May is Bike Month

National Bike to School Day is Wednesday, May 4 – is your school signed up? It’s not too late!

The Fire Up your Feet Spring Activity Challenge has arrived in Oregon & SW Washington, and runs from May 1-31. Make sure you are ready to jump into your favorite activities and earn cash awards for your school at the same time. Make the most of your time online so you can spend more time outside being active! One activity tracker does it all, so parents, teachers, and coordinators can all use the same tracker.

In Oregon, the Walk + Bike Challenge is a friendly competition aimed at encouraging more kids and families to walk and bike to and from school and throughout their neighborhoods.

In Washington, Cascade Bicycle Club hosts friendly statewide Bike to School competitions for elementary, middle and high school students who can track their bike riding during May and earn prizes along the way.

Not a student anymore? Then Bike Everywhere & Bike More.

Oregon’s Action Plan for Transportation Safety – Online Open House closes 2/9

In 2015, we witnessed a spate of tragic events unfolding, as the lives of more than 75 pedestrians in Oregon were lost due to traffic violence — a 40% increase over 2014, which had also seen an increase over 2013 numbers.

While we continue to look for and find ways to address the causes of this spreading traffic violence epidemic in Oregon, the Transportation Safety Action Plan (TSAP) has come up with a draft vision:

Oregon envisions no deaths or life-changing injuries on our transportation system by 2035.

– TSAP Draft Vision

The Oregon Draft TSAP (pdf) is now available. The Plan is one of several statewide plans that define and implement the state’s goals, policies, strategies, and key initiatives for transportation. Other plans include the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, which is also currently open for comment.

source: Bike PGH

The TSAP currently has an Online Open House, which walks you through what the TSAP is and what will come out of this process, and provides some background on what the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has identified as factors contributing to fatal and serious injury crashes in Oregon for people driving motor vehicles, walking, or bicycling.

Oregon Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan Opens for Public Comment

The Public Comment period for the Oregon Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan is open until February 18th, 2016, and you are strongly encouraged to review the plan and submit comments.

This is the first time the plan has been updated since 1995, and much work has been put into it. Together with a coalition of transportation, health, and safety advocates, Kari Schlosshauer, the PNW Regional Policy Manager, submitted a letter of comments and concerns (pdf) to be addressed in the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan prior to final adoption, including:

• Programs such as Safe Routes to School, which should be closely referenced and supported in this Plan, are only given brief mention.
• There is a missed opportunity in not more strongly linking such education/ encouragement programs with infrastructure built by state and local partners.
• The Plan needs a better assessment of existing conditions. ODOT’s Region 1 Active Transportation Needs Inventory and Assessment provides an excellent process and example, and should be replicated statewide.
• Updates to the functional classifications of ODOT facilities incorporating 2015 conditions is required in order to accurately reflect Oregon’s commitment to improved bicycle access on specific streets.
• Include a true Multimodal Level of Service performance measures in the context of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan

ODOT will present the Draft Plan to a variety of different stakeholder groups & will also hold an online open house available mid-December.

For more information, visit the Plan website, attend a presentation or the online open house, and be sure submit your comments before February 18, 2016. The next 20 years of walking, bicycling, and safe routes to everywhere depend on it.

$3000 grants available to write or update School Actions Plans

Whether your school is in Keizer or Tualatin, a current School Action Plan is a great way to continue or re-start down the path of Safe Routes to School.

While not a requirement of the Enhance application process by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for sidewalk and bicycle facilities projects, the selection committees of ODOT’s Area Commissions on Transportation (ACTs) suggest that Action Plans are often very persuasive evidence of the need for the project in enhancing the safety of students walking to the school site.

While we cannot guarantee the funding picture for the future of Oregon Safe Routes to School non-infrastructure grants to fund Safe Routes to School programs and coordinators, we are hopeful for another round for fiscal year 2017 (starts Oct 2016). To apply for these, your school or district will need a current action plan.

If your school, PTA, neighborhood, or town wants to take a closer look at barriers and opportunities to increase walking and bicycling to school and throughout the community, now is a great time to start.

Mini-Grants for School Action Plans are currently available, and these can be used to update outdated Action Plans (those older than 5 years) — Applications with budgets up to $3000 due April 13, 2015.

Read more about School Action Plans, get in touch with Lynne if you have questions, and be sure to apply soon!

Milwaukie & Tigard Lead the Call for Healthy Kids and Safe Streets

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is pleased to support the For Every Kid Coalition in the Pacific Northwest region. For Every Kid is a growing coalition calling for Safe Routes to School for every kid in the Metro-area; vocal support from cities and school districts is an outcome of key partners coming together to promote the benefits and work with communities and we have been an active part of the leadership of this effort.

Local leaders agree: creating safe options to walk, bike, or ride the bus to school is critical to improving the health of kids.

In March, in unanimous votes, Milwaukie and Tigard City Councils became the first cities to pass resolutions calling on the Metro Regional Government to meaningfully invest in a region-wide “Safe Routes to School” initiative.

“The ability to walk and bike safely is critical to school kids,” said Milwaukie City Councilor Mark Gamba. “The measure of any community is the safety and well-being of its children. I intend to see Milwaukie build the necessary infrastructure to create safe routes to school and move towards the eventual goal of being an utterly walkable and bikeable city.”

Families at Linwood Elementary took action to make walking and bicycling to school safer.

Efforts in Milwaukie kicked off in 2014 when local residents attended our Clackamas County meet & greet event to learn more about how they could make their communities safer for kids walking and bicycling while improving healthy transportation options. Parents at Linwood Elementary didn’t wait to jump on board for their kids’ safety, and the interest in Safe Routes to School has spread like wildfire throughout the City of Milwaukie and Clackamas County.

Following the passage of Milwaukie’s resolution on March 17th, Tigard City Council and Tigard Mayor John Cook joined the call, passing their own resolution on Tuesday.

Leaders to Learn From

Know an excellent school district leader? Is someone in your school district doing great things around health, student travel, or the like? Each year, Education Week shines a spotlight on some of the nation’s most outstanding school district leaders in its Leaders To Learn From special report.(Check out the Leaders for 2015.)

Help shine a spotlight on some of the nation’s most outstanding school district leaders by nominating individuals who are leading the way on health and physical activity in our schools.

Education Week wants your input for a special report profiling school district leaders who have brought fresh, successful ideas to their school communities. Submit your school district leaders for 2016. Nominations due by August 1, 2015.

How We Get There Matters

A huge thank you to the more than 70 attendees participated in the Intertwine’s Active Transportation Forum on January 27 at PSU’s Native American Cultural Center, where many great conversations were had. Folks from planning, advocacy organizations, health, environment, trails, finance, and more came together to help solidify the answer to the question, If active transportation projects are of regional significance, how can we better define them to succeed?

An ever-increasing body of research confirms the direct connection between transportation options and job growth, economic vitality, and human and environmental health. Frequently, however, transportation funding conversations dismiss walking and bicycling as local concerns that have little regional impact, meaning we do not make headway when it comes to building projects.

We heard from a panel of eight great presenters who each “made the case” from a unique perspective, of how we can and should re-think walking, bicycling, and transit trips:

• Jenny Cadigan, Executive Director, WTA – Reducing drive alone commute trips
• Lynn Weigand, Project Coordinator, East Multnomah County Bicycle Tourism Initiative, Gresham Chamber of Commerce – Projects that add up to Bicycle Tourism
• Eric Hesse, Strategic Planning Coordinator, TriMet – Access to transit: the last mile of a regional trip
• Shelley Oylear, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, Washington County – Suburban greenways retrofitting the suburbs: regional impact of a network
• Jessica Horning – Transit and Active Transportation Liaison, ODOT Region 1 – 82nd Ave/Jade District corridor: When a main street is regional
• Jenna Stanke Marmon, Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Manager, Jackson County Roads & Parks – Connect Oregon and the statewide economic benefits of active transportation projects
• Amanda Garcia-Snell, Health Promotion Supervisor, Washington County – Reducing health care costs, increasing safety
• Mary Kyle McCurdy, Policy Director and Staff Attorney, 1,000 Friends Oregon – Why active transportation was included in a state transportation funding proposal

Special thanks to Craig Beebe from Metro for serving as “documentarian” and to Luann Algoso from APANO for filming the forum.

What’s next?

“I’ve already been using some of the concepts we talked about in various conversations.”

Over the next few months, the comments and ideas gathered during the January 2015 How We Get There Matters Forum will be analyzed and refined into a report back that will be made public here.

“Multiple threads from the day’s discussion continued on outside the room and on down the street.”

We know there is a great need to continue these conversations, and to add to them, which was confirmed by the energy in the room as well as the difficulty keeping the conversation to one topic at a time. We are already at work planning the next forum, and welcome your input. Please email Kari if you are interested in getting involved.

“We should be done asking this question. We need to be more productive.”

One participant’s statement hung in the air that really got at the heart of why The Intertwine, Metro, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, and Portland State University’s Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation brought this forum together. We very much look forward to keeping this conversation going, and being more productive. Thank you for attending, and we look forward to continuing this work with you.

Dropbox link to the presentation here (large pdf).

How did we get here?

For a bit of recent history, we look back. In September 2013, a Regional Walkability Summit was held in Beaverton. The Walkability Summit convened local experts, decision makers and other stakeholders from communities around the state – including many who attended this first How We Get There Matters forum. That group came together to discuss how we could make real change to increase active daily lifestyles and physical activity and improve walkability through environmental change strategies, especially in underserved communities.

Since then, we have seen a renewed interest and commitment to improving walkability. A few examples of what has happened in the past year:

• The City of Tigard has declared its desire to become the “most walkable community in the Northwest”;
• The City of Milwaukie has taken steps toward improving its walkable and bikeable connections by focusing on two things: the improvements coming to town via the new Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail line; and filling in gaps in the walking and bicycling network in the area directly around Milwaukie schools;
• Metro regional government passed first-of-their-kind Regional Active Transportation Plan and tailpipe-emission-reducing Climate Smart Strategies;
• Bicycle and pedestrian projects were eligible for the first time ever for state “ConnectOregon” funding, which totaled more than $42 million in 2014; and
• The Intertwine Alliance held a summit in Spring 2014 with a focus that included Active Transportation.

While we have, individually and collectively, done a remarkable number of things to improve walkability, bikeability, and active transportation access – the fact remains that, here in the Metro region, we have much more to do:

• The 2010 mode share for walking and bicycling trips was 12%;
• Our regional goal is to triple the mode share for walking and bicycling to 36% by 2040;
• Currently, approximately $10 million is spent annually on stand-alone pedestrian, bicycle, and trail projects, which represents just 3% of the $433 million federal and state capital funds spent annually on transportation in the region; and
• Only 55% of all roadways in the regional pedestrian network have sidewalks on both sides of the road.