Bike and walking school buses win big with federal grant for north Portland

Metro has won a $1.1 million federal grant that will boost walking school bus and bike bus programs in north Portland.

The news was announced today by US Department of Transportation. The funding comes from the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program.

According to a description of the grant application provided by Metro, the funding will be used to invest in walking schools buses and bike bus programs. The aim is to see what happens when these activities are funded and supported by more than just a parent or two and if the availability of a safer route to school and supportive school environment gets more families to leave their cars at home.

The pilot activities will take place in the Roosevelt High School cluster in north Portland with programming at five elementary schools (Astor, James John, Sitton, Rosa Parks, César Chávez), one middle school (George), and one high school (Roosevelt). That cluster has 68% students of color, a 45% absentee rate, and 43% of the families have low incomes. Metro crash statistics reveal that the routes kids at these schools take are much more dangerous over average than the region at-large. The grant application also cited concerns with gun violence as a reason families don’t walk and roll to school.

“The combination of school demographic needs, crash data, and strong community infrastructure are why this pilot project area was chosen,” reads the Metro project description.

Metro applied for the grant. In addition to PPS, partners on the project include nonprofits Oregon Walks and Community Cycling Center, Portland State University, and Portland Bureau of Transportation.

The grant will allow Metro to pay adult leaders at elementary schools to to establish weekly walking school buses and bike buses. There will also be monthly events to bolster the programs and encourage participation. Two elementary schools in the program will receive “learn to ride” education and teachers will receive training on bike and pedestrian safety.

For high schoolers, the program will fund transit trainings that will include a field trip to ride the TriMet system. And students will receive hands-on training on how to use the Biketown bike share system.

The grant will also fund an annual adopt-a-bike event and free bike locks and helmets for students. Social media training, so bike bus leaders can spread the word about their program and reach more families, will also be part of the program.

While this is mostly a planning and organizing grant, there will be some investment in demonstration projects. Temporary wayfinding for the walking and biking routes will be installed and there’s a plan to paint “traffic gardens” on the campus at each elementary school. “Temporary or pop-up circulation improvements to guide traffic during pickup/drop-off times,” is also included.

Everything will be analyzed and evaluation by PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Center to see how the various interventions are impacting safety and perceptions about walking and biking to school.

If the pilots are deemed successful, Metro and their partners will integrate walking schools buses and bike buses into more schools and “apply lessons learned regionwide and support broader implementation of the most successful initiatives.”

Work is expected to begin July 2025 and will take place over three years. This news comes just weeks after the nonprofit Oregon Walks received a nearly $1 million grant through the Portland Clean Energy Fund to develop walking school buses citywide.

“It is a wonderful day for children’s mobility,” said bike bus leader Sam “Coach” Balto. “SS4A is incredibly meaningful funding. A humongous ‘thank you’ goes to the staff at Metro who are always open to try new things and take risks.”

— Read the project description here.