Pedal Power
The PedalPower Youth Bike Program teaches school children how to safely ride bikes. As of August 2025, we are excited to share that every 4th and 5th grader in the Ashland School District will learn and practice on-bike skills with a ten-hour safety course in the 2025-2026 school year!
Pedal Power Partnership with Ashland Parks & Recreation
The new PedalPower Youth Bike Program has been realized with support from Ashland Parks and Recreation, RVTD, Ashland Climate Collaborative and their Streets For Everyone action team, Ashland Community Health Foundation, Schwemm Family Foundation, Ashland Schools Foundation, Carrico Family Foundation, and Rotary Club of Ashland.
Ashland Parks and Recreation and the Ashland Parks Foundation have been integral since the inception of the PedalPower program, raising funds via the annual Ashland Community Bike Swap held each April since the early 2000s. The proceeds generated from the Bike Swap have funded major program components.
PedalPower includes both the Youth Bike Program and the Community Bike Shop that operates out of the Grove, located at 1195 E.Main St. in Ashland. At the Community Bike Shop, dedicated volunteers give hundreds of hours to repairing donated bicycles, and will maintain the new bikes purchased for the program's instructional fleet.
Read the joint press release (pdf) that published in October 2025 by Ashland Parks and Recreation and the Ashland Climate Collaborative.
About the Program
Program Ownership & Background
PedalPower is a program of Ashland Parks and Recreation. The program began in the early 2000s as a collaboration between Ashland Parks and Recreation and Rogue Valley Transportation District (RVTD), but was discontinued during the pandemic. A reboot of the program has been hamstrung by severe federal funding cuts at RVTD and the need to replace aging equipment. Beginning in fall 2024, the Ashland Climate Collaborative joined the partnership to coordinate fundraising and organizational support.
Students Served
In 2024, the program served 145 4th and 5th graders at Helman and Bellview elementary schools. In the upcoming school year, EVERY 4th and 5th grader at all five Ashland public elementary schools will learn how to ride a bike safely — that’s 362 students!
Vision for the Future
We’re grateful for our recent progress yet know there’s more to do. In the future, we plan to continue teaching all Ashland 4th and 5th graders, expand to include kindergarten and 1st graders, and then expand into those same grades in the Talent and Phoenix elementary schools. When achieved, that will mean we are teaching over 1,300 students each year how to ride bikes safely!
In addition, for this program to succeed for years to come, we need to hire a dedicated program manager to oversee and manage the full program.
For this future expansion, we need funding for:
- Acquiring 35 balance bikes for Kindergarten and 1st graders
- Kindergarten / 1st grade helmets and equipment
- Hiring a dedicated program manager
Donate to the Program
We continue to pursue multiple funding sources to realize our full program vision. We also know that with cuts to the Oregon Department of Transportation, to RVTD, and other long time partners, funding is more crucial than ever. Want to support PedalPower with a tax-deductible donation?
Please write a check to Ashland Parks Foundation, 340 S. Pioneer St., Ashland OR 97520 – Write PedalPower in the memo line.
Learn More about the Program and how you can get involved!
Program Sponsors
We are grateful to RVTD and Ashland Parks & Recreation for shepherding this program through since the early 2000s! Thanks to these generous sponsors for making this program possible.
