Portland Figured Out How to Get Kids Walking and Biking to School Again
In a relatively short amount of time -- a generation or two -- the number of American kids walking or biking to school has plummeted. This isn't the result of some natural law -- it's the product of public policy decisions about how to design streets and build schools.
But here's some great evidence that with intentional effort, cities can reverse the trend and make walking and biking to school popular again. Michael Andersen at Bike Portland lifted the above graph from a recent survey by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. It shows that after 15 years of Safe Routes to School investments, biking or walking (or scootering) to school continues to gain momentum.
Andersen writes:
Among Portlanders in kindergarten through fifth grade, walking, biking and otherwise rolling to school became more common than traveling in the family vehicle sometime around 2010 and has more or less kept climbing since.
If the trend continues, more than half the city’s primary schoolers will be walking, biking, skating or scootering to school by 2025 or so.
It’s worth noting that riding in a car isn’t the only thing becoming less common; riding a school bus has been, too...
Coincidentally, the news comes just as the For Every Kid Coalition delivers a big bundle of testimony to Metro in favor of creating a regional Safe Routes program. The coalition’s $15 million ask would include a bit for instructional classes (that the Bicycle Transportation Alliance might teach), but mostly for biking and walking-friendly infrastructure improvements to the streets immediately surrounding Portland-area schools.
Portland voters will also have an option to give their own booster shot to these efforts in May when they consider a 10-cent gas tax hike that would send a large share of its proceeds to biking and walking upgrades to streets near Portland schools.
Elsewhere on the Network today: The Bike Coalition of Greater Philadelphia reports that Mayor Jim Kenney's $300 million public spaces and infrastructure plan will "focus on equity and fairness." Seattle Bike Blog says families are pushing back after Sound Transit banned cargo bikes on light rail. And in other new from Bike Portland, Oregon is phasing out "Share the Road" signs.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog California
Caltrans Explains Why VMT – Vehicle Miles Traveled – Is Such a Concern
And then turns around and says: oh, but new freight truck traffic induced by new highway capacity doesn't count! Really, Caltrans?
Study: What Road Diets Mean For Older Drivers
"After a road diet, all motorists seem to drive at a rate that feels comfortable to a mildly-impaired older adult."
Input Meetings Starting This Weekend for Ballona Creek “Finish the Creek” Extension Study
Learn more and give your ideas for extending the Ballona Creek bike/walk path upstream through Culver City and into Mid-City Los Angeles
Motorist Kills Pedestrian on Valencia
While distracted/inattentive driving was a primary factor, the non-intuitive and dangerous center-running design almost certainly contributed
Friday’s Headlines
Replace delivery trucks with e-cargo bikes, already; Carbon offsets are the opposite of helpful; Republicans push USDOT not to fund CA HSR; More
