Our Mission

Portland Safe Routes to School is a partnership of the City of Portland, schools, neighborhoods, community organizations and agencies that advocates for and implements programs that make walking and biking around our neighborhoods and schools fun, easy, safe and healthy for all students and families while reducing our reliance on cars.

The Portland Safe Routes to School program currently provides Education, Encouragement, Engineering, Enforcement, and Evaluation in an Equitable manner (6 ‘E's) to support students in schools to be safe, have fun, grow healthy and get there.

Program Partners

The success of the Portland Safe Routes to School program is due to strong partnerships with schools, school districts, non-profits, advocacy groups, and agencies.

There have been many organizations that have contributed to the success of Portland Safe Routes to School. Our current partners are listed below:

Program History

View a map of the schools we serve...

Portland Safe Routes to School (SR2S) began to develop programming in 2000, when the national conversation began with the funding of the Marin County program and the Oregon Walk + Bike to School committee was formed.

The City of Portland took a step toward formalization when the State of Oregon passed House Bill 3712 (known as the ‘Safe Routes to School Bill') in 2001. Subsequent to this, we partnered with 5 schools in Portland that received $2,000 in state grants and delivered all school traffic safety services under the umbrella concept of ‘Safe Routes to School'.

In 2003, the Portland Community and School Traffic Safety Partnership was established. Safe Routes to School is one part of this community-based, coalition-led effort to improve traffic safety in Portland.

In 2005-06 Portland Safe Routes to School initiated the 5-E (Education, Encouragement, Engineering, Enforcement, and Evaluation) pilot project, with partnerships in eight schools. In 2006-07 eleven more partner schools joined. Seven more schools joined the program in 2007-08. In 2008-2009 forty five schools were added to our service list, although not all these schools received our full bundle of services. In 2009-2010, two additional schools joined the program. We now serve almost every elementary and K-8 school in the City, providing direct service to over 80 schools. Of those, we've completed engineering plans at 28 schools and 40 schools receive our education services.

To read more about our program, check out our brochure or latest newsletter, both available for viewing as a PDF.