Register now! Oregon Safe Routes to School Conference

Where: Eugene, Oregon
When: June 20-21, 2016++
Earlybird Cost: $20/day (Scholarships available) ~ register today!

The Safe Routes to School Conference will be held on June 20 and June 21 and will include speakers and sessions for new and veteran Safe Routes to School (SRTS) practitioners, staff, volunteers, and partners.

+ Trainings will be held on June 22 and June 23 and will include sessions on the Oregon Bicycle Safety Education and Pedestrian Safety Education curriculum for youth as well as adult traffic skills for bicyclists.

+ On June 18 and 19, you are invited to a family friendly bike ride, camp out, and other networking events!

During the conference we will dig into all aspects of Safe Routes to School, how each “E” (Equity, Education, Encouragement, Evaluation, Enforcement, and Engineering) applies to work in Oregon and to your community. Join us for:

• Inspiring speakers
• Presentations to learn how to get more kids using active transportation
• Networking opportunities
• Opportunities to strengthen our statewide SRTS Network
• Social events including a pre-conference social gathering and a fun ride after the first day’s events

Learn more about the conference, including the agenda and scholarship information. Full session information will be posted in mid-April. Register now!

Oregon Active Transportation Summit – April 21+22

LAST DAY TO REGISTER IS APRIL 15!

Join leaders from across Oregon on April 21-22 for two days of discovery, networking, sharing best practices, and shaping the future of transportation. Your registration includes a full day of keynotes, plenaries, and breakout sessions, light continental breakfast, plated lunch, and no-host bar reception on Monday, April 21st as well as a full day of tours, mobile workshops, and meeting opportunities on Tuesday, April 22nd. Register at http://oat-summit.com. Panels will include research, best practice, design, and interactive conversation around multiple active transportation topics, including:

• Safe Routes to School — why it’s a great and easy program to get kids active, how to fund it and how it advances the bigger community’s goals for active transportation
• Tourism — from trails to mountains, and all the connections in between
• Parking, Youth activism, underserved communities, the increase of women on bikes, and more!

Also available NACTO full-day trainings on urban street and bikeway design, plus mobile workshops and tours. Did anyone mention dance party? Register now!

http://oat-summit.com

Physical activity supports academic achievement

The Learning Connection: What You Need to Know to Ensure Your Kids are Healthy and Ready to Learn

This easy-to-read special report, released in 2013, is a roadmap for parents, educators, school administrators, and school volunteers to create healthier school environments so the children in their lives are better positioned to learn. The report demonstrates that:

• Physical activity supports academic achievement.
• Kids who eat well, learn better.
• Healthier practices in schools can increase schools’ revenue.

Safe Routes to School programs provide a bridge for schools to reinforce the connection between physical fitness and learning – especially in funding-challenged districts. From the report:

“Study after study shows kids who get regular physical activity experience improvements not just in their fitness levels but in brain function too. Just walking or biking to school can prime the brain for learning. It makes sense – kids need to move more. When they do, they are better positioned to succeed in the classroom.”

Download the full report (PDF).

Washington schools: Call for Projects – Safe Routes to School Funding

WSDOT Ped & Bike and Safe Routes to School grant program is open.

The purpose of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program is to increase the number of children walking and biking to school safely. All projects must be within two-miles of primary, middle or high school (K-12).

There will be a webinar on March 3. Applications are due in May.

Find out more.

Oregon schools: Action Plan Mini-Grants Available!

Deadline is Feb 7!

Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) Action Plan Mini-Grants provide up to $3000 in funding to support schools and community organizations in creating the Oregon SRTS Action Plan as the first step in the implementation of a Safe Routes to School program.

An action plan is required to be eligible for future non-infrastructure SRTS funding and can be a district wide plan. An action plan for a specific school is a recommended step but not a requirement in applying for 2017-2020 STIP Enhance ODOT funding for engineering improvements around the school (note the 2017-20 STIP Enhance ODOT process is not yet open).

National and local trends: More Kindergarten to 8th Grade Children Are Walking & Bicycling to School

New research from the National Center for Safe Routes to School shows more kindergarten to grade 8 (K-8) students are walking to and from school across the country.

According to the data, the percentage of K-8 children who walked to school in the morning increased from 12.4 percent to 15.7 percent (representing a 27 percent increase). Similarly, the percentage of K-8 children who walked from school in the afternoon increased from 15.8 percent to 19.7 percent (representing a 24 percent increase). Another significant finding of this research was that the percentage of parents reporting that their child’s school supports walking and bicycling for the school commute from 24.9 percent to 33 percent.

The full report, “Trends in Walking and Bicycling to School from 2007 to 2012,” analyzed parent survey data collected by nearly 4,700 schools located in all states and Washington DC from 2007 through 2012. The complete study and a companion piece for practitioners, “Trends in Walking and Bicycling to School: Takeaways for Building Successful Programs,” is available online here (PDF).

Meanwhile, the City of Portland continues to chip away at their own level of success when it comes to Safe Routes to School: a whopping 41 percent of Portland pupils either walked or biked to school in autumn 2013! Read more at BikePortland.

A tool to assess walking and biking potential at schools

For those of you working with or at a school or school district, wondering how to asses your school’s Safe Routes to School potential:

WalkBoston and their regional planning organization (MAPC) developed a tool for schools in Massachusetts to assess walking (and now biking) potential. A discussion of the tool can be found at http://walkboston.org/what-we-do/initiatives/research and the tool itself can be seen at http://masaferoutessurvey.org/en/   – with responses to this very short survey, schools can automatically generate reports and maps that show how students get to/from school. This immediately reveals whether there are a lot of children living nearby who are currently arriving in cars (and therefore possible candidates to shift to walking or biking), or whether most nearby students are already arriving on foot. The tool for Massachusetts also includes walksheds and bikesheds for all schools that accurately represent walking and biking distances and accessibility (sidewalks etc).

The tool was designed so that it can be adapted by other states or school districts, please contact Tim Reardon at MAPC, 617-933-0718 or treardon@mapc.org.

If you have questions about the research, get in touch with Wendy Landman, Executive Director WalkBoston — wlandman@WalkBoston.org or 617-367-9255.