Portland Metro

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Regional Active Transportation Plan (ATP), that Metro has adopted by resolution today, July 17, 2014.

Two days after the City of Portland’s voters passed a 10¢ gas tax to fund street safety improvements including $8 million for needed crosswalks and sidewalks around Portland schools, the region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, Metro, voted to also make a large, dedicated investment in Safe Routes to School for our region’s youth.

Vision Zero shares many goals with Safe Routes to School. Vision Zero originated from Sweden in 1997 with the assertion that all traffic deaths and severe injuries are preventable. Sweden’s Vision Zero work was based on an old philosophy with a new twist: “it should no longer be the child that should adapt to traffic conditions, but the traffic conditions that should be adapted – as far as possible – to children.”