Providing Safer Routes and Engaging Programs That Get Kids Moving (Active Mobility)

Yay! Megan Ramey, is featured in this final podcast episode of the year and the conclusion of Season 6. We have a fabulous conversation about her efforts to help create a positive culture of active mobility in Hood River, Oregon, starting, naturally with the kids.

We cover her new role as the Safer Routes to School Manager, her bike travel business BIKABOUT, the recent protected active mobility lane pop-up pilot project, her family’s travel to Paris, London, and Barcelona, as well as Vision Zero, Bike Train/Bike Bus and School Streets.

Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs-up, leave a comment below, and share it with a friend. If you’d like more content like this, please Subscribe to the Active Towns Channel, and be sure to “Ring” that notification bell to select your notification preferences.

Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
– PSA for Pilot: https://youtu.be/wM3ZN_sqPhs
– Deep Donuts Thoughts video: https://youtu.be/sbOtufRaOHI
– My first episode with Megan: https://youtu.be/f20qkKua1Bo
– Travis and Sigrid https://twitter.com/sigirides
– My episode with Cara Seiderman: https://www.activetowns.org/2021/09/23/all-ages-abilities-and-identities/
– Cambridge Ordinance: https://bit.ly/41L4qzh
– My Cambridge video: https://youtu.be/wogzKRPi_84
– Doug McKenzie-Mohr https://cbsm.com/
– My episode w/ Emily Stutts: https://youtu.be/RLGNSvSIrOY
– My episode w/ Sam Balto: https://youtu.be/S9twSCBYZu0
– Anson’s Bike Buddies: http://www.ansonsbikebuddies.org/
– Chris and Melissa Bruntlett: https://www.modacitylife.com/

If you are a fan of the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting the effort as an Active Towns Ambassador in the following ways:
1. Join our Patreon community. Contributions start at just $1 per month: https://www.patreon.com/activetowns
(Note: Patron benefits include early, ad-free access to content and a 15% discount in the Active Towns Merch Store)
2. If you enjoyed this video, you can also “leave a tip” by clicking on the Super Thanks button right here on YouTube or thru “Buy Me a Coffee” https://www.buymeacoffee.com/activetowns
3. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store: https://bit.ly/ActiveTownsStore

Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music via Epidemic Sound: https://bit.ly/3rFLErD

Resources used during the production of this video:
– My recording platform is Ecamm Live: https://bit.ly/3rwsUup
– Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: https://bit.ly/35DBDDU

For more information about the Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit our links below:
Website: https://www.activetowns.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveTowns
Newsletter: https://bit.ly/SubscribeActiveTownsNewsletter

Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

Since 2010, I’ve been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a “Culture of Activity” for “All Ages & Abilities.”

The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2023

When you do it right when you’re catering to kids in a city how it can be life changing so Genesis on that that waterfall ride she said she was like we were riding next to each other on the historic lumbia River Highway Trail and she says to me I never thought this

Would be my life and I just look at her and I’m like what are you talking about and she’s like two years ago I never thought I’d be riding a bike for fun or to get places she joined the club and learned a bunch of like how to get

Places around town then the free bikes for kids nonprofit called Anson’s bike buddies that I help run got her this bike that she uses to bike to school every single day like she is the epitome of how a kid’s life can be transformed hey everyone welcome to the active towns

Channel my name is John simmerman and that is Megan Ry from Hood River Oregon she’s back again uh we’re going to get an update from her on all all of her amazing things that she is doing in the city of Hood River uh now that she is

Officially uh part of the government I guess as the safe roots to school coordinator uh it is a good one but again it’s a long one and this is the very last episode of season 6 uh so let’s get right to it with Megan Megan thank you so much for joining me on the active towns podcast once again yay I’m so honored I I I do say once again because you have been on the on the podcast uh before uh it was way back in season 3 this was January of

2022 uh and uh I really appreciate you coming back on after just about two years to give a little update on everything that’s happening there in Hood River Oregon uh but why don’t you do this why don’t you just take a moment to uh introduce yourself uh to the the

Audience yeah so my name is Megan Rey I’m joined by my unofficial therapy cat Kubo say hi Kubo I’m sure she’ll like look at the camera a couple times but um I am the safe roots to school manager for Hood River County School District and I’m uh been a

Longtime bike Advocate and uh mostly because I became a mother and becoming a mother opened my eyes to uh how unsafe our streets are so yes I I really into like music and cooking and getting outdoors and yeah that’s just a little bit about me yeah yeah fantastic and uh and the

Safe routes to school manager role that you have is relatively new uh you sent over this little clipping uh talk a little bit about that process because this is new from the last time you were on the uh podcast gu yes it’s great to have that time stamp of January 2022

Because right about then I was in the process of helping the school district apply for this grant uh from ODOT to fund permanent position for the school district and I didn’t throughout the process I didn’t realize I was writing a grant to pay for a job for me but I

Realized that in writing the Grant I was honest with the superintendent at the time and the team that oh I actually do want this job and so maybe I shouldn’t uh I should take a little step back but yes uh it was announced in May that uh

That we won the the Grant and then the superintendent said I would be crazy not to offer you the job you’ve gotten so much done not getting paid I can’t wait to see what happens when you get paid when you get paid and uh and we’ll

Encourage folks to to go back and watch uh that first episode and uh we talked extensively about some of the activities that you were involved with which included uh you know the bike train SL bike bus basically the same thing you know and uh you had been doing that for

A little while we’ll talk a little bit about that we’ll talk a little bit about uh the the bike rodeos that you do we’ll talk a little bit about that demonstration project that you did we’ll talk a little bit about school streets there’s so much that we have to talk

About it’s going to be fun uh so much but but I first have to wish you a happy birthday thank you yay it feels really good I um I don’t know I’ve just been reflecting a lot this past year and I I’m just I’m really happy to be at the

Age I am I still don’t know what I want to do with my life like we’re all I’m still figur caring it out but I’m following the I’m following the passion and the joy so thank you so much you are quite welcome yes we we are uh recording

This on December uh 14th uh uh and this is going to go live by the way I didn’t tell you this yet but this will go live on Friday uh December 29th and so it will be the final episode of season 6 and it will be the final episode of the

Year uh so you have that honor of being there uh but as you mentioned you know it’s been a it’s been a wild and crazy year you’ve done a lot of amazing things and you’ve run into uh a lot of amazing people and including uh you know some

Past guests on the podcast here we see Emily and Sam as well talk talk a little bit about this Gathering so this was the Brooklyn bike bus tour for the vision zero conference and it was one of those uh I think for like at least these two hours I was on

The brink of um like pinching myself slash my arm hairs like we’re constantly going Goosebumps and um and just getting very emotional because of this amazing group of people from all over the country that came together to see what Emily is doing in Brooklyn and just getting to meet

Emily in person um you uh are very much responsible for this John like she was inspired she told me to my face that she was inspired by seeing the First Act of towns podcast I did and um and it was just so wonderful to connect with her

And and um and then Sam just the energy that he brings to this whole movement and community and to see um folks from around the US just uh be kind of in awe of him is it’s always just I I could just be um a part of the congregation of San Balto

And it would be a great time yeah yeah fantastic who’s the fourth person in the in the photo there that’s Vivian Ortiz and she it’s so so crazy because I um had very little interaction with Vivan when I lived in Boston same with Sam I never even met Sam until I moved to

Pacific Northwest but Vivien is is a for in safe root school for Massachusetts and doing pretty fantastic things she’s also on the league of American cyclist um board and so uh this is this is a dream team it is a Dream Team I’m gonna have to have her on the podcast too yeah

She’s uh she’s doing some some she and she was on the board of liable streets right after I left um from from Boston which is my uh boot camp for for advocacy and yes yeah well we talked about that a little bit in the first episode you know you were there at the

Era when Jonathan fertig was in that area and and all that so uh yeah and and that that kind of speaks a little bit to the power that we have as community members who you know just say hey I’m going to roll up my sleeves and do

Something you mentioned Sam you know he kind of caught a t tiger by the tail because he started posting stuff out on Twitter and Tik Tok and it just exploded you just never know when one of these silly little podcasts that I’m putting together might you know Inspire somebody

To to do something and Emily has shared that story quite openly that you know she was inspired to do it by your first uh episode so yeah it gives you you know chicken skin yes con it was constant during this tour and and then just having it felt

Like we had this like Paparazzi surrounding us with both both uh Jonathan Mouse from bike Portland and Clarence from street films and they were just capturing all of it and yes this is I have to talk about this this is Kyle Johnson in the center and it’s so

Appropriate that he’s wearing a Mr Rogers Neighborhood shirt in this picture he’s um between uh Sam and I and so uh Kyle started the first ever I’m calling it the first ever bike train bike bus in in the world but there is it’s so interesting because there could

Be one in Germany and and he inspired me with his appearance on clarence’s street films um when I saw that it was about neighborhood Greenways in Portland and he was interviewed as part of that and I saw that uh podcast and I was like oh that’s what I’m doing like that’s a

No-brainer and so yeah and so yeah just having the three of us together this was a bike bus Meetup and Portland yeah fantastic that is so so much fun yeah so I mean you got to be pinching yourself of just how much has changed in the last

Two years yes and in so many magnificent ways like I I I keep telling people I feel like I’m in this uh cash grabbing machine where if you if you do what you love the money will follow and it’s not for me it’s for my community and there has just been so

Much good that has happened in the past two years that you know I was just watching I don’t know if you’ve seen the crown uh documentary and not documentary biopic I guess is what it’s called and there is this moment it’s uh the episode with uh Princess Diana when and I was

Never really a fan of I I just wasn’t wrapped up in that world of royalty but watching those final moments before she died there was this um fictitious interaction she had with um I totally forget the name of her boyfriend who’ also died with her but she he told her

They were giving advice to each other and he said you need to slow down and look at what you have accomplished in the past year and you’re still like trying to figure out what’s next and I just I need to take I like I started crying during that episode because I was

Like oh she’s like talking to me I like need to slow down and enjoy this moment because it’s unbelievable yeah yeah well it’s interesting that you say you need to kind of you know slow down and enjoy this moment and you have had a little

Bit of an opportunity to to get out with the family and uh explore and and and and enjoy the moment a little bit uh because you’re right I mean you you catch a tiger by the tail you’re you’re doing this you’re doing that next thing

You do you we’ll get to all the the demonstration project and all that but now that you mentioned London and or or you know the royalty and all that and uh so we need to talk a little bit about uh your trip that you did and so uh yeah so

You you put the family together and you grabbed your Brompton and you’re part of the Brompton family I also travel with my bromton as you well know talk a little bit about the the trip and because the trip ended up being culminated with another bike bus Gathering uh but before that you guys

Were just out exploring well the bike bus Gathering the summit was the reason for the trip like that um they I I believe it was Sam that just threw the idea out there that said he said let’s just get together in Barcelona where it all started and um so I started planning

From there I was was like okay I got to see um I can’t wait to see Barcelona because this is all uh so I have like two hats that I wear one is the safe roots to school manager and the other is the founder of bikeout and so I was like

I have to see as much of Barcelona and eat and drink and sightsee my way through it but also I you know Paris is right there too and I wanted to check up on London because I used to live there long time ago and that guide is now so I

Write travel guides and how to sight see cities by bike and so the London guide is now live um and then uh just so I was also like this is a tangent but I was also a surrogate I had a baby for a couple in the south of France and

Penelope was born in 2018 and then Co happened so I hadn’t seen her since oh that’s right yeah and so to be able to visit her in uh the south of France and she was four going on five just learning how to ride a bike and I got to spend a

Really good time some really good time with her it’s like our family tree kind of like was grafted with a new Branch um and so now um but that’s like um that’s like a very uh personal visit that I attached to this whole trip yeah fantastic and as you can see here uh

Folks uh and and for the listening audience we have pulled up uh Megan’s bikeout uh.com that’s B kab about.com uh and you can take a look at all of the different profiles that you have done uh you’ve done bikable uh North American vacations and there’s a

Whole bunch of them on there and of course you’ve got London that is we’re looking at at the moment uh are you going to do one for Paris too since you were in Paris yeah Paris will be my next one and that’s a beast

I I have to wrap my head around um yeah Paris is is crazy now yeah and and same with Barcelona honestly those two cities um I had no prior visit there so I had no reflection between my visits London I had a lot of reflection but but yes uh those two cities

Are um just doing amazing things in very different ways but but yeah it was a it was a pleasure to be able to bike around with my daughter and you mentioned the bromton um that was the maiden voy Voyage of her having her home bromton so going going through the entire process

So she’s always like since she was nine months old we visited Brooklyn by bike and she was in a Burly trailer so now she’s on her own bike with us instead of being a yep that’s that’s anuka and she’s in a she was in one of the

Protected bike lanes and um that’s her bike and so she so she got to do a custom paint job from like courtesy of sprayed up bike which is an amazing company and she’s carrying all of her luggage here and so that’s that’s how we got around is folding these things up

Putting them on the train I have to give a shout out to this picture quick so this is in London and I don’t know if anybody knows Travis and sigaret but they’re uh social media famous cigaret is a uh Norwegian I forget what type of kitty but she’s a beautiful white cat

And my daughter well we all are cat lovers in this house obviously from Kubo sitting on my lap in the beginning but it was a very big moment for my daughter here anuka to meet cig and she biked she biked to see us in the rain and she was

Cold but she had her little rain cap with her hood on and oh my gosh it was just a joy to be able to meet and Travis grew up in Stephenson Washington right across the river from from us and so being able to meet him in

London was just it was it was great um yeah yeah that is fantastic yeah and you know what a trooper she’s she’s just like boom let’s go we we do this yeah this is on uh no sleep um because we uh arrived in London that morning at like 7 AM took the he

Thr Express into town into Paddington Station which is a totally different experience than what I had it only takes like 30 minutes to get from the airport to downtown now where it used to take almost like an hour or plus but anyway uh we were uh had the mission to stay up

See the city it was one of the most rainiest days ever we brought all of our rain gear so we were fine but it it did start soaking through and this is a picture of anuka and my husband Kyle biking in um one of the separated bike

Lanes next to Buckingham Palace and so we had just walked watched all of the Crown Series to that date and so she had this background familiarity with the obsession with the royal family yeah I love it that’s so great and and she she’s riding her bike for fun and for

Recreation a little bit these days too right yeah no she um we only live about a quarter mile from the middle school so she walks to school she uh prefers walking and which I love I you know like I I’m a walk I like walking around in

Hood River because it’s so small and dense but she uh knows how to handle herself in very highly nuanced City situations and um yeah here’s us and Eiffel Tower which was uh yeah I I could go on about this whole trip but uh she

She holds her own now more so than a lot of adults I’ve biked with and it’s it’s a um I feel like a proud a very proud mama that all those somebody asked about this on Twitter recently or X whatever it is saying like they’re very much struggling with this

Transition where you go from you go from the kids riding on your bike to them riding a bike next to you right and I I wanted to offer that Mom Comfort because it doesn’t happen overnight it happens very gradually over the course of five years and by necessity and all of those

Investments in time with anuka here we are biking on the this is right after the the cycle track on Western Avenue uh in Cambridge I spoke at the ribbon cutting and her and I biked away from it side by side as it should be for mom and

Daughter like this is a gold standard in in American bike infrastructure and yeah the all these little Investments of time and putting her on her own bike next to us has paid off like it is a joy to sight SE cities now and it always has been but it’s like even more

So yeah and she’s uh correct me if I’m wrong she’s also competing a little bit like in cyclocross yes so she uh so for the first time I don’t believe at the last podcast she was here yet but uh for the first time she now competes in the same

Time bracket as me so I get to race with her and I always have said this I look forward to the day where she starts to overcome me physically because I am I love my athleticism and I’m competitive and I cannot wait until she gets to my

Level and starts pushing me so she starts in a in a heat like right in front of me and we always have this game of how long is it going to take for Mama to catch up to anuka and there was a race where there was a race where I

Caught up to her and P her and I thought that was it and she like passed me like 15 seconds later and held on in front of me for a whole lap and I was just like having so much fun tailing her around we were laughing and yes so yeah she also

Has the Dual mind of recreational and transportation biking yeah and I think that’s really important I the reason I intentionally wanted to do that is because too often in bicycle advocacy world we see the different camps and the between recreational sport you know cycling versus utilitarian cycling and

It’s just there’s no reason for it to be uh you know at loggerheads and at a battle you know you know this about me as well as you know I’ve got a whole garage full of bikes you know that are utilitarian in nature you know the cargo

Bike and and the bromton and the day-to-day bike but then I also have my racing bikes and so I I love having that Duality as well and it’s so wonderful to see that she’s into that spirit and she has that Joy of of cycling and competing

And having fun with Mom yes it’s um I think we’re so much stronger together and it’s like one of my missions to bring those two contingents together because there are so many people who use their bikes for recreation that if they could just use their voice a little bit

More then USA cycling would follow suit and start using their power to make it safer in the street and we would all be better off yeah yeah in fact you and I have not had this discussion but when I first started uh the nonprofit advocates for Healthy Communities my very first

Initiative was an initiative called everyday race day and uh the reason why I called it that was the the tagline was everyday race day wouldn’t it be nice if every day out on our streets and in our community felt like Grace day where the community was coming together and to

Applaud you as you rode your bike by and oh yes and and the the origins of that particular initiative was something we had done a few years earlier a couple years earlier uh during Iron Man in Kona which is where I lived at the time and uh at at the world championships for

Iron Man we had a nice little uh booth and we called that initiative everyday race day and so we were introducing uh the Iron Man distance triathletes that would come by the booth uh that you know the Iron Man uh organization was gracious enough to to

Give us that Booth space to to be able to talk about bicycle advocacy and we would have that discussion with these athletes uh and and in fact they we would ask you know they’ say well where where are you from and and and and they’d say oh we’re from Boston and so

We would pull up the map on Boston and we say your bik local bicycle advocacy organization is this and this is the contact information and and get that to them because we wanted that engagement you know from them or you know between them like you said the the quote unquote

Different camps where they don’t they shouldn’t there shouldn’t be different camps it should just be you know we really should be advocating for you know any opportunity to get on a bike and have some fun yeah it’s so needed um that what you and is it should be just part of any

Type of race registration for it that involves biking um there should just be a link to the local partnership with the advocacy organization and Oregon Bike Racing Association obra for short and is starting to get there because we’re starting to have cross-pollination between uh cycle cross and and advocacy

So yeah and I actually see this kind of blending over since I I was a triath and we were uh you know talking with triathletes they’re also out running you know on the streets too and so you know really talking about Street safety in a much broader term in terms of not just

For safety for cyclists but also safer for pedestrians as well and so having these discussions and talking about safer streets advocacy and vision zero advocacy uh you know includes not just people on bikes it includes literally everybody on our streets trying to create safer plac places safer and more

Joyful too for runners because I just went I just went running like two nights ago it was dark out and the um my friend who I was running with we had to wait at least 45 seconds to cross the road and so that’s like one of those things where

As a runner you just don’t want to just sit there idling like waiting for the cars to like let you let you go it was like a crosswalk they should have been stopping for us yeah yeah uh I’m lingering on on this particular photo of uh Brattle Street here uh

2014 uh versus today talk a little bit about Brattle Street and why this is so special for you this is special to me because I lived a quarter not even uh like uh not even a quarter a mile away from um both these images so we lived um

In eastern or sorry Western Cambridge Far Western Cambridge where it borders on Belmont and uh my daughter is on the left in the front she’s uh right her bike in a painted bike lane at the time which was you know actually nice compared to the rest of Boston Metro at

That time but at that time and she was one of the very few kids riding she started riding her bike to school as like a prek at three years old on a Balan bike and here she is on like a I don’t even know what wheel size that

Bike is but joined by one of her friends on a bike to school day that I led and I always I had such high hopes for Cambridge as being such a progressive City like there’s like this joke of like zip code 02138 is the most opinionated zip code

In the country but it was always my hope that we would start to see more kids uh riding and being on their parents’ bikes and so fast forward now to just like when I just visited Boston this past time uh Petro sufia who’s uh I you need to have him on your show

Uh thank you thank you I need to follow up with him and and I’ll mention to him that uh his name came up and I think he’s his he’s got you’ve got a photo of him somewhere in here yes yeah and I’ll get we’ll get him on we’ll get him on

I’ll get into that story too because he is an amazing human being who is is anyway I’ll go into that but he took me on a tour of the Brattle Street all the new by I wanted to see like all the new bike Lanes in town and so he took me on

This tour of the street and it’s just it’s so much better like I used to be a salmon going through Harvard Square it was I was going against two oneway like it was a oneway of two lanes of car traffic because just to make the point there needed to be a

Protected bike lane that was contraflow and now it’s there and uh this is just such a marvelous this again is a gold standard in biking bike ways so I’m so proud of Cambridge yeah and and it’s it’s worth saying too because you know as as you also mentioned earlier uh this

This earlier photo is also uh you know part of the Cambridge uh infrastructure that’s that is there in 2019 of course the uh the Cambridge safety Street law or Safe Streets law or whatever was passed I I don’t know the exact name um but yeah for for those that don’t know Cambridge Massachusetts

Is doing some pretty amazing things what we’re looking at right here on screen and for the listening audience this particular image is a continuous elevation bike way uh which means that both the crosswalks uh and the the the the bike walks or the B bike Crossings

Are all at the the elevated level um at the Cur curb level and not at the street level and so that creates a raised Crossing at each of those minor streets uh that the cars are doing and what was really really wonderful to uh to learn

From the Cambridge City staff and I do have a video on this where they talk about how they were able to install those raised Crossings through a lighter quicker cheaper sort of approach it’s like an overlay of of asphalt that they did and tested it out because they they

Wanted to move quicker and get some stuff on the ground and test it out and pilot it and in Western it’s been in for a while now yeah did was that by chance with Cara that’s yes well actually that particular day wasn’t uh I was with Cara

The day before uh but then uh the the city staff that I was with that particular day because I was filming um a tour with nacto at the at the time and and Cara was was not able to that one but yeah yeah Cara is a early influencer

On my advocacy I was on the Cambridge bike committee and she was our ring leader and she uh always was wonderful about um pinging me whenever there was an important community meeting coming up that parents needed to show up and I needed to rally and and she’s another

Past guest here on the on the podcast too so yay yeah it’s that’s great stuff I I do want to get over to some of the the things that that sort of came about with the work that you were doing in safe routes and I I think that probably

Getting to that demonstration project uh is is where I want to go next with this because it’s one thing to be doing the bike buses and the bike trains and the walk to school days and all that that’s what I call the software uh activity assets these are the things that we do

That are the policies the procedures and the engagement activities and the awareness activities it’s completely different to uh you grab the bull by the horns and say how do we get some infrastructure down on the ground we were just talking about you know Cambridge there and the fact that

They’re building you know first class uh infrastructure in in their environment now and moving quite quickly and the data is showing that it’s having a difference it’s completely another to be like in Hood rer Oregon and you’re like okay we need help and we talk a little

Bit about that in our first episode so talk a little bit about this safe routes uh School demonstration that you pulled together yeah so this goes back about four years when I was just a mom Advocate Portland State University had a has a program called better blocks and

They want to help cities and towns uh put in essentially like demonstrations or quick build infrastructure and they want their students to get hands-on experience engineering uh students and planning students get hands-on experience um helping cities and towns plan this so I applied for the program on the city’s

Behalf just submitted the application and didn’t ask any uh permission and we want it and so covid happened kind of delayed it but then we got started I believe right after the last time we talked which was January 2022 to and the students came and visited us we observed

Uh the student Behavior around and this was the Middle School um apologies the Hood River Middle School and the student the PSU students observed the middle school students what their desire lines were um how we can make it safe to snap to the behavior of the students instead of trying to design a

Solution that wouldn’t be adopted by them and so they drew up a plan and the City of Hood River was excited about it because some other background this whole demonstration was a solution to this chicken and egg situation where cities don’t do anything about the streets because they don’t have magically a

Million dollars to play with I wanted them to take a baby step and raise some public support for projects like this so they could see oh people actually do want this stuff even though I know that so many parents want it they still don’t really quite have a grasp on that yet so

Instead of so the city applied for two grants uh for this exact area one was for $800,000 and one was for $1.2 million and that was just to create painted bike lane and a sidewalk in some missing parts and they ODOT denied them the Grant and I was like okay we got to

Break this cycle and so that’s why this demonstration was uh so needed and so okay where do I start so yeah so four so yeah four years ago we got the design then the city was like we need the funding so I started applying for

Um a a grant got it funded and it was a partnership it was a grant that included an after school club which we can talk about um I wanted there to be a good marriage between the students in their engagement with the process but also in have them see the demonstration go down

And engage the students along the way so that’s what the original Grant was for odok came to me actually the week before I left for the Europe trip which is March and said we can’t fund the demonstration materials because Nitsa or whoever it’s called the national highway

Safety they were like we can’t fund infrastructure and so I had to Pivot within three days and try and find a magical $5,000 to help fund the demonstration materials which we ended up using Zea that’s a whole another story and uh I would say it was like three or

Four grants that we ended up getting to fund this $122,000 demonstration so there was I think I think funding was one of the biggest barriers but after I got that the city was on board I would say 90% And then there was one more hiccup the week before again I was applying for

Grants but the week before I left my my awesome partner Jonathan with the city said we need to pull a rabbit out of a hat and I was like what are you talking about I’m leaving on vacation in 4 days he’s like we need full design

Drawings in like by the time you leave because the Public Works manager is uh retiring and we need to get this in front of him before he goes and I’m like okay and I got off the phone I almost had a panic attack because I was

Like there’s no way I can deliver and so yes Petru to the rescue holy cow so I put it out on what I call my task rabbit which is Twitter and was like can somebody help me I can pay uh petu answered my call he talked

To me for 30 minutes about what uh he saw the PSU design what did I actually need he said well I have to take the SATs on Saturday morning yeah yeah yeah so pause just so pause just a second yes I need to take the SATs yes Petro is a

Teenager yes he’s a senior in high school and he I was like of course you need to take the SATs take whatever time you want and but I’m not joking Saturday morning he took the sat Saturday afternoon I had the full design drawings this guy is like

Not only does he have like a heart of gold he’s an advocate but he’s a brilliant engineer who just I I joked with Peter C who’s an all like an amazing engineer in uh Portland area that you know he’s going to have whatever job he wants to and he’s like

Oh he’s going to be running our do um like our federal do and I I people kid like I he’s not a kid he’s like I mean he’s a high schooler but he gives me so much hope for the Next Generation when I know how much talent and heart is out

There yeah and and and he’s not new to this game I mean he got passionate about Safe Streets advocacy work uh a couple years ago several years ago and uh yeah he’s quite the savant in in this area for sure biking around Cambridge with him was like it was like my brain on

Steroids in terms of I used to time all the signals to not have to stop my bike he is like that on like a savant degree it was wonderful being able to like listen to his like inner monologue like oh that light’s about to change we can

Go and I’m like oh this is wonderful so he put together this design and it was like more than sufficient for the city of Hood River and uh he saved this demonstration project I it was not going to happen unless we had this and so he um in addition to um he became

Busy towards the end of the project we needed some more little design work and another Twitter bike Twitter uh person Robert Cole who’s also an engineer ended up coming to my rescue again later on in the project so this was truly a a crowdsourced from America uh project for

Me and I would not have been able to do it without all this help yeah yeah so what’s the status now on that pilot because it it it ran itself out and then what happens and what will happen hopefully in the future yeah I don’t know if you can show the YouTube video

Of the uh project maybe um on mute but it was installed in um in August during 100 degree heat shout out to my Public Works guys who worked through that heat to get it installed over about a course of a week he that so it was installed um

It was always going to be uh three months we got a late start because of supply chain issues and so it ran its course and it was it was a great project okay so so yeah it was um it was a a two-way protected uh side path um

According to the uh is the rural Highway design guide which is brilliant for small towns and I’ve um I’ve taken so much good infrastructure recommendations from that so it was a side path that you can um also walk and bike on and you can see some of it here this is my after

School club who’s oh I love them they are like such energy for me but we’re on the um demonstration right after it was removed and that’s why you see the sad face with Corbin and uh we’re essentially here it’s like a um a weekly interview uh called Deep Thoughts

Thursday inspired by Jack Andy from satday Night Live where I interview these uh kids and asked them what their impression was on the demonstration because I wanted to capture their thoughts so our leaders could see like if it was kids in charge this thing would have stayed in um and it really

Does make a difference in their lives they couldn’t articulate uh they would articulate a lot like I would say 95% of them said it keeps us safe from Cars um as you can see in the background there um they have their own space and that’s what they

Said they we have our own space now it it feels they said it feels faster it feels um more convenient I can talk to my friends um what came through on the interviews but they never said was the social Dynamic how they could walk side by side there were somebody from the school

Board I presented on the demonstration somebody from the school board that was like said and made her day to see the kids like walking or biking in groups um because she realized how valuable that was before and after school to get them um to get them more socialized for the school environment

Especially after covid when there was so much isolation and they didn’t know how to talk to each other so it was like this it was like a um I don’t know like Starbucks on our street like a community Gathering space that connected people and and it and even the students that

Didn’t use it like they were honest like I’ve never used it they all said it makes me happy to see a safe place for my my fellow students um yeah here I am reading one of the Deep Thoughts poems that I closed with every and it was a

Way to make myself laugh um and not take myself too seriously yeah that’s great but I never answered your I never answered your question too like where we at right now yeah yeah go for it yeah where are we at right now so with a demonstration it was removed in uh so

Halloween was the last day and that was super symbolic and we planned that because H Halloween is not only one of the deadliest uh days for children because of uh road safety issues but it’s also a time where kids can claim the streets and have joy so we wanted

That last day to be Halloween and then the next morning I we were riding our bike to the bus stop to go uh on our uh vacation to Boston and they were taking it out and it was I knew it was coming and I had I you know I had to field a

Lot of questions about the fact that it was temporary and it was always the plan but when you see it actually going out as kids are biking in it it’s it was really hard and then it’s so funny simultaneously the same day um bike uh loud Portland was actively standing in

Front of a machine that was removing a bike lane yeah and so it was so crazy to see the ju position between Hood River and Portland on the same morning um but yeah it’s uh it’s run its course we got some amazing data and surveys and we’re presenting to City Council next month

About what are Where Do We Go From Here what are the lessons learned how can the design be tweaked and what is what is the permanent solution for our community and for these students and I can tell you that one of the city councilors is

Going to be I mean there’s going to be a lot of cheerleaders on city council but one especially he took time out of his mornings to volunteer and go do counts and observe Behavior at least 10 to 15 times and so it’s wonderful to have the

Ally on Council he knows how cheap it was and how easy it was and so now he’s like he I think he’s going to be a big advocate for demonstration projects going forward around the city yeah and you know I guess there’s a good lesson here too especially from the

Previous experience of the city applying for the grants for the the big big ticket items and not getting approved for them is that we don’t have to wait for a boatload of money to be able to do something lighter quicker cheaper let’s get something out there let’s test it

Pilot it and you can even do interim materials like the Zas here uh as as well as the the flex post and other types of designs uh that you know can be you know preserving that real estate for future implementation with concrete with you know the the fancy stuff that we saw

There in Cambridge yes um yeah it’s so it’s not it’s not rocket science um it’s just it’s it’s so much uh more of a prudent way to install infrastructure because you get real-time feedback from the community especially people that most people can’t look at a rendering and understand how that’s going to affect

Their daily lives this is like this uh project was $122,000 simultaneously there’s a big um streetscape design project going on with the city of Hood River that I think costs $600,000 just for the plan and so I get that that was that’s a necessary plan

That needs to happen but I get a little frustrated when we keep we’re just planning fatigue all the time and why can’t we just get something in the ground I want to give a shout out on this on that video was uh City councelor gladus Rivera who’s our first uh latinx

Anything on city council and she’s uh she’s a fantastic friend and Ally and I really appreciate all of her all of her time on this yeah I mean and that that’s really important that you point that out is you do need to have allies within City leadership on city council and the

Mayor Etc you need to have that interaction that takes place uh because ultimately the city leaders if they do put their neck out and and decide to do something and and go something we know the haters are going to come out we know that they’re going to come about and and

Complain because change is is very fear inducing and so having them on board will help them to especially when they know how much the community appreciates and loves something like this and that it is in fact very valuable it gives them that back stop of knowing okay the

Community’s got my back I’m going to be able to have this level of political will to actually see this through yes that’s exactly it is like giving them the the Courage the energy the uh the positive way to frame the issue and you can’t argue with childhood safety or Joy I

Mean it’s like impossible to come up with an argument against it and this whole what you just said reminds me so much of this quote that I keep in the back of my head uh Chris and Melissa Brunet have given me so many gems over

The years one is um and I I’m not going to do justice they always have such a great way with words but they say stop wasting your time on uh bad faith AR arguments from people that don’t want to see a project happen focus on the leaders that believe in you and believe

In the vision and you will go somewhere and it’s like totally un paraphrasing it but that’s that’s what I do now I like I focus on the leaders the positive and ignore um the bad faith I mean I I love taking criticism from people that are W

To move forward but yes yeah yeah Chris is is a famous for saying yeah all of those excuses of oh it’s too cold here it’s too hot here it’s too hilly here those are all examples of some of those bad faith arguments that are there now earlier you had mentioned as part of

This was pulling together a club uh this is so freaking cool since I’m a kid of the 80s uh talk about 80s Walk and Roll Club yeah so I um so my principal at the middle school school I told him my idea to do a partnership club with the

Demonstration and you know of course I get into like wony wonky urban planning and Transportation uh training and he’s like you got to work on your sales pitch Megan these kids like won’t even like they have a hard time recruiting kids to the robotics Club so I was like okay I’m

On it and then it just suddenly like the light bulb went off like they are all complet completely infatuated with stranger things and one of the critical elements of stranger things is the fact that they ride bikes around and their problem solving and they go on adventures and that hearkens back

There’s so many good articles written about this to Goonies and ET and um and Stephen Spielberg and it’s just that was like the light bulb moment I was like okay I need to frame this as we’re going to take Adventures around town and um

And I love the mix tape in here too look at that yeah just the 80s boom box I mean yeah music is music is my religion so I had to infuse that and it actually so what we do with the 80s Walk and Roll Club is every we meet twice a week and

We I asked them in the beginning what are their favorite spots around town within like a mile and I put together a Google map of all of their favorite places and these are like places like bakeries that’s actually in Portland where we took a field trip but I I can

Talk about that where we go all over town and it’s just like silly little things like they want to play in this water or have popsicles we go get popsicles from like the grocery store and it’s kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure we did yoga in the middle of

Like a this is going to be a future Trail one day and so I like to say through fun I am uh very subversively teaching them Transportation etiquette and they actually listen when and I talked to them about very highly nuanced laws like this the rolling stop law or

The fact that we can bike in AC crosswalk but you need to bike at walking speed so when it comes time to actually learn they are there the summertime the club um went through the summer and we had four hours together instead of two so I was able to pair my

Love of taking bikes on Transit so we took our bikes on the bus and went all over the gorge and they saw waterfalls they’d never seen before so we did Transit bikes two Trail heads and then hyped and so it was like the trifecta of all

Adventures um this is Bridge of the Gods they’re posing underneath and it was right on this trip EXA actually that uh Genesis who’s in the bottom right and she’s like an OG member of the club from last January she her life has been completely transformed by by the club

And I’m going to start getting emotional again people have I wrote this article this article is based on the presentation I gave at the vision zero conference um on uh kids cities just this past uh October in New York and I wanted a powerful story to tell about

How when you do it right when you’re catering to kids in a city how it can be life changing so Genesis on that that waterfall ride she said she was like we were riding next to each other on the historic Columbia River Highway Trail and she says to me I never thought this

Would be my life and I just look at her and I’m like what are you talking about and she’s like two years ago I never thought I’d be riding a bike for fun or to get places and it’s it’s just a lot of fun and I just I got I had to look

Away because I got really emotional and you know she I saw her I first met her in fifth grade grade when she was in my bike Rodeo when I got that first first ever Grant it was like $20,000 to do bike rodeos Then she joined the club and

Learned a bunch of like how to get places around town then the free bikes for kids nonprofit called Anson’s bike buddies that I help run got her this bike that she uses to bike to school every single day like she is the epitome of how a kids life can be

Transformed so um so yeah this is my bike this is one this is your bike and this is your bike with a whole bunch of donation bikes for this this bike program yeah so uh Anson’s bike buddies I get to ask uh I get to raise my hand

In class and be like okay who rides their bike to school and I get a few hands okay who needs a bike at home and I get a ton of b a ton of hands so I get to deliver bikes to these kids um and

And yeah so wom we got another Grant I I can’t even tell you how many grants I’ve gotten uh it’s up to like 11 million now working with Partners but to fund all of this is um let’s pause on that just a moment because you had mentioned it

Earlier you almost feels like you’re a cash machine bringing the money in it’s cash grabbing machine grabbing machine it’s important to to point out that you know try try again it’s like you know the city they applied for a couple they didn’t get them and you’re like okay that doesn’t

Work we got to find a way to make it happen you made it happen you’re continuing to um you know apply for Grants get engaged get involved you rolled up your sleeves we talked about this two years ago you just got you know you know be in your bondet or whatever

And you wanted to roll up your sleeves and get going and get involved and get engaged and you did and there’s money out there there to be had you just have to take the initiative go through the steps and the hoops and yes money always has strings attached it’s that’s the way

It goes but it’s worth going after it so I just wanted to emphasize that it’s out there you just have to go after it it is so out there especially for this type of work I mean there’s not just foundations but all of our state dos recognize how

Between el El bikes and this ground this new type of I’m going to call it the second wave of safe roots to school where we’re doing more than just yes the Walk and Roll to school days it’s like you need to go beyond that to actually address the barriers with walking and

Biking to school and so I find these these grants come across my desk I never turn them away unless like even I sometimes have 24 hours to apply for one which just happened with a specialized Grant and we’ll see if we win it but I’m waiting on two grants right now to see

If we won um but I never turned them away even if I’m not the one to fill it out I will put together a rough draft of what the Grant application should be I send it to the agency that should apply for it and then it’s in their hands to

Say we can’t do it um but most of the time it’s just that little baby step of giving them the idea that they can win it and now it’s like now Hood River understands that they’re worthy of money and investment and why it’s needed and it’s like

They it’s like I finally woken up like a a beast and I’m so happy that these different agencies are realizing that it’s important to invest in this type of work yeah and part of what’s so inspiring about about um the story of you know of of her saying you know this

Has really you know changed my life I’d never imagined my life would be like this is the fact that not only is it just fun that she she’s having fun but it’s about empowerment and it’s about you know hopefully they’re able to go beyond the the club and and get out

There and and and do things you know on their own and have that sense of of you know e exploration and doing things on their own and I love the fact that you’re sort of you know engaging with the kids and saying well who needs a

Bike at home you know and it’s like because we know that this is so incredibly empowering for being able to create free range kids and being able for them to have that sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence within themselves that they can navigate on their own yeah just in watching this video of

The kids biking in the street um I so I went to this uh one of the best workshops I’ve ever been to in my life was about uh Behavior change with Doug McKenzie Moore who is like the Godfather of behavior change and the way he breaks

Down how you address barriers and um get to the behavior that you’re looking for that’s the that’s kind of the methodology methodology I approach with safe to schools like okay we need to see what all the barriers are and then one by one I’m going to knock them down it’s

Like um kind of like whack-a-mole and there are so many in transportation that’s why it’s so interesting is because I think it’s the hardest Behavior change to address and but through these kids who so want to be um connected to each other and out in the street like the high school

Um uh teacher just reached out to me and said the number one goal of the teenagers she works with that our first bound or first what is it called uh first generation College Bound um their number one goal is to get outside and so we’re going to create um

A club ebike for them where I get to take high schoolers on ebikes around just like this yeah yeah so your name has come up a couple of times recently in talking about the The Challenge and the opportunity uh that we have with regards to I think a really interesting Trend

That that you know just sort of popped up uh and I don’t want to say it just sort of popped up but it it really kind of emerged and we’re like holy moly we’re seeing middle schoolers and teens out on ebikes like crazy and it’s got a lot of people very very concerned

Because their understanding oh my gosh this is mobility this is freedom and I can get around the town just like what we were just talking about is that sense of of self-efficacy and being able to get around and explore and they don’t have to rely on their parents but at the

Same time with the the new ebikes that are coming out especially with the throttle not just e assist but with the throttle suddenly we have a motor vehicle where it’s like got a lot of people in The Bicycle World especially bicycle advocacy world very very uncomfortable but you really leaned into

It and I’ll let you take it away from here yeah so um credit again to Chris bruntlett for giving me this Gem of a a metaphor I he was at uh and I’m talking about the teach them to fly the title of my presentation I gave at the safe roots

To school National Conference um so I was talking to Chris about this topic and it’s so nuanced it’s like one of those things where you’re just like uh when I see the kids go by and um so the double riding thing um has been happening in Hood River for about four

Years you see them go by and it’s just like oh my gosh the Netherlands is here finally like we’re we’re doing it but unlike the Netherlands these kids are going upwards of 25 miles an hour um and so it’s a it’s very it’s different um but anyway so I was talking to Chris

About it and te telling him that a lot of people want me to teach them abstinence or teach them or essentially shut it down and he’s like no why no don’t cut their wings teach them to fly and I was like yes that’s so brilliant so there is a path forward with this

Amazing opportunity but it involves many different stakeholders working together it’s uh yeah Education First so they never have had education on on bikes and so this is a great opportunity to actually give them bike education whether it’s on acoustic or electric bikes and um but then also the

Manufacturer the design of the bikes themselves and the laws that Inspire creativity and new um adaptation in ebikes so right now I still don’t have the answer to this question it drives me crazy are last two throttle ebites the cheapest ones because it’s easier to make a throttle Class 2 ebikes

Or does that what the manufacturers think that everybody wants so that’s what they’re making um so I am in the camp of um we’re in Oregon right now there’s um you have to be 16 to ride a ebike which is not happening it’s the wild west there’s so many 10 to 15 year-

Olds riding ebikes as they should be because they don’t have a car but I want them to be riding essentially pedal assist bikes so class one and right now the law prohibits them from even doing that which means that the manufacturers won’t uh catch up and design teen

Appropriate ebikes so it’s like again this like downward spiral we’re in where it could be rapidly changed with just a law adjustment and I think it’s very V valuable for kids to learn how to ride regular acoustic bikes and then they get up to ride pedal assist and yeah this is

Me um in front of our our legislature in Oregon trying to get them to understand how ebikes um solve a ton of problems and uh I wanted them or we a ton of us wanted them to take a ebike incentive or rebate seriously um and unfortunately I

Don’t think it’s going to happen this year because of our law issue uh because there are Representatives out there that don’t want to vote for an ebike rebate until the um the kids on ebikes thing is figured out so she’s proposing rep Levy from Bend um is proposing a law

Adjustment so this is my daughter anuka she’s uh breaking the law breaking the law breaking the law and I’m proud and like I proud admit that she she’s breaking the law here because okay so this happened yes it’s a stupid law and this is a pedal assist um a big bucket

Bike by Urban Aro we’ve had this since 2016 and it’s just an amazing machine it’s a car replacement you see my 88 4Runner behind which always sits in the driveway so anuka came to us on the day before couple days before Thanksgiving it was a weekend and she was like I want

To go get some ingredients to make I forget oh it was a dessert for Thanksgiving and I was like would you mind picking up other things for Thanksgiving and she’s like okay and she put together her whole shopping list we got the urban Arrow ready for this was

Not her first time riding the urban Arrow she’s actually she’s uh driven driven I don’t know if that’s the right word she’s driven my husband around it on Father’s Day she’s driven me around on it and so she has a good bike handling skills and I have full

Confidence that she’s fine she went to the grocery store by herself picked up all the groceries for thanks giving and came back and it was just like one again one of those like little transitional moments where you’re like seeing a a a child grow into a resilient competent

Adult and this is what we should be breeding in America right now especially given these kids are going to have uh so like a profound challenge with climate change and being able to take care of themselves and they need to see a bike as a tool to take care of themselves and

To be happier doing it yeah yeah we’ve covered a lot but is there anything that we haven’t covered that you really want to leave the audience with this episode I would say School streets and um and how this is not a a big city issue

Um yeah I like that I like that bring that back around because so many so often when we’re talking about these types of things they think it’s oh it’s Boston oh it’s new Portland oh it’s Austin you know it’s Amsterdam you know is that what you mean by it’s not just a

Big city issue yeah so I I wear um so I I really love big cities but I also chose to live in Hood River for a reason because I needed access uh to the outdoors and so I would say small towns um are where so much love is needed right

Now um and this is um safe Roots school can affect uh these children in such a such a profound way so like a good example um I now have five elementary schools that I work with and three or two of them are in situations where I

Would say most kids live like two miles outside of town so they don’t really have an opportunity to bike to school they take the bus but on the days where we do have Walk and Roll to school days I have them meet me at a a landmark

That’s near their school to showcase the barriers that those kids have when they can walk right to school like there’s a good video that um is in my Walk and Roll folder if you want to show but I had um Odell or which is like less than

3,000 people um we all walked to school together from this park and there was over a hundred kids um and parents walking on a truck Highway um this is actually Cascade Locks which is also a very rural small small town community and these kids are just like so jazzed

About being able to bike to school and um they have one of the highest uh loow income rates in in the country um and they are so excited about being taught how to bike to school and in class and but also these Walk and Roll to school

Days um but Odell Oregon um I’m in the process of waiting to see if we got a grant to create a crosswalk they don’t have any sidewalks or crosswalks in their town and they’re still so excited about walking to school like over a hundred of them walking along a truck

Highway to show their support for it and I use those images in my Grant application we’ll see it’s the Governor’s Highway Association yeah this is the video of them walking and this was such a such a special day because the whole it’s like I felt like almost

All of old Al was out there walking with these kids uh to school in no infrastructure like zero and these are the same kids that when I take them for a bike ride to celebrate what they learned in their Bike Rodeo they are like we are free um I forget what they o

Via America they just like say all these things from behind me that like I realize the untapped potential in rural towns and how we how we need to invest in them yeah yeah yeah it it’s amazing too how much can be done and this is a

Little bit along the lines of the spirit of bike bus is what you’re really doing is you’re just sort of getting out there and taking over the street um and kind of reinforcing that we’ve allowed our streets to be so hostile to people and

So when we do come in and we retake the streets you know streets are for people and it’s so empowering and so inspiring you know especially for the kids when they’re like oh my gosh I love this I’m with all my friends and we’re going to

School and we’re doing it in the middle of the street yes it’s the most powerful advocacy tool to see kids in the street like they not only understand that they have a claim to it and whereby they’re asking their teachers the following days after these events like when are we

Going to do this again because it was so much fun but then also adults it’s like a a fog is lifted from eyes where they like oh this is is what’s possible and this is what we need to be fighting for so yeah it’s it’s it’s you know hearkens

Back to the critical mass movement but it’s um but it’s in a more like joyful positive way yeah now we have a picture and especially for the the listening only audience here we had now have a photo of a School Street barricade and really the school streets movement is

Just taking off internationally uh right now Paris is is building School streets by the hundreds uh in London uh they’ve done the same and really explain for the audience that may not be you know super super up on the the terminology what is a School

Street uh School Street is a a place to open it’s like essentially the open streets movement but just in front of schools to give those uh give that space to the children who are uh walking and biking to school and giving them an opportunity to connect before and after

School so um a lot of school most School streets have like this kind of semi-permanent um barricade where local residents and School staff or delivery vehicles or whatever need if they need to be able to drive around it they can but it restricts through traffic meaning drop offs like School drop offs because

What we have found it again it’s this chicken and egg thing where parents are like I don’t want to um I want to drive my kid to school so I know that they’re safe from other cars but they themselves are making the street unsafe for the

Kids who walk and bike to school so what we have found with uh our we’ve done four School Street Pilots now and this is actually going to be my what I what’s my next demonstration project is um hopefully we can get this in the ground for Earth Day through the end of this

Year but this specific school has had some tremendous challenges with congestion so much so the neighbors are calling the police um they are they’re tired of the congestion they’re tired of not being able to walk out their door and leave their driveway because the street is completely clogged up with

Cars and so their neighbors are now asking and so are the parents that walk and bik their kids to school they say it’s just kind of gotten out of control so but what we found with installing a school street is even the parents who drop off their kids love it because they

Can drop them off literally at this barricade watch them walk down the street don’t have to worry about a car hitting them and are and they save all that time and so it’s it’s a win for everybody and school streets are are super it’s again it’s this light

Infrastructure that has such a rapid effect and so much so that people take it for granted when I when the School Street goes in the parents are like oh we thought that was going to be happening like all the time this this was just a one- day thing and I was like

Yeah unfortunately we need to work things out with the city to make it more of a semi-permanent issue yeah yeah yeah but School streets are I can’t recommend them enough I know it’s it’s hard to uh figure out placement of them because every school is different especially if

You have like a neighborhood based School like where it’s surrounded by homes and neighborhood streets is is the easiest but sometimes it’s like your my middle school is on an arterial Street and we can’t just shut down that street so um there’s got to be you have to

Really put some brain effort into designing School Street yeah well Megan once again thank you so very much for uh joining me here on the active towns podcast and uh one once again happy birthday I you know when when we realized that this was going to be your birthday uh for this uh

Recording we were both excited because uh it it’s so much fun to celebrate with you I can’t imagine um celebrating my birthday in a better way this is uh this is wonderful John and uh you um I want to thank you personally for what you are

Doing for our world so it’s it’s a podcast like this that that are it’s making everybody have like both the light bul moment but also the energy to actually do something so thank you you are quite welcome and right back at you and uh I can’t wait to catch up with you

And in fact I need to come and bring the active towns tour to Hood River Oregon and get some profile videos in person so we’ll have to make that happen perhaps in 2024 yeah there might be an event in 2024 that will draw you here but I can’t

Talk about it yet okay keep me posted yes hey thank you all so much for tuning in I hope you enjoyed this episode with Megan Ry and if you did please give it a thumbs up leave a comment down below and share it with a friend and if you

Haven’t done so already be honored to have you subscribe to the channel just click on that subscription button down below and ring the notifications Bell and if you’re enjoying this content uh here on the active towns channel uh please consider supporting my efforts as an active towns Ambassador it’s easy to

Do just head on over to active towns website at activ town.org and click on the support button and again this is the last episode of season 6 I’ll be back in January for the kickoff of season 7 uh so until then this is John signing off by wishing you much activity health and

Happiness cheers and again sending a huge thank you out to all my active towns ambassadors supporting the channel on patreon buy me a coffee YouTube super thanks as well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active Town store every little bit adds up and it’s much appreciated

Thank you all so Much