This report is more than just a summary of the work our program (and many, many partners!) accomplished in the 2023-24 school year to help students and their families walk, bike, and roll to and from their school and around their neighborhoods. It’s also a collection of dozens of inspiring stories that tell how people in Portland are making their streets safer, their communities healthier, and their lives more enjoyable.
Read the full "Safe Routes to School Program Summary" report
This work is made possible with support from Metro, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the Federal Transit Administration.
About Safe Routes to School
The Safe Routes to School program at Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is a partnership between the city, schools, neighborhoods, community organizations, and other government agencies. It helps students and their families walk, bike, and roll to and from school and around their neighborhoods. Through education, engagement, and infrastructure improvements like crosswalks, speed bumps, and stop signs, Safe Routes to School helps make neighborhoods safe, healthy, easy, and fun for all students and families no matter how they travel. Programs like this help decrease congestion, reduce the impact of climate change, and encourage positive physical and mental wellbeing.
Safe Routes to School currently serves more than 100 elementary, K-8, middle, and high schools across five Portland school districts—Portland Public, David Douglas, Parkrose, Centennial, and Reynolds.
The PBOT’s Safe Routes to School team also work closely with PBOT’s Vision Zero team. Vision Zero is Portland’s goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets. Both programs use what’s known as a “Safe System” approach to traffic safety. This approach anticipates human mistakes through five layers of redundancy: safe speeds, safe streets, safe people, safe vehicles, and post-crash response. In short: create a transportation system with layers of safety, so when a mistake leads to a crash, the impact on the human body doesn’t cause serious injury or death.
Vision statement
All students and families can choose to walk, bike, roll, or take transit as a safe, convenient, accessible, and desirable option for getting to and from school and around their neighborhoods.
Goals
The following goals correlate to PBOT’s strategic goals for a more efficient and sustainable city:
- No child is involved in a serious traffic crash on their way to or from school
- Every child who wants to walk, bike, roll, or take transit to school knows how to do so safely
- The community understands how Safe Routes to School reduces congestion and the impacts of climate change
Learn more about our goals for Portland students in our Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan 2018-2023.
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.
Strategic priorities
These priorities help focus our work and target where we want to improve, especially the gaps in our programming. Look for more detail on these priorities in this report.
- Sustainability: Our program is structured so it has ongoing support within schools
- Infrastructure: Every school community is safer because of investments and improvements we make to infrastructure
- High-schoolers: Our program for older students is youth-oriented and youth-driver
- Districts: School districts actively lead and champion elements of the program
- Circulation: We're mitigating circulation issues with education, behavior change, and improve infrastructure
- School culture: Programming responds to the unique culture within each school
- Skill development: Age-appropriate content helps students learn as they grow up
- Communications: Clear and consistent communications with our audience through multiple channels
Reflections on the 2023-2024 school year
We're back in rhythm with fresh energy
With no more pandemic era school lockdowns, educators were back in the classroom, and the Safe Routes to School team got back into the swing of things. This was also the first full school year for several of our staff. There is a palpable feeling of new energy, and our team is excited to tackle new challenges and build new partnerships.
Our high school program is expanding
Although we started working with high schoolers before the pandemic, the high school program has since expanded. The program focuses on equity, civic engagement, and the importance of walking, biking, and rolling for physical and mental wellbeing as well as mitigating the effects of climate change. Through this work, the team helps educate students about their options to get around their neighborhoods and the city (including through BIKETOWN bike-share) with an emphasis on traffic safety for all modes of travel—all to meet our goals to reduce serious and deadly crashes.
Our community is making deeper investments
The school districts we work with are not only committed to our mission; they’re embracing how our work connects to student learning, community cohesion, and the needs of the families they serve. They value our partnership and want it more than ever before.
Goals for 2024-2025
We’re eager to build on our success next school year. We plan on engaging more youth, increasing our capacity through our train-the-trainer model, and breaking ground on more infrastructure projects. We also look forward to building partnerships in more high schools, working with Centennial School District’s new Safe Routes to School coordinator, and improving traffic flow at more schools. Our education offerings will focus on Portland’s historically underserved neighborhoods. We’ll focus on continuing to grow trust through more frequent communication with the communities we serve.
Long-term investments needed for strategic priorities
To make systemic change and deliver on the priorities outlined in our refined Strategic Plan, we must continue making long-term investments. We can do this by completely building the nearly 1,000 infrastructure projects on our Primary Investment Routes—our long-term investment strategy where we focus on improving infrastructure where students are most likely to be walking to school—and by providing education to every Portland student.
Since 2017, it has cost us about $20 million to complete 300 infrastructure projects. However, many of these were small or funded through other large projects. Major investment is still necessary for things like new sidewalks and traffic signals to make crossings safer and ensure all students and families have better options to get to school regardless of where they live.
Last school year we used our creative teaching model in roughly 20% of Portland schools, meaning about 80% of schools and their students are missing out on critical transportation safety education. Ambitious investment is needed to support this work.
How we're accomplishing our strategic priorities
Strategic Priority 1: Sustainability
Our program is structured so it has ongoing support within schools
The Safe Routes to School team does not have the capacity to engage with all 61,700 students at Portland’s 108 schools across five districts. This is why we designed our program in a creative way to be more sustainable. Through a “train-the-trainer” teaching model, we help educators become transportation safety experts for their school community. This helps expand our reach beyond what we would be able to do through direct education with students alone.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 22: Number of schools where we taught transportation safety
- 25: Number of educators we train
- 82%: Percent of schools where we used our train-the-trainer model (18 of 22)
- +50%: Percent growth from the previous school year in the number of schools where we used the train-the-trainer model
Trainer-the-trainer
Using a train-the-trainer model, the Safe Routes to School team offers the following transportation safety skills and information free to educators:
Pedestrian safety education
- Elementary school physical education (PE) classes
- Games and movement to teach pedestrian skills and personal safety so that students feel safe getting where they need to go free from threat and fear of emotional, psychological, and physical harm
Bike safety Education
- Elementary and middle school PE classes
- Bike handling skills and road safety awareness in both classroom and outdoor settings
Transportation safety education
- Middle school health classes
- Health and community benefits of walking, biking, and rolling; crash prevention; road etiquette; Oregon traffic safety laws; how to ride transit; and assertive communication in public spaces
Transportation Academy
- High school interdisciplinary classes
- Encourages growth beyond the classroom and into students’ day-to-day lives; covers different options for students to get around their neighborhood and city; and promotes traffic safety for walking, biking, rolling, and driving with the goal of reducing serious and deadly crashes
After training teachers, our team offers in-class support as teachers begin instructing students. We’re also available to observe teachers in classrooms, provide feedback, and respond to questions.
Program spotlights
PE teacher DeAnthony Maza now trained to lead bike safety education at George Middle
At Portland Public School’s George Middle School, PE teacher DeAnthony Maza led his first instruction on bike safety. Safe Routes to School staff trained DeAnthony and co-taught his first section with him each day giving him the confidence to teach the following sections independently. DeAnthony went on to lead community rides. These are short bike rides near schools and chaperoned by adults where students practice skills they’ve learned in the classroom. DeAnthony held these rides for his students then recruited other teachers to join. DeAnthony shared that he feels prepared to lead bike safety education next school year without Safe Routes to School teaching support.
New crossing, multiuse path, and education at Alder Elementary
This spring, Alder Elementary School became the first school in the Reynolds School District to host Safe Routes to School’s train-the-trainer program. Staff trained PE teacher Romeo Salazar who went on to teach pedestrian safety to all his students in grades kindergarten through 5th. This work was done to coincide with a new marked crosswalk and a new multiuse path so students would learn how to use this new infrastructure and stay safe.
Strategic Priority 2: Infrastructure
Every school community is safer because of investments and improvements we make to infrastructure
Infrastructure is an essential component of our work. Our program focuses on improving infrastructure where students are most likely to be walking to school. These are known as Primary Investment Routes and account for 23% of Portland streets.
The money to make these improvements comes from various sources including grants, taxes, and revenue. In 2024, Portland voters renewed Portland’s 10-cent gas tax for a third time. That program, known as Fixing Our Streets, will fund $20 million worth of Safe Routes to School projects. Since Fixing Our Streets was first adopted in 2016, it has funded over 300 completed projects with another 60 in development, design, or construction.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 43 crossing projects (e.g., ADA-compliant curb ramps, marked and high visibility crosswalks, medians, flashing beacons, stop signs, traffic signals)
- 12 speed projects (e.g., speed bumps, reduced speed limits, speed reader boards)
- 8 walkway projects (e.g., sidewalks)
- $2.9 million in grant funds for five projects (not including matching funds)
Filling in the sidewalk gaps around Alder Elementary
In summer 2024, in the Centennial neighborhood, PBOT oversaw construction of a 10-foot-wide multiuse path on SE 174th Avenue between Stark and Main streets. The purpose of the project was to create a dedicated space for walking, slow traffic, and make it easier to see pedestrians.
As part of this project, crews and contractors filled in gaps in the sidewalk network, built five new ADA-compliant curb ramps, and installed new marked crosswalks and speed bumps. They also extended curbs at intersections to make the crossing shorter and safer and relocated two school-zone beacons. In the fall, crews and contractors will finish the project by planting new street trees in a 3-foot-wide planting strip along the path.
The Safe Routes to School team knew this segment of SE 174th Avenue was an important connection for students and families attending Alder Elementary School. The challenges of walking and biking this corridor was something the school community highlighted during a 2017 outreach process. Alder Elementary families and Reynolds School District Superintendent Frank Caropelo advocated strongly for this project, helping Safe Routes to School secure $2 million from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Safe Routes to School competitive construction grant program, as well as a 20% match from Fixing Our Streets.
Program spotlights
Engaging with Creston Elementary bike bus leaders, improving a crossing, and building awareness
Within Portland Public’s Creston Elementary School community there is a bike bus consisting of students, families, and caregivers who bike to school together on a set route and time. Leaders of this bike bus met with PBOT staff and shared their feedback on a draft design for improving where SE Center and Gladstone streets cross 52nd Avenue. Their feedback helped PBOT understand the tradeoffs of each design and decide which design to select for construction. Safe Routes to School staff also attended the school’s annual bike fair to build awareness of the project, answer questions, and share resources with the school community. The new crossings will be built from fall 2024 to spring 2025.
Giving school communities multiple ways to discuss crossing and corridor improvements project
In 2023, ODOT awarded a grant to PBOT’s Safe Routes to School program to improve a crossing at SE 80th Avenue and Glisan Street for pedestrian safety. Staff made sure Portland Public’s Vestal Elementary School community had plenty of opportunities to share feedback and ask questions about the design, as well as about other improvements along 82nd Avenue planned for the intersections with Davis and Everett streets. Staff arranged a one-on-one meeting with the school’s leadership, consulted with the school’s PTA, and joined existing school events—such as Vestal Social Justice Night—to discuss the design and tradeoffs. The infrastructure project will be built in fall 2024.
Strategic Priority 3: High-schoolers
Our program for older students is youth-oriented and youth-driver
Our Safe Routes to School team continues to develop a robust high school curriculum that is youth-driven and youth-oriented. This includes our Transportation Academy, one-off events, as well as youth training opportunities. Safe Routes to School staff also joined a city career fair at Grant High School where high schoolers could learn what it’s like to work for the city and have a career in transportation.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 230 students participated in Transportation Academy
- 32+ BIKETOWN bike-share passes distributed
- $154,000 of grant funding supports our current work
We hired two high school summer interns
To better engage with youth, we employed two high school summer interns—Jason and Matthew. To recruit and hire these interns, the Safe Routes to School team partnered with the ROSE Community Development Corporation’s Lents Youth Initiative, a leadership training program for teens. We tasked Jason and Matthew to focus their time on various projects in support of Safe Routes to School curriculum and programming, as well as Vision Zero. More importantly, they explored different PBOT teams and sections around the bureau to broaden their perspectives on what a career in transportation might look like.
Program spotlights
Our Transportation Academy provides long-term education to high-schoolers
Safe Routes to School’s Transportation Academy teaches high school students in the Parkrose and Portland Public school districts. This work is made possible by an ODOT education grant and a Metro Regional Travel Options grant, which supports efforts to increase walking, biking, public transit use, and more. This unique program encourages growth beyond the classroom and into students’ day to-day lives. The curriculum covers different ways to travel and their terminology, transportation’s impact on the climate, transportation equity, civic engagement, and ways to address and mitigate risks while traveling. The academy provides practical ways for students to get around their neighborhoods and the city, but is also designed to increase pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver safety to reduce serious and deadly crashes. At Parkrose, we teamed up with Elevate Oregon, an organization serving youth in historically underserved communities, to administer the academy. This year, we wrapped up a multiyear partnership with Elevate. This included programming where youth designed routes for BIKETOWN bike-share group rides and participated in a civic engagement activity to design their ideal street.
Delivering life skills education to high school students in leadership training programs
This year, Safe Routes to School teamed up with ROSE Community Development Corporation (CDC), an affordable housing and community building organization with a mission to make outer Southeast neighborhoods strong and equitable. ROSE CDC staff invited us to help teach students in their Lents Youth Initiative Youth Empowerment Series how to ride transit. This is a critical need given how youth struggled commuting to their internships in previous summers because of unfamiliarity and discomfort riding public transit. We designed a field trip activity for 21 youth where they planned a route that ended with a communal lunch in a park. This work was supported by a Metro Regional Travel Options grant.
Strategic Priority 4: School districts
School districts actively lead and champion elements of the program
PBOT’s Safe Routes to School program serves a wide population. We’re engaged in five Portland school districts, adapting our program in each district through close coordination with county and nonprofit partners.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 61,700 students
- 108 schools across 5 school districts
- 12 high schools
- 20 middles schools
- 65 elementary schools
- 11 other schools
- 81 in Portland Public Schools
- 14 in David Douglas School District
- 6 in Parkrose School District
- 4 in Centennial School District
- 3 in Reynolds School District
Collaborating with Portland Public School's first Safe Routes to School coordinator
We helped Portland Public Schools (PPS) write the grant to bring on their first-ever Safe Routes to School coordinator, Shane Nevius. This year we collaborated with Shane on nearly every aspect of our work including circulation, grants, training, education, and a pilot of a car-free zone for school arrival and dismissal called a “School Street.” We also helped developed Shane’s workplan along with community partners, PPS staff, and families. Shane is truly a part of our team.
Program spotlights
Following Centennial’s leaders who know their community best
We’ve been supporting the Centennial School District since 2007. For the last six years our collaboration with Centennial has grown as part of the East Multnomah County Safe Routes to School partnership*. Over the years, we’ve worked with the district to incorporate more Safe Routes to School education in their classrooms. This last year, we were thrilled to collaborate with the district on a grant application for them to hire their own Safe Routes to School coordinator. Today, the district’s curriculum director is strategically thinking about how to include pedestrian safety education in PE classes. Slowly but surely, Portland is growing to prioritize transportation safety education and Centennial School District is an example of that evolution.
The East Multnomah County Safe Routes to School partnership is a joint effort between PBOT, Multnomah County, the City of Gresham, and bike works by p:ear to provide consistent programming to all schools in the Centennial and Reynolds school districts.
Helping Parkrose School District students of color take up space on the streets
Prescott Elementary School Principal Nichole Watson loved biking and wanted to show her students of color that they could take up space on the streets and, safely, be free, wild, and explore their limits. Thus started the Prescott Pedal. We were there from the beginning to help make Principal Watson’s dreams come true. The following year, Principal Watson opened-up the event to the greater Parkrose School District to create connections between Parkrose schools. Again, we were able to support Principal Watson with route planning, logistics, event set-up, and promotion for the Parkrose Pedal at Parkrose Middle School. This was through our Metro Regional Travel Options grant. This school year we did it again, helping to make the Parkrose Pedal a successful fall community bike-and-walk event with about 120 participants.
Strategic Priority 5: Circulation
We're mitigating circulation issues with education, behavior change, and improve infrastructure
The Safe Routes to School team acts as the bridge between PBOT and schools when they have congestion issues or student safety concerns, particularly during arrival and dismissal on their campuses. Once a school reports a traffic safety issue and requests a circulation visit, our staff along with PBOT engineers analyze the issues to determine whether the problem is behavioral, structural, or both. We then work with school leadership to mitigate these issues with a mix of education and infrastructure improvements.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 12 school visits to analyze circulation and pedestrian safety
- 12 circulation maps created
- 23 communication template distributed
Different ways to address circulation issues
We use several tools to solve school circulation and student safety issues, including:
- Creating a circulation map the school can distribute with the community to normalize traffic flow
- Crafting messages for schools to send to parents and caretakers to reinforce safe driving habits
- Promoting pedestrian and bike safety education in classrooms
- Recommending minor safety improvements to surrounding infrastructure. This includes marked crosswalks, signage, parking setbacks, etc.
Collectively, these kinds of improvements help with pedestrian visibility at intersections, reduce congestion at school entrances, and help incentivize kids to walk, bike, and roll to school.
Program spotlights
Sacramento Elementary’s successful communications helped with circulation
The Safe Routes to School team helped Sacramento Elementary School’s Principal Sarah Lamb-Christensen solve some major issues she’d reported happening at her Parkrose school. The result: better communications and signage, support staff wearing high-visibility safety vests, and some education within the school to set expectations and improve traffic safety during arrival and dismissal. This started with a map sent to families at the beginning of the year with routes. Along with the map, Principal Lamb- Christensen said it’s so important to help families understand the why: “every family wants their kids to be safe and that helps get people on board.” For dismissal, staff work together to shuffle students to the pickup area, where they meet parents and caregivers with name placards and grades on their dashboards. Placards serves a dual purpose: to help staff meet family members, which speeds up the pickup process, and ensures the correct adults are picking up students. Principal Lamb-Christensen recommends that schools give grace to families as they are learning and adapting to change. “Our business is all about relationships. Families learn quickly that if you don’t follow the traffic flow it takes a lot longer.”
Getting families in and out smoother and faster at Shaver Elementary
Safe Routes to School visited Shaver Elementary School to study circulation and pedestrian safety. Our team investigated additional crossings and suggested routing cars through a school driveway loop for drop-off and pickup. After we visited the school for outreach and the Parkrose School District made our recommended changes, Shaver Principal Melanie Zecca told us how the new system is working. “It’s going really well! Most families are appreciative and traffic flows pretty quickly… We are definitely seeing things much smoother now… Both the second crossing area and the driveway loop are well used.”
Strategic Priority 6: School culture
Programming responds to the unique culture within each school
We know a one-size-fits-all approach does not allow for the unique challenges each school community faces. Thus, we follow a school’s lead and tailor our program to them. When a high school clamored for more bike-share options, we helped install BIKETOWN stations on their campus. In another high school we worked with student groups on a street mural about personal safety in their community. We’ve provided adaptive bikes for students who couldn’t comfortably use standard bikes in Life Skills classes where students receive significant communication, social, and behavioral support. And we’ve simply nodded with enthusiasm when a teacher said they wanted to adapt our curriculum to be more accessible to students learning English.
We're committed to creating safe streets for all students and families in Portland. This goes beyond traditional traffic safety investments and includes supporting personal safety and a sense of belonging.
We need streets where people feel safe getting where they need to go free from threat and fear of emotional, psychological, and physical harm.
Students design street mural to improve traffic safety and reduce gun violence
Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded PBOT a $25,000 Asphalt Art Initiatives grant. We partnered with the Pathfinder Network, a local nonprofit that provides programs and services for incarcerated individuals and their families; Argay Terrace Neighborhood Association; Historic Parkrose; and Parkrose High School students to design a street mural that would raise awareness of traffic safety, revitalize public space, and engage residents. The mural is planned for NE 131st Place between Prescott Drive and Shaver Street. The Parkrose community has raised concerns about this stretch of road for a long time because of speeding, other unsafe driving behaviors, and increased gun violence. Students incorporated themes from a community survey to create a design concept “... [to put] more joy and positivity into the area” and “stop any possible instances of gun violence” in the community.
Program spotlights
High school teacher adapts Transportation Academy programming for students learning English
Thanks to a Metro Regional Travel Options grant, we were able to teach the Transportation Academy at Portland Public School’s Leodis V. McDaniel High School. An English Language Development teacher there, Nicole Safranek, works with students who are not only newcomers to Portland and the U.S.—they’re also learning English. To make our curriculum work for English language learners, Nicole helped us develop “language scaffolding” for the program. This is a way for instructors to teach the content and the language simultaneously, helping students become independent learners. Nicole taught this curriculum over several classes, including content on Portland’s bike-share program, how to use BIKETOWN e-bikes, and how to navigate their new communities. As a result, we signed up 26 students with BIKETOWN memberships and taught five high-schoolers to ride a bike for the first time. Partnering with teachers like Nicole helps us serve youth who primarily speak languages other than English and increase our ability to be more inclusive of diverse student populations.
Teaching bike safety in a way that includes students with disabilities
Sixth graders at Parkrose Middle School learn about bike safety in PE class. This includes 10 students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We partnered with Adaptive BIKETOWN to meet the needs of all students in these classes by providing adaptive bikes. These types of bikes provide an option to those with disabilities or movement disorders who can’t comfortably use standard bikes. This meant that all students were able to participate joyfully, learn new skills, and be meaningfully included.
Strategic Priority 7: Skill development
Age-appropriate content helps students learn as they grow up
Through different types of education, we’re meeting youth where they’re at in their skill development. Age-appropriate material for elementary, middle, and high school students ensures students keep growing skills for safe and active travel.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 22 schools participated in transportation safety education
- 3 high schools
- 5 middle schools
- 14 elements schools
- 3,950 students took part in transportation safety education of some kind
- 2,800 students in pedestrian safety
- 810 students in bike safety
- 110 students in transportation safety
- 230 students in our Transportation Academy
- 180 bikes in our fleet
- 10 walk, bike, and roll events across the city
Family-friendly events citywide
We supported age appropriate walk, bike, and roll events across the city, including:
- Southwest Neighborhood Bike Fair at Mittleman Jewish Community Center (July 23, 2023)
- Southeast Portland Bike Fair at 72Foster (Aug. 24, 2023)
- Ellington Bike Fair at the Ellington Apartments (Sept. 7, 2023)
- International Walk + Roll to School Day (Oct. 4, 2023)
- Parkrose Pedal at Parkrose Middle School (Oct. 7, 2023)
- Winter Walk + Roll to School Day (Feb. 7, 2024)
- Earth Month Walk + Roll (April 2024)
- East Portland Bike Fair at David Douglas School District’s Ventura Park Elementary (April 26, 2024)
- Bike + Walk to School Day (May 8, 2024)
- Northeast Cully Neighborhood Bike Fair at Portland Public School’s Scott Elementary School (June 7, 2024)
Program spotlights
Students are not only learning to ride—they’re coaching their peers
At Portland Public School’s George Middle School, roughly five students per class were learning to ride a bike for the first time. One student grasped biking quickly, but when she was invited to the proficient group, she opted to stay with her classmates still learning so she could coach and encourage them. With a peer mentoring them, other students became proficient in biking too. One student went around telling teachers throughout the day “I learned how to ride a bike in like five minutes! I’m great at it!”
Teaching personal safety in after-school programs for middle school girls
To help teach personal safety in the right-of-way, we partnered with Toni Fujiwara from Rose City Self Defense, an organization already working within schools to empower girls through safety and self-defense. Our staff visited Toni’s programs at Ron Russell, Harrison Park, and Mt. Tabor middle schools in Portland Public and David Douglas school districts. Students learned how to trust their intuition, communicate assertively, set boundaries, as well as identify an unsafe situation and know their escape options. Students also learned some low-risk ways to be an active upstander, someone who intervenes in a situation they witness and believe is inappropriate or harmful, rather than ignoring it. Together, these essential skills make youth feel more comfortable walking, biking, and rolling to school and around their neighborhoods.
Strategic Priority 8: Communications
Clear and consistent communications with our audience through multiple channels
This was our first full year with staff members devoted to communications. In addition to handling correspondence by phone and email, they create engaging and accessible content about our work, sharing resources and program offerings with our larger network. We have a monthly newsletter and a growing social media presence. We also work with PBOT’s Communications team to distribute news releases.
By the numbers
2023-24 school year
- 12 monthly newsletters to 7,077 subscribers
- 33% of emails are opened
- 9% of people click links in emails
- 132 phone calls and emails from community members addressing their concerns
- 17% about program resources
- 17%about school circulation
- 14% about infrastructure projects
- 11% about crossing issues
- 11% about campsites
- 10% about speeding
- 7% about general information
- 5% about general safety concerns
- Less than 1% about parking, appreciation, education requests, and media requests each
- 19,390 webpage views from 14,947 users
- 5 news releases
- Instagram
- 16,700 reach
- 2,900 profile visits
- 2,100 content interactions
- 572 follows (1,900 total)
- Facebook
- 14,900 reach
- 1,700 profile visits
- 922 content interactions
- 82 follows (1,400 total)
- Top performing posts
- May 30 Instagram post promoting a bike fair
- 3,100 reach
- 3,300 impressions
- Oct. 31 Instagram reel reminding drivers to drive slow and watch for trick-or-treaters
- 4,300 plays
- 7h 12 min watch time
- 2,500 reach
- 2,800 impressions
- 99 likes
- Oct 16 Instagram post about how to use crosswalks
- 167 likes
- 1,175 impressions
- 38 shares
- March 14 Instagram reel with a supportive message from Congressman Earl Blumenauer
- 2,300 plays
- 234 minutes viewed
- 18 comments
- March 6 Facebook post about a sidewalk improvement project
- 2,800 reach
- 2,900 impressions
- May 30 Instagram post promoting a bike fair
Growing our social media presence to build familiarity and trust
We’re growing our Instagram account to make our presence known in the walk, bike, and roll social media world. We’ve increased our followers by 43%, reach by 46%, and content interactions by 100%. We’re getting reposted by major accounts and gain followers from around the world. We’re also learning what our audience likes the most: memes. Our top performing one was our take on the “Surprised Pikachu” meme, sharing how every intersection is a legal crosswalk in Oregon. Important information for walk, bike, and roll champions and drivers alike!
Program spotlights
Using our newsletter to highlight projects
In addition to timely information and resources, we use our monthly newsletter to let our 7,000+ subscribers know how we’re spending public dollars and our grant funds. Each newsletter highlights one infrastructure improvement project. We tell how each project went from idea to reality, which school communities benefit, and how the project was funded.
Inspired by school communities, city staff launched Portland’s first adult bike bus
For Bike Month in May, we teamed with PBOT’s Communications staff to kick off the first-ever bike bus for city employees. Inspired by the growing presence of bike buses in school communities, we decided they weren’t just for kids anymore! Following similar guidance to what we share with schools, we found ride leaders, planned different routes across the city, and made sure the event was fun. With tunes from a massive boom box, and lots of promotion to get people excited and ready, we had more than 40 staff participate. People were so happy with it, we committed to making the bike bus a monthly event. Sharing the story of this ride on our social media channels helped us raise awareness for established school bike buses citywide. We feel the momentum. One of our peer government organizations, Metro, was inspired enough by us to start their own bike bus. Local media picked it up, helping us spread the word about bike buses beyond our traditional scope of influence.