Two Sessions:
- More than just Blinky Lights: What’s New in School Area Safety
- Creating Space for Community, Connection, & Mobility with School Streets
More than just Blinky Lights: What’s New in School Area SafetyJoin us to learn what’s new and exciting in school area safety in Oregon. This session will provide attendees with an understanding of the state and federal standards and guidelines related to school area safety and showcase projects from around the state. Bring your burning school zone questions and ask an engineer! Learn from cities and community partners who are taking steps to improve school area safety. Walk through ODOT’s newly updated
Guide to School Area Safety with the team who wrote it. Learn about the latest standards, guidelines, and best practices for supporting everyone safely traveling to and from school. Community projects examples will include:
- Portland Bureau of Transportation’s SRTS Infrastructure Plan
- Quick Build and School Streets for School Area Safety in Hood River County
- Education Programs to Support School Area Safety
Attendees will leave with a better understanding of guidelines, standards, and strategies for school area safety improvements and where to find more information and support in the future and ideas for different types of projects to implement at schools in their communities.
Creating Space for Community, Connection, & Mobility with School StreetsSchool Streets are a proven, low-cost strategy that temporarily restricts through-traffic on streets adjacent to schools during arrival and dismissal, creating safer and more welcoming spaces for students, families, and neighbors. This session will move participants from curiosity to implementation.
Attendees will:
- Learn how School Streets function in urban, suburban, and rural contexts
- Hear evaluation findings and implementation lessons from Oregon pilots, including Portland Bureau of Transportation’s School Streets pilot and Hood River’s practitioner experience
- Explore practical considerations such as community engagement, abutter outreach, traffic flow design, activation strategies, and scalability planning
This session is highly interactive. After a brief framing presentation (approximately 25 minutes), participants will engage in a facilitated, hands-on planning workshop. Using a structured planning toolkit, attendees will draft a School Street concept tailored to their own community, including mapping the street configuration, identifying activation ideas, outlining engagement strategies, and developing next steps for piloting. Presenters will circulate to provide real-time technical assistance and feedback.
Participants will leave with a tangible draft plan and a clear pathway toward implementation.
