Shots from the January, February, and March Kidical Mass rides in Portland, OR. The music is from the Langley Schools Music Project CD.

Learn how easy it is for you and your family to participate in Kidical Mass rides at www.kidicalmasspdx.org/

For the Safe Routes to School team, spring break isn't really a break at all. We take this week to switch gears from delivering our pedestrian safety program (targeted at 2nd graders) to our bike safety program (targeted at 4th and 5th graders).

The thing about bike safety is that you need bikes! Check out some of the behind the scenes action below as we prepare to kickoff the spring bike safety season at Beach, Prescott and Llewellyn next week...

Dedicated volunteer mechanics give our 200+ bikes a tune-up

The bikes are organized into fleets, so each school will have an appropriate mix of sizes

There are also lots and lots helmets to sort!

Delivery time! This truck holds 35 bikes

The end result - fresh graduates of our bike safety program from James John Elementary

In spring 2013, Portlanders can add bike share to their lists of healthy and sustainable transportation choices.

Bike share allows people to make short trips by bike for a small fee. Users can access bicycles at stations located through a city's or region's service area. 

Like many of our transportation choices, bike share works great in tandem with other modes of travel. Bike share and transit complement each other exceptionally well. 

Let's say you commute downtown from Gresham and you want to bike. If you're an iron woman or man, you could wake up at 4:30 a.m. and ride 17 miles on the Springwater Corridor. Or you could bike from your house to the Gresham Central MAX stop and park your bike securely in the card-activated Bike and Ride facility. Come next spring, when you get off MAX you could jump on a bike share bike for the rest of your trip.

Or let's suppose you want to ride transit but the nearest stop is a mile from your final destination. Depending on where your office is located, there could be a bike share station that could make the transit trip feasible while providing you a quick and fun way to finish off your morning commute.

Or let's ask you to really stretch your mind and imagine that when it's time to go to work that it's raining. You want to bike but you don't feel like putting on your rain gear. So you read the morning paper on your bus ride to work. The 5pm work bell rings and lo and behold, it's sunny and glorious. Jump on bike share for a glorious ride home.

You can learn more about the Portland Bike Share project, watch videos or recommend a bike share station location at http://www.pdxBikeShare.com

On Saturday night, Car2Go - a pay by the minute car share company from Daimler Trucks North America, officially launched their service in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Along with the classic car share company Zipcar and peer to peer car sharing via Getaround, Car2Go's launch provides Portlanders with three distinct car sharing services.

Car2Go's service allows one-way car sharing trips for 35 cents per minute. The maximum rate per hour is $12.99 and the maximum daily rate is $65.99.

Similar to other car share companies, Car2Go requires you to be a member to use their vehicles. You can reserve a car online or go to any available car on their map and swipe your membership card to begin the rental.

Cars can be parked on any public street in the parking lane, including metered parking within the Car2Go "home area." The only exceptions are restricted spaces (e.g., valet, loading zone) or spaces restricted to parking for less than an hour.

Autoblog reports that in San Diego, members logged 25,000 Car2Go trips in the first 100 days.

The City's Safe Routes to School program is holding a FREE class for adults to help build your biking confidence.  Participants will learn about traffic laws, bicycling resources and getting back on a bike.