Skip to Content
Streetsblog California home
Streetsblog California home
Log In
Streetsblog USA

Portland Figured Out How to Get Kids Walking and Biking to School Again

After 15 years of Safe Routes to School, More Portland kids are walking, biking or scootering to school than being driven. Graph: Portland Bureau of Transportation via Bike Portland
After 15 years of Safe Routes to School investments, more Portland kids are walking, biking, or scootering to school than being driven in the family car. Graph: Portland Bureau of Transportation via Bike Portland
false

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

StreetSmart7: Sam Speroni and Automobile Debt

In StreetSmart Episode7, Streetsblog California editor Damien Newton and Sam Speroni from UCLA discussed the unequal distribution of car ownership costs in Los Angeles, using data from 2021 to 2023. 

May 23, 2025

Friday’s Headlines

CA vs. Republicans is national news, but there's plenty of other news happening around the state.

May 23, 2025

Metro Quietly Withdraws Lyft Bike-Share Contract Vote

The current twice-botched will-they-won't-they procurement process is not doing Metro Bike Share any favors.

May 22, 2025

SGV Hikes and Bikes: Duck Farm River Park

Tucked in the crook of the 605 and Valley Boulevard is some much needed breathing room for the East Valley.

May 22, 2025

Revealed: MTC Canceled Bridge Bike Lane Meetings Because Staff Findings Showed it Should Stay Open

Thanks to a public records request from Bike East Bay, we now know why two public hearings were cancelled at the last minute.

May 22, 2025
See all posts