Our Mission

Oregon Walks is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting walking and making the conditions for walking safe, convenient and attractive throughout the Portland metropolitan region.

We operate with the following guiding principles:

  • Walking must be safe.
  • Walking should get you there.
  • Walking is transportation which builds better communities.
  • Walkable communities require careful, inclusive design.
  • Streets shared by pedestrians and others are the best streets.
  • Everyone who leaves home is a pedestrian, whether in a wheelchair, stroller, on foot, or even getting to a motor vehicle or mass transit.

History

Launched in 1991, Oregon Walks (known as the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition before November 2012) has brought people forward as a constituency whose walking needs must be taken seriously. Smart, unpretentious and passionate about the cause, Oregon Walks has left footprints around the city and state (in some cases, around the nation), all in an effort to bring walking into the multi-modal 21st century.