Oregon Active Transportation Summit

This presentation and interactive Q&A will explore innovative partnerships between ODOT and communities that advance active transportation and make our transportation system more awesome: the panel presentation will highlight partnerships to activate underutilized ODOT ROW to create skateparks and other urban amenities, promote bikeshare programs in underserved communities, amd improve and build trail access and connectivity, while the Q&A/Discussion will provide space for people with ideas to activate ODOT spaces to discuss with practitioners and the community.Participants will gain insights into collaborative approaches that support Oregon’s vision for safe, inclusive, and sustainable transportation options. Bring your own ideas to share!

Burgess & Niple (B&N) will present on innovative strategies to advance Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs by minimizing design costs and leveraging technology.

Traditional design scopes can make small projects as costly to design as they are to construct. Through a series of case studies from Ohio, Arizona, and Idaho, B&N will demonstrate how modifying scopes, utilizing technology, and adjusting deliverable expectations can reduce design costs while delivering easily constructible plans and projects.

The presentation will also showcase Peoria, AZ’s innovative use of geospatial technology to modernize Safe Routes to School planning. A GIS-based solution replaced traditional static paper maps with an interactive web application that allows parents to map customized, safe routes from home to school. This dynamic tool integrates real-time GIS data, adapting to infrastructure updates and safety improvements, while fostering collaboration among parents, schools, and planners. Attendees will learn how to advance SRTS programs by minimizing design costs and leveraging technology.

On the bike bus side: Several organizers representing different schools will join this panel, including Lauren McCune from Abernethy Elementary School, Jodi Jacobson-Swartfager from Atkinson Elementary School, Rob Galanakis from Glencoe Elementary School, and Bryant Letterlough from James John Elementary School. The presentation will include a toolkit element: bike buses are volunteer run and much of the growth is due to grassroots information sharing so there will be a crowdsourced list of "tips and tricks" for starting a bike bus in one's community.

On the walking school bus side: Following a spring 2025 pilot, Oregon Walks is in its first full school year of a professionalized Walking School Bus program. Central to our success is the School Liaison model, which provides community champions with stipends, gear, and training. However, rather than a "one-size-fits-all" approach, our framework is designed for local adaptation. We recognize that every neighborhood has unique cultural, geographic, and social dynamics; our role is to provide the "scaffold" of support—professional tools and funding—while empowering Liaisons to build a transportation program that best fits their specific community’s needs. Sharing stories across diverse communities, this session offers a look at our first-year implementation. We will discuss the logistics of managing a paid-leadership model and how we balance program standards with the flexibility needed for neighborhood customization, plus lessons on identifying, training, and empowering School Liaisons. Attendees will learn how providing "Active Transportation Champions" with agency and professional support allows for more resilient, community-led solutions, particularly in underserved areas.

Participants will learn about the competitive grant opportunities for tribes, cities, counties, school districts, and non-profits at the Oregon Department of Transportation. Grant programs that can specifically fund active transportation project will be highlighted like Safe Routes to School and Oregon Community Paths. Participants will also engage in a discussion to help them identify projects that would be good candidates for current grant programs and plan ahead for funding over the next two years.

The City of Eugene centers community engagement in our transportation planning processes, but have found that in many cases the conversation can be too narrow, with residents interacting only with staff. In 2024, the Transportation Planning Team began to explore how we could broaden the conversation so that community members aren't only talking with staff, but with each other. Afterall, projects impact everyone differently, and staff cannot represent those impacts to everyone, especially those opposed to a project. That brings us to our new style of public meeting, which we are calling Community Conversations. We asked ourselves, what if we created a public meeting where people could talk with one another and learn how this project might impact their neighbors? We booked a venue with circular tables, put together an interactive agenda, and ran our first Community Conversation for the 24th Avenue Protected Bike Lanes project. We have since replicated this process for the Polk Street Bike Lanes project. This workshop will show attendees how we run Community Conversation style meetings and the "why" behind the shift in how we run meetings. I will also create an interactive component where we run a mini community conversation so people can see it in action.

Did you know Oregon’s SRTS program has had the highest share of schools participating in Walk+Roll events in the nation for two years running? And that last year over 40 travel options challenges or points programs were hosted through ODOT's Get There Connect, contributing to over 1,803,236 vehicle miles reduced through the platform.

Encouragement events like these are one of the core elements in a SRTS practitioner's toolbox to help a school community comfortably and successfully start walking and rolling. ODOT’s Safe Routes to School and Transportation Options programs educate, encourage, and support Oregonians in using active and shared transportation every day. Hear from staff on both programs in this session, which highlights the role of events and incentives in successfully encouraging people to try using shared and active transportation to travel to school (and work!).

Additionally, the session will highlight opportunities for SRTS and Transportation Options programs to learn from each other's strategies to encourage mode shift as well as opportunities to collaborate for events and challenges. Hear from members of the Oregon Safe Routes to School team and the ODOT Transportation Options team about their lessons learned from successful strategies for supporting participation in Walk+Roll events and Challenges around the state.

Effective bike parking is an essential piece of our broader transportation plan. The intent is to insure safe, efficient spaces for bikes when not in use. In this session we will discuss Portland's current bike parking policies, what did not work, and what changes need to happen to get Portland back on track to have one of the best bike parking regulations in the country. A code that meets the needs of Portlanders without cost burdening housing or adding complexity all while increasing housing production.

SPONSORED BY Dero

Student Transportation Survey and District Policy Insights from Eugene Safe Routes to School:
Participants will discover the results and applied uses of a student travel survey, segmented into various groups, carried out by Eugene School District 4J Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. The district-wide survey gathered input on barriers to and benefits of active and shared transportation for students living varied distances from school, using different modes of travel, and at various grade levels. Analysis revealed that the particular groups indeed perceive discreet advantages and obstacles to active and shared travel. The conclusions allow the SRTS program to target specific groups of students and families with messaging and support to increase the use of active and shared transportation. Many of these findings and/or a replication of the survey could be applied statewide.In addition, participants will learn about the unique policies that Eugene 4J has implemented to support student transportation options. The district developed an innovative “equity clause” in their Supplemental Busing Plan that expands the reach of school buses to those who need it most. And, as allowed by House Bill 3014, the “Bike Bus Bill,” the district has included funding for crossing guards in their Supplemental Busing Plan.The session will cycle between presentations and partner or small group discussions with share-outs. This will allow participants to digest the information being presented and to consider how they could use and apply the material after the conference. Participants will have the opportunity to access both the survey results and a blank version of the survey for adaptation and replication.

Regional Safe Routes to School Walkshed 2.0:
In 2022, Metro developed the first Regional SRTS Walkshed Tool that provides both geospatial and demographic data for every public school in the Metro boundary, allowing for SRTS practitioners to learn more about the specific vulnerabilities present at each school. The tool focuses on two key approaches: 1) The development of a routable pedestrian network to measure a true one-mile 'walkshed' around each school that incorporates streets and trails, and 2) Metro selected eight variables – referred to as vulnerability indicators - related to transportation safety and student demographics to assess an individual school’s needs and barriers for student transportation, relative to other schools in the region. The tool was updated in 2025 to reflect new school and street data, and the online tools is now fully accessible - one of the first geospatial web tools at Metro to integrate web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards. In addition, Metro developed individualized School Walkshed reports for every school, that can be printed and used during walk audits or in discussions about SRTS needs at the school level.This presentation will walk through the new tool and it's functionalities, discuss use-cases for the tool at the local level, and share more about the vulnerability indicators that were selected as well as the development of the school walksheds themselves.

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 Safety

Join 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 Streets

School 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.