Bicycle Safety Education and Learn to Ride
Salem-Keizer Safe Routes to School completed our first Learn-to-Ride session of January 2026 at Kalapuya Elementary School. Learn-to-Ride is a program created for Kindergarten to Second grade students, aimed at teaching them to ride a bike for the first time. During our time at Kalapuya we had 4 community members volunteer for 45 hours, we taught 152 students and had nearly 90% of all students pedaling a bike by the end of the two-week session. Last spring Kalapuya completed Bike Safety Education with their third to fifth grade classes, showcasing their commitment to multimodal transportation. Huge kudos to Kalapuya as this means that they have successfully taught their entire school how to ride a bike safely to school.
In February we completed our last Learn-to-Ride program of the year with Clear Lake Elementary. We had 5 community members volunteer with us for a total of 55 hours. Of the 125 students we taught, nearly 85% of the students were pedaling bikes by the end of the two-week session. Like Kalapuya Elementary, Clear Lake Elementary taught Bike Safety Education in Spring 2025. Despite this, Clear Lake realized that their third-grade classes were going to miss bike education entirely. To ensure that they could offer bike education to every student in their school, they rearranged the entire school’s schedule for a week so their third-grade students could get a crash course in bike safety. We are continuously amazed by the Salem-Keizer Public Schools’ educator’s dedication to the continued growth of their students. This just goes above and beyond the incredibly high standard of excellence they hold themselves to. We are proud to have such amazing partners to work with.
Looking Forward to Spring
Going into Spring, our focus will switch from Learn-to-Ride to Bike Safety Education. We have 4 schools scheduled to take on our Bike Safety Education program. These schools, all title 1, are brand new to our program so they will get the bikes for the very first time. We are thrilled to bring the excitement of bikes to more Salem-Keizer students this Spring, especially to schools that stand to benefit the most from increased attendance and the introduction of bike skills. On top of Bike Safety Education, we are also rolling our newest Transit Safety Education program to two schools. Transit Safety Education is a partnership with Cherriots where we teach fifth-grade students how to use the public bus system, and the etiquette of riding the public bus. Cherriots brings one of their buses to the school and students can practice loading bikes, paying for their fare, and riding the bus around the neighborhood.
In partnership with a local school, we have been working towards establishing a walk and roll bus every Thursday. The school’s goal for the walk and roll bus is to increase school attendance and decrease tardiness. SK-SRTS will assist by creating routes, promotional materials, and developing trainings for walk and roll bus leaders. We aim to remove any barriers to entry any schools may face by providing the education and resources the schools need to start and maintain a walk and roll bus. We are looking forward to an action packed and educationally fulfilling Spring 2026!
