Safe Walking and Biking Routes to Hood River Middle School
What is planned, demonstration projects and new infrastructure!
Only 14% of Hood River Middle School families let their children walk or bike to school, despite a majority wanting them to be able to. Why? The lack of a network of safe bikeways and sidewalks.
2018 Safe Routes to School Survey
Demonstration at Hood River Middle School
From August - October 31st, 2023, the streets of 17th, May and 18th were temporarily rearranged to encourage students and families to walk or roll to Hood River Middle School.
Cost: $12,000
Organizations: City of Hood River, Hood River County School District, Anson’s Bike Buddies
Student Involvement: 80s Walk & Roll Club engaged neighbors, weekly student interviews
SUMMARY
Students loved it because the project made them feel safer and like they had their own space.
SAFETY - slowed traffic, separate and protected lane , trust, comfort, sense of security
EDUCATION - visible markings, training kids on etiquette/rules, safe learning space for PE class
PREDICTABILITY - all-way stop, designated spaces for various users
Demonstration overhead view
HRMS student, Genesis, knocked on the most neighbor doors to obtain signatures for the demonstration.
Neighbor flyer and signature sheet.
Map to encourage walking, biking and remotevehicle drop-offs.
Cross section of 17th, 18th and May Streets.
City Councillor Gladys Rivera and Genesis recording a bi-lingual PSA about the demonstration.
Public Works installing the Zicla Zebra delineators to physcially separate the walking and biking lanes.
Public Works worked through 100 degree heat to install the demonstration.
Intersection of 17th and May, directly in front of the middle school. You can see the 2-way separated bikeway on May, green turning bike box to make the transition to and from 17th Street.
Student drop-offs in the bikeway was an issue throughout the project. A second demonstration would look at locating the bikeway on the other side of the street.
Students making the left turn from May Street to 17th Street.
May Street bikeway and new stop sign making this a 3-way stop intersection, lookng east.
Students using the shared sidepath to walk to school on 18th.
Gorge News article about the demonstration, how the Safe Routes to School program is life changing for students and encouraging survey participation.
Gorge News article about the demonstration, encouraging survey participation.
Current Project Status
A shared-use/bicycle path has been installed near the Hood River Middle School as a part of the Hood River Safe Routes to School Plan. The two-directional path follows 18 th Street from Belmont Avenue to May Street.
In the future, the City of Hood River will continue to improve this important route for the middle school students by improving the connectivity of the path onto Belmont Ave, and exploring options feasible with street maintenance for additional physical protections or pathway indicators.
Future Improvements
In 2022, the City of Hood River adopted a Safe Routes to School Plan after a year of engagement with May Street Elementary and Hood River Middle School staff and families.
The results is a document that identifies 31 infrastructure opportunities like intersections, bikeways, paths and crosswalks to knit together a network for students to get from home to school.
The Top 5 priorities are:
May and 12th Street Intersection
May and 13th Street Intersection
12th Street Bikeway and east-west crossings with Pine, Taylor, A and Wilson Streets.
13th Street east-west crossings of Sherman, Taylor, A, B and Belmont
May and 17th Street Intersection
80s Walk & Roll Club identifying the risks in crossing 13th Street: parked trucks blocks the view of oncoming vehicles.
Parents pin map with their infrastructure concerns.
13th and May Street is a highly used intersection for both May Street and Hood River Middle School students. The bad design gives parents incredible anxiety.
12th Street has no bike lanes so students like this bike bus ride on the sidewalk between Pacific and Union Streets, which forces conflict with people walking.
Intersection of Prospect and 22nd, the location of a student bike crash site. The PE class visited the site to review the crash details and what lead to incident, which was visibility issues due to tall bushes at the southwest corner. People biking east on Prospect couldn't see people driving north on 22nd and vice versa.
