The best cure for gloominess about the progress of active transportation in Portland is Safe Routes to School.
As the newest Streetsfilm shows, the program has been a huge success here. One in ten Portland youngsters bike to school (ten times the national average) and three in ten walk (three times the average).
Better still, those numbers are up 25 percent since 2006.
It’s especially heartening to see Leah Treat, the woman who runs our transportation bureau, talk about her own children’s experience riding to school on her husband’s Xtracycle.
Another highlight: the bike-loving Kaufman family explains why they prefer walking to school over biking.
“Kids that walk to school, they’ve already started the motor,” says Ben Keefer, principal at George Middle School. “So they come to school and tend to be pretty ready to learn.”