Safe Routes to School Demonstration Project at HRMS

A new Safe Routes to School demonstration project is planned for streets near the Hood River Middle School. The City of Hood River and the Hood River County School District have partnered together with the Portland State University Better Blocks program, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Anson’s Bike Buddies to develop a three-month pilot program to demonstrate active transportation options for Hood River Middle School. The City will install the temporary traffic control devices mid to late August, with the demonstration in place through November 1st. 

This Safe Routes to School project will temporarily utilize parts of the 40-foot-wide roadways along 17th and 18th Streets to integrate a nine-foot wide protected, two-way shared use pathway from Belmont to Sherman Avenues. To accommodate this pathway, drive lanes will be narrowed, and parking will be prohibited on the east side of 18th and 17th streets for the duration of the project. The City will also install a temporary stop sign on eastbound May Street at 17th Street, making this intersection an all-way stop. 

Planning for the demonstration project began in 2022 with observations, walk audits, and parent surveys to identify the barriers to walking and biking to school. This year, an afterschool program of 5th to 8th graders, called the 80s Walk & Roll Club, led the demonstration project community outreach process. The students successfully engaged 100% of the neighbors along the project corridor.

The main goal of Safe Routes to School is to improve safety for and awareness of students who walk, ride, or roll their way to school, and encourage more students to participate in active transportation to and from school. Improvements will be temporarily installed to give the community a chance to experience these new transportation options and offer the City constructive feedback before investing in permanent installations. 

For feedback, the City has designed three surveys to gather community input before, during, and after the demonstration. You can access the surveys by visiting the City of Hood River’s Safe Routes to School webpage at cityofhoodriver.gov/community/safe-routes-to-schools.

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