Dear parents, caregivers, educators, and community,
Things feel different on the Safe Routes to School team, and it's not +100 degree temperatures—rather, it's because we recently welcomed Jason and Matthew, our new high school summer interns! Scroll down to learn more about these two as well as our recent presentations at the Oregon Active Transportation Summit, a wayfinding signage grant for walking school buses and bike buses, and more!
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With gratitude,
Safe Routes to School Team | Brittany, Dana, Gui, Janis, Jason, Jeri, Josh, Matthew, and Meaghan
In this email
- Welcome Matthew and Jason, our high school summer interns!
- Safe Routes to School presents at Oregon Active Transportation Summit
- Wayfinding signage for walking school and bike buses in Portland? Yes, please and thank you!
- Paving streets, adding sidewalks, and slowing traffic in the Cully neighborhood
- Summers are for building strong walking, biking, and rolling habits
- What we're reading
- Job and volunteer postings
Welcome Matthew and Jason, our high school summer interns!
The Safe Routes to School team partnered with the ROSE Community Development's Lents Youth Initiative to recruit two summer youth interns from their cohort of students participating in their Youth Empowerment Series. Every year during spring, a cohort of teens receive leadership, environmental justice, and career development training through this program. At the end of their training, youth are hired into internships where they spend the summer working with the organization of their choice. Luckily for us, Matthew and Jason chose Portland Bureau of Transportation!
Jason Su is going into his junior year at David Douglas High School. In his free time, Jason enjoys playing the clarinet and drawing—and he feels that "pizza is great". Matthew Su is going into his junior year at Adrienne C. Nelson High School (in Happy Valley, Oregon). He enjoys hanging out with friends and his favorite thing to eat is Udon noodle soup. Check out Jason and Matthew's storytelling prowess in this video they made about their experience interning with Green Lents last year.
This summer, Jason and Matthew will be focusing on various projects supporting the work that Safe Routes to School and Vision Zero, Portland's goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets. More importantly, they will be exploring various teams and sections around the bureau and broadening their perspectives on what various career paths in transportation might look like.
Learn more about Lents Youth Initiative's Youth Empowerment Series
Safe Routes to School presents at Oregon Active Transportation Summit
In addition to cheering on students, parents, and educators as they hurled themselves closer to the end of school, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Safe Routes to School team also participated in and presented at this year's Oregon Active Transportation Summit in June. Each year, The Street Trust—a local organization that advocates for multimodal transportation options that prioritize safety, accessibility, equity, and climate justice—welcomes hundreds of advocates, organizers, professionals, and decision-makers from Oregon and SW Washington to convene and discuss cutting edge transportation issues. This year’s theme, "Move Oregon Forward," set the stage to ground our community in the shared belief that a better future is possible.
Empowering Portland’s high school youth
Our very own Gui Fonseca, Youth Engagement Coordinator, and Meaghan Russell, Safety Education and Outreach Coordinator, led a presentation which centered around Safe Routes to School's Transportation Academy, which offers transportation education to high school students. The curriculum, which is currently offered in Parkrose School District and Portland Public Schools, not only increases students' knowledge of options to get around their neighborhoods and city, but is also designed to increase pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver safety with the goal of reducing serious and fatal crashes.
Maximizing infrastructure investments
Next, Jeri Stroupe, our Infrastructure Coordinator, teamed up with PBOT's Pedestrian Realm Coordinator Gena Gastaldi, and Capital Project Manager (and former Safe Routes to School superstar!) Abra McNair on a presentation about how to "stretch the dollar" and maximizing infrastructure investments. The trio highlighted planning goals shared by Safe Routes to School; PedPDX, Portland’s Citywide Pedestrian Plan; and Vision Zero, Portland's goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets—which result in funding safer crossings on high crash streets that intersect with school walking routes. Abra shared about what it’s been like transitioning from the Safe Routes to School team to project management, especially how important little planning details are in building a great product.
Connecting suburban communities
Finally, Janis McDonald, Safe Routes to School Manager, joined Multnomah County Transportation, bikeworks by p:ear, City of Gresham Urban Design and Planning, and Alta Planning + Design—to discuss how their partnership is advancing Safe Routes to School programming and investments in East Multnomah County where Reynolds School District and Centennial School District span across city boundaries. To serve families and schools, Safe Routes to School coordinators and city staff collaborate on bike and pedestrian safety education, school circulation, events and engagement, and construction projects. In their presentation, the group talked about process, successes, hurdles, and next steps.
Learn more about the Oregon Active Transportation Summit
Wayfinding signage for walking school and bike buses in Portland? Yes, please and thank you!
We're thrilled to share that Portland Bureau of Transportation Safe Routes to School received a $50,000 infrastructure grant from Metro to develop and install semi-permanent wayfinding signage for walking school buses and bike buses!
Making walking school and bike bus routes more visible
We've heard from local walking school bus and bike bus leaders that more needs to be done to support families walking and biking to school—particularly with infrastructure along their routes. While we're exploring other options, such as diverters, we would also like to pilot other quick and lower-cost options to make walking school bus and bike bus routes and stops more visible. And that's what we're planning to do with this grant.
More safety = more fun!
We believe that more families and students will walk and bike to school if they feel safe, know which routes to take, and are able to join an organized group. We often hear from existing walking school bus and bike bus participants that they continue to join because it is fun, and if something is fun, more people—especially kids—will do it.
Half a million dollars to fund walking, biking, and rolling
This grant is just one of the approximately $500,000 worth of grants that Metro's Regional Travel Options (RTO) program awarded in this round of applications for the 2023-26 grant cycle. Metro's RTO program funds projects and programs to educate, encourage, and reduce barriers to increase the use of travel options. These efforts reach people in their communities, schools, universities, and workplaces and promote any mode of transportation besides driving alone—carpooling, vanpooling, riding transit, bicycling, walking, rolling, shared mobility, and telecommuting.
Learn more about Metro's Region Travel Options grant
Paving streets, adding sidewalks, and slowing traffic in the Cully neighborhood
Gravel streets no more!
Starting next year, the Portland Bureau of Transportation—along with will partners from the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) and Portland Water Bureau—are set to begin construction on several streets in the Cully neighborhood to improve walking, biking, and rolling routes near Scott Elementary School, Roseway Heights Middle School, and McDaniel High School with project elements that include:
- paving nearly all remaining gravel streets
- strategically add sidewalks to a smaller number of streets
- traffic calming to slow vehicle speeds
- upgrade stormwater infrastructure
- neighborhood greenway and bicycle paths (as part of the 70s Greenway: Cully Connector project)
Paying for street improvements in a unique way
Unlike most of the projects we share that are funded through Fixing Our Streets—Portland's 10-cent citywide voter-approved gas tax funding $13 million worth of engineering projects to improve how Portland families access schools—the Cully Neighborhood Street Improvement Project is mostly funded from a Local Transportation Infrastructure Charge (LTIC). This is a fee that developers pay along unimproved streets in single-family zoning areas as an alternative to constructing sidewalks. In addition to the LTIC, funding also comes from Transportation System Development Charges, the City of Portland General Fund, and BES.
Learn more about the Cully Neighborhood Street Improvement Project
Summers are for building strong walking, biking, and rolling habits
Summer is also a great time to help students build habits that will set them up for success once the start of the school year arrives. And walking, biking, and rolling to free summer events is an easy way to do just that.
- Practice simple traffic safety rules with your child
- Find your route with a neighborhood walk and bike map or TriMet trip planner
- Plan your active transportation trip with our printable Getting There guide
- Use this family biking guide how-to manual for all stages of family biking
- Review what to know for your first TriMet trip
- Teach your child how to fit their helmet
- Make sure you know how to bring your bike on public transit
- Check if your high school student qualifies for TriMet's free summer pass
Pedalpalooza BIKE SUMMER
This unique-to-Portland festival is made up of hundreds of different bike events that are organized by people just like you. Pedalpalooza BIKE SUMMER runs all the way through the end of August. Below are a few family-friendly rides we found on the online calendar that we can't wait to join.
- Juice box ride: July 13 at 10 a.m., Irving Park (707 NE Fremont St.)
- Joe Bike & Portland Design Works scavenger hunt: July 13 at 10 a.m., Joe Bike (2039 SE César E Chávez Blvd.)
- Full access with Bridge City Montessori School: July 13 at 10 a.m., Bridge City Montessori School (4530 SE 67th Ave.)
- Westmoreland and Sellwood ride (Kidical Mass PDX): July 14 at 2:15 p.m., Westmoreland Park Nature Playground (7530 SE 22nd Ave.)
- Superhero ride: July 19 at 5:30 p.m., Superhero Fitness (345 SE Yamhill St.)
- The yellow bike ride: July 21 at 11 a.m., The Fields Park (1099 NW Overton St.)
- Love our pets & splash ride: July 27 at 1:30 p.m., Lovejoy Fountain (SW Montgomery Street and 4th Avenue)
- Bookworm ride, July 31 at 3:30 p.m., Gorges Beer (SE 27th Avenue and Ankeny Street)
Summer Free for All
Portland Parks & Recreation's Summer Free for All builds community through free, inclusive, and family-friendly activities that celebrate Portland's diverse cultures and local artists.
- Free Lunch + Play: Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Mobile Lunch + Play: This program travels to parks and apartment complexes in East Portland to provide free meals and recreation activities to kids two days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (days vary).
- Play Swim: Portland residents can get a discount on program and activity free. Children up to age 2 are free. Some outdoor pools have free of charge open swim events.
- Fitness in the Park: People at every fitness level, age 14 and up, are welcome. Classes are free.
Learn more about Summer Free for All
What we're reading
- A planning revolution in Bratislava puts kids at the center (Bloomberg CityLab)
- Injury and fatality risks for child pedestrians and cyclists on public roads (Injury Epidemiology)
- Statewide initiative aimed at teen drivers: ‘Your life is just beginning’ (The Columbian)
- NHTSA Urges by more than 70 organizations to update vehicle, child car seat fire safety standard (Repairer Driven News)
- The missing flower power in walkability and neighborhood vitality (CommonEdge)
- What is walkability? What does the government spend on it? (USA Facts)
- Pedestrian deaths have fallen for the first time since the pandemic (NPR)
- What if we could put an end to loss of precious lives on the roads? (United Nations Chronicle)
- Specialized releases stunning film on how cycling can tackle ADHD (BikeBiz)
- How e-bikes won over Europe (Bloomberg CityLab)
- How pro-bike policies transformed Cambridge, Massachusetts, into a top city for biking (People for Bikes)
- ‘The brain is very vulnerable’: Dutch cyclists urged to wear helmets as road deaths rise (The Guardian)
- Badly designed streets are an overlooked car crash cause, traffic engineer warns (Scientific American)
- Opinion Why not ban left turns on busy streets? (Washington Post)
- IIHS: ‘Designers must make vehicles safe for everyone, not just drivers and passengers’ (Repairer Driven News)
Job and volunteer postings
- Capital Project Manager: The Portland Bureau of Transportation is seeking to fill up to two Capital Project Manager III positions within the Major Projects and Partnerships and Capital Delivery divisions. One position is part of a team of project managers and engineers that manage the city’s involvement in some of the region’s “mega” transportation projects. The other position is part of the bureau's team of project managers leading the delivery of medium- to large-sized projects on the city street network. Closing Monday, July 22. Job posting here.
- New Portlanders Policy Commission: The New Portlanders Policy Commission works to integrate immigrant and refugee communities’ voices into the City of Portland's policies and decision-making. Commission members are immigrants, refugees, community advocates, and live, work, play, or pray in the City of Portland. Closing Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. Volunteer posting here.
- Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing: The Portland Committee for Community-Engaged Policing is comprised of community members who volunteer their time to advise the Mayor and the Portland Police Bureau, to independently assess the City of Portland’s Settlement Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, and to develop policies and assess bureau community engagement efforts. Open continuously. Volunteer posting here.
The City of Portland updates it's job opportunities list weekly. Make sure to check out those new positions every Monday!