What a great commute this kid has!

A ride on an Xtracycle AND a unicycle trip!



And then the Daughter...

Thousands of Kids to Take to the Streets!

On Wednesday, October 8th Eugene will be celebrating with the rest of the world the idea that getting to school under your own power is not only self-empowering but also safe, healthy, and FUN! There are more than 20 schools signed up to participate in National Walk + Bike to School Day in Eugene, a record number! The streets will be filled with elementary kids walking with their parents, middle school students riding in a peloton of backpacks, and even high schoolers eschewing the car to try out some active transportation choices. It’s the big day for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs around the country and as the Eugene SRTS program grows so has participation in this event. Every school is holding their own event, some are stretching it over a whole month with celebrations, prizes, and food while others are simply making the announcement to try walking and biking to school on that day. If you’re a parent, make sure your school is holding an event and if they aren’t go to walknbike.org to sign up and get more information.

As we roll out of this big celebration there are a lot of great things happening in the coming years for the Eugene SRTS program. Over this past year we’ve built up a strong team of City, 4J, University, health, and community members. We’ve received our second grant cycle from ODOT and will be working on some exciting projects over the next couple of years including a resource kit for schools on how to start an SRTS program, an expanded bike education program (with a new trailer to transport a fleet of bikes), a new website with Safe Route Maps and other resources, continued signature bike events and fundraisers, more work with the city to make our streets inviting to more types of bike riders and pedestrians (like families and young children), and expanded work with the school districts to create policies that encourage active modes of transportation.

We’re excited about the possibilities as we work to get the next generation enraptured and educated about biking and walking and we hope you are too! There are ways you can help; volunteer for bike education community rides, come out to fundraising rides, bring your family down for Kidical Mass, write letters to the editor, city staff, and elected officials to tell them you’d like streets that work for all road users, start an SRTS program at your school, spread the word, or simply walk or bike to where your going; it’s not only good role modeling, it’s crazy fun!

Walk
+ Bike to School Day is Wednesday, October 8^th

and
we’re joining in the fun!

Download this flier and/or make changes

on GoogleDocs:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfpk6b2_2hd7n3sd6

Join millions of
students & thousands of schools from across the world who will be
walking or biking to school on this day!

Bike Blended Smoothies at Neighborhood Mural Painting.jpg

Bike Blended Smoothies at Neighborhood Mural Painting.jpg
Originally uploaded by shanerh

Save the Dates:

UofO Bike Fair, May 2nd at the EMU from 10-4.

Kidical Mass, May 16th (National Bike-to-Work Day!). 

Meet at 6pm at Monroe Park (10th & Monroe).

Then we'll ride to Ben & Jerry's near 28th & Willamette. 

Bike Day (at the Science Factory), June 7th, 10am to 3pm. Group rides start earlier in the day. Outdoor bike events FREE.  SRTS will be there mixing it up with the Bike Blender!

Blackberry JAMboree, September 6th, A community ride- more soon.

Blackberry bRamble, September 7th

Bike Ed Courses throughout the summer- check here.

Getting the RPMs up!

Getting the RPMs up!
Originally uploaded by shanerh

It was Walk & Roll Day at Roosevelt. During lunch I had the students blending some smoothies, a big hit.
We'll have one more Walk & Roll Day this Friday and give out some prizes for students biking or walking to school!
We might also kick off the Freiker Program....

Just back from our first meeting for the Eugene SRTS (group/coalition/team/council/?).  We have a really great group of people energized and ready to create a sustainable and productive organization that increases biking and walking to and from school.  

I'll do another post with an overview of our vision and goals after our next meeting as we firm things up. In my research and note writing after the meeting I came across this amazing little video from Eugene in 1972.  It shows that what we are doing is nothing new AND that major change CAN happen.  Just look at the different cycling infrastructure that was implemented soon after this movie and continues with us today.  It's about six minutes and this is just part one, I'll put a link to part two below this one. 

 I'll see if I can get ahold of the video and make it one of the films for the "Transportation Film Fest" that we are talking about.  I had an idea for the fest in relation to SRTS too.... getting kids to produce Appropriate Transport themed films (anything from bmx/freestyle riding, instructional, skateboard clips, to strict transportation films). I know some kids at CAT already  have done some.

Here's the video, again, wow:

You can see the other part at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3G_f1pjncc&feature=related

HEY Move and other ideas

Tomorrow the newly forming Eugene SRTS Committee is meeting.  One of my first thoughts is in the name.  Though I've really grown to like the Safe Routes to School name (I thought it was a little boring at first) I think the group forming now needs something more than SRTS Committee.  I'd like to see it be more of an action group whereas committee just has that sound of languidness and if there is anything a group advocating for more active youth doesn't want to be it is languid!

Some brainstorm ideas to kick us off:

The Eugene SRTS Posse

SRTS Peloton

GUMMY (Group United for More Mobile Youth)

HEY Move (Helping Eugene Youth Move)

Eugene FARTS (Fun and Active Routes To School)- hey kids love farts!

Okay, this is getting a little out of control!  How about something a little more 'safe'.

Eugene SRTS Council

SRTS Action Group

Walk & Roll to School Group

So those are some ideas to kick us off, then once we get a good name it's time to really dig in and take some action.  Next post... which way do we go?

The energy that was created by the Eugene Bike Summit for SRTS in Eugene was exciting and I hope we can keep that up that momentum!

Lumber Load

Lumber Load
Originally uploaded by shanerh

On the way home from School the other day I picked up a bit of lumber.

Starting out a new blog about the Safe Routes to School scene.  

Based in Eugene Oregon where some of the first grassroots Safe Routes to School programs were started (and continue to flourish today) we'll cover issues related to local, national, and international walking and biking to school programs.

Stay tuned for more!