Street Trust, Other Allies: Beef up and Restore Safe Routes to Schools Funding

The first full draft of the Transportation Bill at the Legislature, HB 2017, scales back Safe Routes to School programming. The Street Trust and other allies are asking for help to restore the funding and programming levels to those originally envisioned in HB 3230.

This is not the comprehensive Safe Routes to School program our coalition has been fighting for, and we need your help to fix it!

Folks are riding bikes from Portland on the 6th, and there are Hearings on the 6th and 7th:

Date: Tuesday and Wednesday, June 6th and 7th
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Where: Oregon State Capitol, Hearing Room F

Here are the specifics of their ask:

House Bill 3230 builds Safe Routes to School, the Transportation Package does not.

We must ask our decision makers to:

1. Remove the ten-year sunset on the program
2. Expand street safety funding to $15M per year
3. Fund in-classroom education with $6M per year
4. Include Title 1 prioritization for street safety projects
5. Create flexibility in local funding match requirements for Title 1 schools
6. Expand the radius for eligible projects around schools to 1 mile

As actions they offer

Here’s what you can do to help:

1. Tell your state representatives why Safe Routes to School street safety projects and education programs are important to you. They want to hear from you!
2. RSVP to testify at a public hearing for the Transportation Package on June 6 or 7. If you can’t make it to Salem, submit written testimony.
3. You can also join a bike #RideToSalem with the Street Trust to testify on June 6th.

Here's the list of committee members. Note especially our Sen. Winters!

Sen.LeeBeyer@state.or.us
Rep.CaddyMcKeown@oregonlegislature.gov
Sen.BrianBoquist@oregonlegislature.gov
Rep.CliffBentz@state.or.us
Sen.FredGirod@oregonlegislature.gov
Sen.BetsyJohnson@oregonlegislature.gov
Sen.RodMonroe@state.or.us
sen.kathleentaylor@state.or.us
Sen.JackieWinters@oregonlegislature.gov
Rep.JohnLively@oregonlegislature.gov
rep.susanmclain@state.or.us
Rep.AndyOlson@oregonlegislature.gov
rep.gregsmith@oregonlegislature.gov
Rep.BarbaraSmithWarner@oregonlegislature.gov

Collaged (with comments in red)
from the May 8th slide deck and presentation

This is great and all, but it's still arguing over table scraps. There remains a tremendous tension, even contradiction, between the acknowledgment that we can't build our way out of congestion and the paltry funding for mobility that does not depend on drive-alone trips. The actual fiscal priorities in the bill don't in fact enact its ostensible priorities or conclusions. There's still a good bit of Potemkin posturing and show, and it seems unlikely that any transportation package legislation this year will be anything other than a slight modification of "business as usual."

Additions...

Here's "Our analysis: Oregon ‘Transportation Package’ misses the crosswalk on Safe Routes to School funding" from Safe Routes to School Pacific Northwest.