Bike Ed in Eugene

Active Transportation Education in Eugene

Current Program & Details:

Currently a Bicycle Safety Education program is run by the Bicycle

Transportation Alliance, based in Portland, Oregon. The BTA has run
the program since 2000 and has reached thousands of students in the
Eugene/Springfield area. 

There are approximately 50 Bikes and several hundred helmets in the program
(purchased over a series of years starting in 2000). Bikes are in
various stages of repair ranging from semi-new to non-functioning.
Repairs are carried out approximately once a year and coordinated by
the local Bicycle Education Director.

The bike educators teach mostly at middle schools, focusing on the 6^th
grade but have also taught 7^th and 8^th graders
as well as 5^th graders in an Elementary school. The BTA
has a BikeEd curriculum based on the League of American Bicyclists
program and is approximately 9 hours of instruction that goes from
the classroom setting to the final day of a “community ride”
where the students apply the material learned in the classroom and in
‘parking lot drills’ into on-street riding in their
school neighborhood.

The BTA also has pedestrian safety education curriculum that has not been
brought into the current program.

The Bicycle Education Director works in the Fall and Spring in schools
that they contact and build relationships with. All but one Director
have come from the City of Eugene River House program and have
received support from the City with the use of office space, a
computer and the Recreation Department trailer to move the bikes from
school to school. 

Storage was at a City building until it was torn down. Locations have since
ranged from school district buildings to their current location at a
private storage area that is donating the space to the program.

Partial funding for bike storage and travel trailer has been received from
the ODOT SRTS Program. 

Ten League Cycling Instructors were trained last year in Eugene including
one PE Teacher from Roosevelt Middle School. That school now has a
sustainable bike education program with their own fleet of bikes and
ALL 6^th graders going to Roosevelt will be trained in a 9
session course.

The Issues:

Storage-
Shuffling bikes from the schools to storage and back again requires
more time and effort than if a dedicated storage trailer were used.
Space still needs to be acquired to park the trailer and a vehicle
used to tow the trailer.

The position is a full time position only in the Fall and Spring. No
work is being done in the Summer and Winter and therefore employees
must find their own work during that time and this has lead to a high
turn-over rate.

The high turn-over rate mentioned before has contributed to a loss of
‘institutional knowledge’ and in the ability to grow the
program to meet the needs of the community.

The Positive Outlook/The Future:

The BTA understands the issues presented above and is supportive of the
growth of the program but because of their distance from the program
and their attempt to grow in areas not currently served (in more
rural areas) they are not able to allocate the time needed to grow
this program. 

TheBTA has been supportive of and encourages the idea of a local agency
“taking over” the current education program. Both Lynn
Mutrie, the SRTS Coordinator for the BTA and Scott Bricker, their
Executive Director, have encouraged ‘local control’ of
the program and are willing to work on a smooth transition. They
would like to see the continuation of the BTA Curriculum and
attendance by the local educator in the BTA’s yearly training
for educators.

With a full-time Safe Routes to School Program manager at the 4j School District and an active SRTS Team made up of City, School District, LTD, LCHAY, and other community members an infrastructure of support for a complete Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Education program is growing.

One of the four goals of the SRTS Team is to “implement
developmentally appropriate bicycle and pedestrian safety education
curriculum into the 4J/Bethel School Districts” and they have
formed an Education Subcommittee to work on this.

One model would be to create a full time “Active Transportation
Educator” that would expand the current program to include
basic pedestrian and bicycle education during the winter to
elementary schools (focusing on 2^nd & 3^{rd grades) and the potential
inclusion of adult bike education in the summer months
 (with the LAB’s “Smart Cycling" material). BikeEd classes for 
the middle schools would continue in the Fall and Spring.} 

Besides the BTA, City of Eugene, and school district assistance the Jane
Higdon foundation has already expressed an interest in funding a
traffic safety education program and private, federal, state, and
local support for a traffic education program is very strong. 

Items for Consideration:

Could this new “Active Transportation Director” be a GEARs position?

What would be required for GEARs to make their first full-time hire?

What would the job description be and what would the hiring process look like?

What would the short term and long term funding options be?

What will the city involvement continue to be?

What kind of MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) needs to be reached with
the BTA to take over this program?

What kind of insurance would be needed? Would the League of American
Bicyclist “LCI” insurance work for this kind of project? 
If so, how can we make sure to get only certified LCI instructors? 
If not, what insurance is the BTA using and what is the cost?