements to our Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan 2018-2023 to make our priorities clearer and more concise.
  • We released the Safe Routes to School Program Summary 2023-24 report.  
  • Portland Public Schools district adopted our transportation safety education curriculum as "supplemental curriculum." 
  • To make our Transportation Academy curriculum more relevant and engaging, Cleveland and McDaniel high school students participated in focus groups to share feedback on the curriculum. 
• 2025
  • Portland Public Schools started promoting our transportation safety education programming, and we trained interested teachers. 
  • One hundred and ten students participated in Transportation Academy programming.  
  • We released the Safe Routes to School Program Summary 2024-25 report.  
  • We installed 25 crossing projects, 15 speed projects, and 10 walkway projects.
  • Thirty nine schools participated in classroom transportation safety education and 12,920 students took part in transportation safety education. 

What actions can I take?

• Drive at or below the speed limit
• Walk, roll, bike, or scoot to school when possible
• Park 3-5 minutes away from school to reduce traffic at the school
• Change the broad cultural perception that crashes are inevitable by saying "crash" not accident
• Promote slowing down by displaying a Vision Zero yard sign

In addition to the actions listed above, we encourage you to talk to your neighbors, fellow parents and caregivers, and the larger school community to encourage safe driving behaviors.

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