National Bike+Roll to School Day and Walk+Roll May Challenge 2026

National Bike+Roll to School Day is Wednesday, May 6

Keep active this spring and join schools across Oregon to celebrate the Walk+Roll May Challenge. Walking, biking, and rolling to school is exhilarating and fun — give it a try this May! Here are some ideas:

• If you're able, leave the car at home and travel to school with friends through either a walking school bus or bike bus.
• If you live too far to walk, bike, or roll, try a park-and-walk by parking a few blocks away from the school and walking the rest of the way.
• If you take the school bus, have a walk in the school yard or do a few laps around the track at break time so you can get active too!

Incentives

Please order incentives by Tuesday, April 28 to have them in time for National Bike+Roll to School Day on Wednesday, May 6. 

Incentives include reflective and non-reflective stickers, reflective shoelaces, pencils, shoe wings, hang stamps, bookmarks, and English and Spanish comics, activity books, sheets, and coloring books.

Portland Public Schools and Centennial School District

Please email your school district's Safe Routes to School Coordinator to let them know your school is participating:

• Maddy Cirineo, Portland Public Schools Safe Routes to School Coordinator
• Ian Rees, Centennial School District Safe Routes to School Coordinator

Order incentives now!

Walk+Roll May Challenge Resources 

Oregon Safe Routes to School has resources for schools that want to celebrate National Bike+Walk to School Day.

• The Coordinator Toolkit for May Challenge Events includes planning tips, activity ideas, and content and graphics in English and Spanish for promoting your events. You can also download posters and social media graphics. 
• Classroom Weekly Scorecard to celebrate walking and rolling all month! 
• Student Punch Card for Tracking individual days walking and rolling to school. 
• How to Plan a Walk+Roll Event – National Resource 
• Get more tips from the Walk, Bike & Roll to School How to Plan a Walk+Roll Event Guide 
• Use the Bike Bus Toolkit to organize a bike bus for National Bike+Roll to School Day 

Why is the Walk+Roll May Challenge important? 

To enhance the health of students and families

Walking, biking, and rolling to and from school are excellent ways to add physical activity into your daily routine. Kids need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day to keep them healthy—and many kids in Oregon just don't get enough! 

Walking, biking, and rolling to school can help kids improve their strength and endurance, decrease anxiety and stress, and maintain a healthy weight. Positive experiences gained through walking, biking, and rolling to school will pave the way for being physically active throughout life.

Walk+Roll events also encourage families to walk and roll together—helping to create positive moments and lasting memories.

To improve the health of the community

Walking, biking, and rolling to school reduces traffic pollution and congestion and improves air quality. It also frees up space on buses. 

To increase driver awareness in school zones

Many people travel near schools every day who may not have school-age children. Walking, biking, and rolling to school helps create driver awareness in school zones, which increases safety for all. Portland Bureau of Transportation is also hard at work installing safe transportation infrastructure projects to improve how Portland families access schools through Fixing Our Streets—the 10-cent citywide gas tax Portland voters approved in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

To improve neighborhood livability for everyone

Studies show that more people walking, biking, and rolling in a neighborhood makes people feel better about their neighborhood. It helps make public streets lively and friendly, encourages community interaction, and attracts people to commercial and recreational areas.

About the Walk+Roll May Challenge

The first-ever National Bike+Roll to School Day took place on May 9, 2012, in coordination with the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Month. Almost 1,000 local events in 49 states and the District of Columbia joined together to encourage children to safely bicycle to school.

The event builds on the popularity of Walk+Roll to School Day, which is celebrated across the country–and the world–each October. Many communities and schools have been holding spring walk and bicycle to school events for years. National Bike+Roll to School Day provides an opportunity for schools across the country to join together to celebrate and to build off of the energy of National Bike Month.