At Chavez Elementary School, the bike racks are starting to fill up.
Sean Kubishta, one of the school’s physical education teachers, said the school historically hasn’t had many kids who bike or walk to the east Salem school.
Last spring, he and his colleague joined with the Safe Routes to Schools program to teach third-, fourth- and fifth-graders to ride bikes.
“Our attendance went up, kids were on time, they were excited to come in every morning,” Kubishta said of the program. Some have now begun biking to school regularly.
Chavez was one of three elementary schools in the Salem-Keizer School District that brought bike lessons into gym class through the Safe Routes program, relying on volunteers from the Salem Bike Club to help.
This year, Salem-Keizer Safe Routes Coordinator Beth Schmidt hopes to expand their reach, targeting local elementary schools for organized walks, biking lessons, pedestrian safety and practice riding city buses.
The Safe Routes program is run through the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Government, which employs Schmidt and receives federal and state money to educate students about safely walking, biking or bussing to school.
It’s part of a larger state effort that also gives grants to cities and counties for projects that make safer routes for kids to get to school.
Schmidt is kicking off her third school year running the program. The bright yellow jacket she often wears on walks with students matches her personality – perpetually energetic and passionate about road safety.
Principals at local schools see benefits of kids walking, rolling or biking to school, including less pollution and congestion among vehicles in drop-off lines, exercise for kids and a sense of independence.
But educators said they seldom see walkers or bikers, even when kids live close to school. They attribute that to concerns about road safety and families not having the knowledge or resources to help kids learn to ride bikes.
Tragedy in a crosswalk
Schmidt sees her work as key to giving kids freedom and responsibility. The ability to walk, bike or roll through their neighborhoods depends on adults to make sure they can do so safely.
“My ultimate goal is to empower them so they have the independent choice to move about their world,” she said. “That gets me really fired up.”
The mission is personal for Schmidt.
A driver hit and killed her coworker Denise VanDyke in December 2022, as VanDyke was crossing State Street downtown in a crosswalk. She’d gone downstairs to move her car and had the right of way in the intersection. The driver was turning left onto State Street.
Schmidt told the Salem City Council in January that her colleague’s death underscored the need for both education and infrastructure changes to make Salem roads safe for pedestrians.
“Denise is going to be the source of my motivation and inspiration for many years,” Schmidt told the council.
She doesn’t bring up the death with the kids she teaches because she doesn’t want to scare them.
“I want them to have the freedom of choice to go and live in our community, but right now as adults we have the power to fix the infrastructure and educate our students,” she told councilors.
Infrastructure changes underway
The city of Salem has since changed the timing on crossings downtown so pedestrians have a walk signal for three seconds before drivers get a green light. That’s intended to make pedestrians more visible in the intersection when drivers begin turning.
Several local projects are also underway targeting school routes so it’s safer for kids and families to get to school.
Those include sidewalk improvements near Four Corners Elementary School and a Marion County construction project planned for 2025 to widen Center Street and install a flashing beacon across the road at Northeast 45th Street and improvements in the Auburn Elementary School walk zone.
Improvements are planned at pedestrian crossings and roads near Mary Eyre, Miller, Swegle and Washington elementary schools, Waldo Middle School, McKay High School and Blanchet Catholic School, city spokesman Trevor Smith said.
The city plans to install seven new stop signs around Englewood Elementary School late this year or early next.
Safe Routes plans for the school year
This year, Schmidt has secured a fleet of about 100 bikes for the Safe Routes to School program so Salem-Keizer won’t have to borrow bikes to use for school lessons.
She hopes to schedule bike lessons in six to eight of the district’s 42 elementary schools this year, she said.
At Chavez, Kubishta said he hopes to again put on bike lessons.
“Their excitement was definitely through the roof. They kept talking about it weeks and months ahead of time,” he said.
Schmidt has also worked to support PE teachers in local elementary schools so they can teach pedestrian safety to students.
Safe Routes will support four community events where students gather to walk, roll or bike to school on several days. Those include International Walk+Roll to School Day on Oct. 9 and Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on Nov. 14, as well as dates in February and May. Those events typically include large processions where students are joined by school district officials, elected leaders and police wearing bright vests.
Any principal who wants to organize an event can contact her for help, Schmidt said.
She’s also working with Cherriots to bring a city bus to schools so students can practice riding and stowing bikes on the bus, and learn about safety when interacting with strangers.
Schmidt said her hope is to give kids the ability to use different means for getting to school.
“It’s really about choice and exposure and opportunity,” she said.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
