El Tigre Fest: Saturday, October 5, 2024

Visit the SRTS Booth for information on walking and rolling safely to school and in your neighborhood and pick up a free helmet (while supplies last). 

International Walk + Roll to School Day: Wednesday, October 16th*! 

International Walk + Roll to School Day is a global event that involves communities from more than 40 countries walking and rolling to school on the same day. It began in 1997 as a one-day event, over time, it has become part of a movement for year-round safe routes to school. Today, thousands of schools across America–from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico–participate every October. Walk+Roll to School Day takes place on the first full week of October each year, and we strongly encourage schools to have students walk+roll for the whole month of October to encourage healthy habits that will continue all year long. Your school can choose to participate one day, one day per week, one day over multiple weeks, or the entire month.

*Alternate date from official International Walk + Roll (October 9th) to accommodate TTSD in-service day

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day: Thursday, November 14, 2024

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day gives children the chance to celebrate Ruby’s courage by walking to school and is the perfect opportunity to teach children about the civil rights movement and make connections to today’s collective efforts for change.

Mini Grants are available to for schools in the amounts of $500 and $1000 to support Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day celebrations this Fall. Submissions are due by Friday, September 13, 2024. Grants will be awarded by Friday, October 4, 2024. For more information, please visit the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day website.

Winter Walk + Roll to School Day: Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Put on your snow or rain boots and walk or roll to school while enjoying wintertime in Oregon!

Celebrate Earth Month! April, 2025

You and your school community are encouraged to get creative about how you celebrate walking and rolling for the earth, whether it’s all month or just on Earth Day! Possible ideas include: 

• Plant seeds at your school or around your community.
• Write a thank you card to the Earth.
• Create a collaborative mural at your school about biking and walking to school.
• Have students make posters about why they love the Earth.

Walk + Roll May Challenge: Date TBA

The first-ever National Bike + Roll to School Day took place on May 9, 2012, in coordination with the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Month. Almost 1,000 local events in 49 states and the District of Columbia joined together to encourage children to safely bicycle to school. Today our Walk + Roll to May challenge encourages school communities to increase opportunities for students to walk and roll to school through some friendly competition.

Grant Award

The City of Tigard was awarded $2 million to make critical safety improvements at Templeton Elementary and Twality Middle schools for students walking and biking to school.  The funds were awarded through the Oregon Department of Transportation's Safe Routes to School Competitive Construction Grant Program.  Learn more about it! 

What is an Action Plan?

We are working with parents, school staff, and the school district to develop school specific Action Plans. Action Plans identify the key barriers to walking and biking and then prioritizes strategies to address these barriers. Strategies can be encouragement events, education, engineering/ infrastructure, and enforcement.

• Steps to writing a Safe Routes to School Action Plan

What are your barriers?

In order to develop an Action Plan that will fully address the barriers to walking and biking to school, we need to hear from you!

• Use this online geoform survey to submit information about the barriers or issues you face in the walk or bike to school.
• See the fully interactive SRTS Barrier Map for all Tigard-area schools.

Tigard is home to the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program for the Tigard-Tualatin School District. SRTS is a framework for parents to join with teachers, school administrators and city officials to encourage active transportation to and from school. We believe walkable neighborhoods are strong neighborhoods! Some students don't have an option to travel actively to school and in those scenarios we encourage bussing and carpools! We've learned that single-family car rides to school create congestion, carbon emissions and parking challenges, and keep children from exercising their bodies and minds. Let us know if you need help finding your best route to school - we're here to help!

Our SRTS Coordinator works with all schools in the Tigard-Tualatin School District, including 11 elementary, 3 middle, and two high schools (plus 2 alternative schools)! The goal is to initiate Safe Routes to School Programs at the schools where there is not already some kind of presence; and to broaden and deepen the programming at the schools already involved in the initiative. The SRTS Program is sustained by creating systems that can be easily replicated and delivered.

Here are some great resources for utilizing healthy and active forms of getting to and from school:

• Safety in Numbers: get a group of kids from the neighborhood to walk or bike together.
• Take it one step at a time: drive part of the way and then walk the rest, to get the feel for walking to school on a comfortable route.
• Pedestrian Safety Lessons: this is a great time to go over pedestrian safety skills with your child.

Traveling to school safely is everyone’s priority and the SRTS Program is here to help!

Pedestrian + Scooter Safety Education (2nd Grade)

Elementary schools have the opportunity to include a Pedestrian + Scooter Safety Education course for their 2nd grade classes. The 5-hour course includes 3 classroom and 2 outdoor lessons, ideally spanning a single week (M-F). Teachers complete three classroom lessons with a provided curriculum and the SRTS Coordinator completes two outdoor lessons utilizing a fleet of scooters! The purpose of the course is to provide students with the basic knowledge and skill practice necessary to be safe pedestrians. To ensure safety and inclusiveness, all students receive a free helmet to keep!

The following is a program review provided by Metzger Elementary:

"The Pedestrian and Scooter Safety Program was a remarkable opportunity for our second graders. During the program, each student received a helmet, hands-on pedestrian and scooter safety lessons, hand signal instructions, and personalized attention while learning how to safely ride a scooter. It was an engaging and rewarding experience for all ability levels. Hendrik has a gift for ensuring that students and teachers feel comfortable, prepared, and excited about the lessons and activities. We are thrilled that our students were able to have this opportunity and would love to invite Hendrik back every year!"

Bike Safety Education (5th Grade)

Elementary schools have the opportunity to include a Bike Safety Education course for their 5th grade classes. The 10-hour course includes 4 classroom and 6 outdoor lessons, ideally spanning two weeks. Teachers complete four classroom lessons with a provided curriculum and the SRTS Coordinator completes 6 outdoor lessons utilizing a fleet of 30 bikes! The purpose of the course is to teach students basic traffic rules and regulations, the skills needed to cycle effectively, and how to communicate and ride predictably on the road. To ensure safety and inclusiveness, all students receive a free helmet to keep!

Note: We are limiting Bike Safety Education to a max of 3 schools this year.

Become a Parent Champion

The SRTS program relies on parent volunteers and is a vital connection to increasing the number of students who walk, bike or roll to school. Parent volunteers work to organize events, spread the word to other parents and school staff, act as liaisons between the SRTS coordinator and their child’s school and much, much more.

Tigard’s Safe Routes to School program hopes that more parents (and grandparents too!) will get involved and act as Parent Champions for their schools.

Please view our menu of ways to get involved and how the program can help encourage more participation at your school.

• SRTS Menu - English
• SRTS Menu - Español

Contact

If you want to learn more, please contact our Safe Routes to School Coordinator.

We're providing FREE yard signs to residents who want to encourage safe driving in their neighborhoods. You can pick one up for free at the following location:

Tigard Permit Center
13125 SW Hall Blvd.
503-718-2708

Additional Information

• Signs should be placed on private property in your yard.
• Please don’t place the sign on someone else’s property without their permission.
• Make sure not to block driver visibility for pulling out of driveways, seeing pedestrians, etc.
• Make sure the signs do not block walkways, bikeways, or drainage ways.
• Do not place signs on traffic sign posts or utility poles.
• Please promptly remove any broken or vandalized signs; replacements are free!
• You may call ahead of time to make sure your pick-up location has the sign you want. Phone numbers are listed above.

Unfortunately, local recyclers do not accept corrugated plastic yard signs. If you no longer want the sign in your yard, please let someone else use it, or return it to the Permit Center.

 

Walking School Bus

A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adult. It can be as informal as two families taking turns walking their children to school or as structured as a designated route with meeting points, a timetable, and a regularly rotating schedule of trained volunteers. More information about the Walking School Bus 

 

Start Simple

Remember the program can always grow; it often makes sense to start with a small bus and see how it works. Choose a group of parents and children in your neighborhood who are interested.

• Invite families who live nearby to walk.
• Pick a route and take a test walk.
• Decide how often the group will walk together.

Have Fun

Walking School Buses have many benefits.

• It increases supervision, safety, and fun for students who already walk.
• It permits additional students to walk, introducing them to an important and easy habit.
• It reduces auto traffic, particularly near schools during drop-off and pick-up times.
• It creates a sense of community by getting neighbors to take turns as bus drivers.

Park & Walk

Sometimes students live outside a comfortable walking distance from school, but parents still want help relieve the congestion of traffic around schools and students still want to be able to walk. A great option is to Park & Walk — where parents drive (or carpool with others) partway to school and then their students walk the rest of the way. You can really Park & Walk from anywhere, but some ideas include city parks, church parking lots, or other meeting spots. You can even get a group to meet at the central location for kids to walk together.