CITY OF TIGARD

Safe Routes to School

Tigard-Tualatin Safe Routes to School encourages active transportation to-and-from school. The Five E’s provide the foundation of our Safe Routes to School initiatives, ensuring that the safety, active transportation and community aspects of the program are promoted.

Education | Encouragement | Enforcement | Engineering | Evaluation

What’s New?
Walk+Roll to School Day - October 2, 2019
Join thousands of students in celebrating the joy of biking and walking to school on Walk+Roll to School Day. This annual event promotes safe walking and biking:

Teaches safe transportation skills.
Promotes traffic safety around the school and in the community.
Increases children’s physical activity.
Reduces pollution and traffic congestion around schools.
Builds awareness around walkability and highlights where improvements can be made.
Inspires parents and students to integrate walking and biking in the daily routine.

Concerned about safe routes? Parents concerned about routes to school without sidewalks or with busy streets are encouraged to walk or bike with your child for safety and for some extra special time together. Parents check in at the tables in front to receive a surprise as well.

Live far away? Consider parking a few blocks away from the school in the area neighborhood and walk with your child onto campus and check in at the tables so you and your child can receive a little surprise for the walking that was done. This is a great way to get some walking in and participate if the trip from your front door to the school is unsafe for travel or just too far.

Back to School: Plan Ahead
It’s back to school time and along with notebooks, pencils and erasers, families should have a plan for getting to school safely. Whether your children walk, bike, take the bus, or ride in a car, practice getting them there safe and sound.

Walk-and-Bike-sign Make time to practice traveling their route to school and discuss how the following tips will help them get there safely and responsibly.

Check your route before school starts!

Plan a walking route that has low traffic volume, few intersections, slow speeds, bicycle lanes and sidewalks.
Always cross the street at the corner and in the designated crosswalk. Make sure to look both ways for traffic and wait for cars to stop before you cross the street.
If there are no sidewalks, keep close to the shoulder of the road facing traffic so you can see approaching cars.
Check our suggested route for your Elementary School: www.tigard-or.gov/srtsmaps

Be Safe! Be Seen!

Plan to walk with friends, join a Walking School Bus on your route, or start one yourself.
Always be alert and keep your eyes and ears open!
Be predictable by walking and riding in a straight line.
Stay visible with light or reflective clothing.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for International Walk + Roll to School Day on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019! Spread the word and help get your fellow students out walking and biking.

About

Tigard is home to the Safe Routes to School program for the Tigard-Tualatin School District. Walkable neighborhoods are strong neighborhoods.Driving to the neighborhood school is sometimes the only option. But driving to school creates congestion, carbon emissions and parking challenges, and keeps children from exercising their bodies and minds. SRTS is a framework for parents to join with teachers, school administrators and city officials to encourage active transportation to and from school.

Our Safe Routes to School Coordinator works with the seven elementary and two middle schools in Tigard along with eight schools in Tualatin. 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 and sustain the program by creating systems that can be easily replicated and delivered.

There are a lot of options 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.

Travelling to school safely is everyone’s priority and the Safe Routes to School Program is here to help!

Get Involved!

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.

Reach out...
If you couldn’t make it to the event, but would like to know more, please contact City of Tigard Safe Routes to School Coordinator at 503-718-2708.

English | En Espanol

Encouragement Events

Walk+Roll to School Day – Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019
Join all Tigard schools and students from around the world as we celebrate Walk+Roll to School Day! Walk or roll to school and win cool prizes.

Walkers and bicyclists will arrive at the schools between 7:45 and 8:15 a.m. Contact your school for more information. Events are organized by Tigard and Tualatin schools in partnership with the Safe Routes to School Program and the Tigard-Tualatin School District.

Walk+Roll to School Day raises awareness of the need to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion and concern for the environment. The events build connections between families, schools and the broader community.

Tigard Bike Rodeo - Saturday, May 2,2020
Calling all cowpokes! Join us for bike activities for all ages. Bring your bike and helmet to the bike doctor for a free check-up. Win cool raffle prizes and eat ice cream. This event is free and open to all ages. See you there!

Walk+Roll to School Day – Wednesday, May 6^, 2020
Walkers and bicyclists will arrive at the schools between 7:45 and 8:15 a.m. Contact your school for more information. Events are organized by Tigard and Tualatin schools in partnership with the Safe Routes to School Program and the Tigard-Tualatin School District.

Tips to Increase Walking & Biking

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 to a structured route with meeting points, a timetable, and a regularly rotating schedule of trained volunteers. Find out more or view the Walking School Bus Video.

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.

Action Plans

What is an Action Plan?
The City of Tigard is 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.

Safe Routes to School Yard Signs

Yard Signs Available The City of Tigard’s Safe Routes to School Program is providing FREE yard signs to residents who want to encourage safe driving in their neighborhoods. You can pick one up for free at one of the following locations:

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

More 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 one of the pick-up locations.

Questions?
Contact Safe Routes to School Coordinator
Phone: 503-718-2708
E-mail: SafeRoutestoSchool@tigard-or.gov

Made possible with support from Metro and the Federal Transit Administration

En Español
Rutas Seguras a la Escuela

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Contact
Safe Routes to School Coordinator
503-718-2708 | Email

Tigard's Safe Routes to School Program is made possible with support from Metro and the Federal Transit Administration

Safe Routes to School Maps

Traffic Safety Concern?
If you have a concern about a traffic safety issue within Tigard city limits, please submit a traffic complaint form that will be sent to Tigard’s Traffic Enforcement Unit.

Walking School Buses – Start One Today!
A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adults. The flexibility of the walking school bus makes it appealing to communities of all sizes with varying needs.
Safe Routes to School Program
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.

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