Safe Routes Updates & Events

Two kids in bright orange helmets ride scooters along a narrow, bright green scooter track.

Fall 2024 Update

Five kids with bikes paying attention to an adult standing next to her own bike.

Safe Routes to School is teamed up with bike works by p:ear, the City of Gresham, and the City of Portland to provide transportation safety programs in East Multnomah County. We now have a bike and scooter fleet for teaching safety lessons at schools and in the community. We are reaching out to schools and community groups to schedule lessons.

The Safe Routes team created a map that highlights the infrastructure projects near schools east of 122nd Avenue. This includes projects on roads owned by the City of Portland, City of Gresham, and Multnomah County. Due to the length of time that it takes to plan, design, and construct projects, we included projects that have been completed in the past five years, and projects that will be completed in the upcoming 5 years.

Each project is identified by:

  • Jurisdiction: On the list of projects, turquoise indicates Portland, red for Multnomah County, and purple for Gresham
  • Project completion: Green dots are completed projects and yellow dots are planned projects
  • Cost range: Indicated by the size of the dot.  Small dots are projects that cost between $1.5 K and $199 K. Large dots are projects that cost between $5.3M and $13M.

Summer Fun 2024 with Safe Routes to School

A pair of bicyclists navigate a narrow yellow track in a parking lot, with miniature orange safety cones on the sides.

The Safe Routes team will be teaching bike and scooter safety in summer school, and will also be at community events. Join us this summer at these events:

Movies in the Park
Friday, July 26, 6-8pm
Pat Pfeifer Park
NE 172nd and NE Everett, Gresham
Come early to Movies in the Park! Bring your bike or scooter, or use one of ours. We will activate the Traffic Playground and you can learn some new skills before the movie starts!

A woman raises a hand as she rides a stationary bike with a blender mounted on the back.

Family Fun Night
Friday, August 2, 6-8pm
Donald Robertson Park
24300 NE Halsey, Wood Village
We will have the Bike Blender for fruit smoothies! And surprise activities!

Back to School Health Fair
Thursday, August 8, 10am-2pm
Rockwood Market Hall
458 SE 185th, Gresham
Win prizes as you learn healthy ways to get to school.

Rock the Block
Friday and Saturday, August 23 and 34
Rockwood Market Hall
458 SE 185th, Gresham
Times and activities TBD

Bike Rodeo

We held a bike rodeo on Saturday, March 30, 2024 at Davis Park in Rockwood.

Our bike team helped new riders learn how to ride, and people put their bike skills to the test on our obstacle course.

Fall 2023 Update

A person in a green and white dragon mascot suit stands next to a black dog with a yellow bandana in front of a sign-up table at a school building.

Safe Routes to School had a fantastic summer, teaching pedestrian safety lessons for all students in Centennial, Gresham Barlow, and Reynolds school districts. We also tabled at outreach events and held a bike rodeo in partnership with the City of Gresham.

We held an exciting event with Wilkes Elementary SUN program, as we honored Hispanic Heritage in a parade that included Folkloric and Aztec dancers! 

For the fall, we are supporting Walk and Roll to School events, as well as ongoing pedestrian safety lessons in PE classes.

We appreciate the Gresham Police, who helped us safely cross Halsey for our Wilkes event, and included their therapy dog for our Davis Elementary Walk to School Event!

With the daylight decreasing each week, we want to remind everyone to drive safely in school zones.

Spring 2023 Update

Two children's hands, one with red nail polish and the other with a black wrist brace, reach out to pick up pencils with the Walk and Roll logo, from a pile of pencils on a table surrounded by Walk and Roll stickers of different shapes and sizes.

The Winter and Spring of 2023 was a busy time for the East Multnomah County Safe Routes to School program.

In partnership with bike works by p:ear, the City of Portland and the City of Gresham, we provided pedestrian safety lessons at 11 East County schools to over 2,400 students.  We had 9 Walk and Roll to School events with over 500 participants. We also provided bike helmets and other goodies at several community events.

We had fun installing a new Traffic Playground at bike works!

Our RTO grant with Metro was renewed for a part time coordinator through 2026, and we will be teaching pedestrian safety lessons at summer schools for Centennial, Reynolds, and Gresham Barlow School Districts.