Winter Walk + Roll to School Day: Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Students are encouraged to put on their rain boots and join their classmates to walk or roll to school while enjoying wintertime in Oregon!

Walk +Roll May Challenge: Wednesday, May 6, 2026

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 May Challenge celebrates that legacy by continuing to encourage students to make their way to school by walking or rolling.  Come and celebrate the long days with us as we walk and roll to school together!

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

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 12 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 course includes a mixture of classroom and active scooter lessons.  The purpose of the course is to provide students with the basic knowledge and skill practice necessary to be safe on scooters and as 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.”

Bike Safety Education (5th Grade)

Elementary schools have the opportunity to include a Bike Safety Education course for their 5th grade classes. The course includes a mixture of classroom and active scooter lessons. 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!

Bike safety education courses are limited, so we may need to postpone your training to another year depending on our schedule.

Become a Parent Champion

 The SRTS program relies on parent and other family volunteers, who provide important support to help increase the number of students who walk, bike and roll to school. Parent and family volunteers work to organize events, spread the word to other parents, families, 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 families 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.

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.