For the primary time ever, Portland Public Colleges desires to rent somebody to handle their Protected Routes to Faculty program. The job was posted mid-November and it comes with a beginning wage of $73,912.
The place was funded by means of an Oregon Division of Transportation grant that can show the district with as much as $150,000 over two years. It marks a major step ahead for Portland’s ongoing work to get individuals to cease driving to highschool and contemplate different choices like strolling and biking. Getting extra individuals to ditch the automotive might be essential to assembly town’s purpose of 25% of all journeys by bike by 2030. Fewer drivers close to faculties will even enhance security, clear the air, and encourage extra constructive social interactions.
The Metropolis of Portland has had one of many nations strongest Protected Routes for many years, and the transportation bureau works in shut collaboration with PPS on a wide range of fronts together with engineering initiatives close to faculties and educating youngsters on the way to stroll and bike safely.
The job itemizing additionally comes as PPS has totally embraced the bike bus motion popularized by bodily schooling trainer Sam Balto at Alameda Elementary Faculty. Balto’s viral movies and private activism across the problem have put the problem of biking and strolling to highschool squarely on PPS’s radar like no different initiative in its historical past. On a latest journey to PPS headquarters in north Portland, Balto observed a framed photograph of him main the bike bus hanging within the workplace of a senior degree PPS staffer.
Based on the job description, the brand new PPS Protected Routes to Faculty Program Coordinator will create and facilitate a district-wide SRTS steering committee to coordinate implementation of their Protected Routes plans. The job will even embody coordination with college students. Whoever will get the job will grow to be liaison between the district and the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Oregon Division of Transportation.
ODOT performs a major function in native SRTS work as a result of they maintain the purse strings for challenge and program funding. On that be aware, simply this week ODOT introduced their very own Protected Routes to Faculty Advisory Committee has really useful 26 initiatives throughout the state totaling $32.4 million to be funded by means of a grant program. Area 1 (the place Portland is) received $8.5 million of that complete together with a $1.9 million grant that can construct new sidewalks, crosswalks, and buffered bicycle lanes for college kids at Powell Butte Elementary Faculty.
We have now cash, enthusiasm, and political assist — all we want is somebody (wonderful and succesful) to capitalize on it. As we’ve seen with the bike bus, the perfect concepts and execution usually come from somebody with a recent perspective and deep ardour for getting youngsters and households outdoors of automobiles and onto their bikes.
When you have questions or suggestions about this website or my work, be happy to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, through e-mail at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or cellphone/textual content at 503-706-8804. Additionally, should you learn and respect this website, please grow to be a supporter.
