Student Spotlight | Transportation Research and Education Center

The Next Generation of Urban Planners: Graduating PSU Masters Students Tackle Transportation

Aug 09, 2018

With the departing class of 2018, we wanted to shine a light on a group of graduating Portland State University (PSU) masters students that focused their studies and expertise on transportation.

Three groups of PSU students finishing the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program chose to do workshop projects that tackled a specific transportation issue in the Portland area. Michael Harpool, a graduate of PSU's Master of Urban Studies (MUS) program, wrote his masters thesis on utilitarian skateboarding.

Masters in Urban and Regional Planning(MURP) projects:

Elevating People: Planning for Equitable Travel to Marquam Hill

Final Report (PDF)

Elevating People intersects with OHSU’s vision for diversity and...

Eisenhower Fellowships Awarded to Four Portland State University Students

Mar 14, 2018

Four Portland State University graduate students received Eisenhower Fellowships presented by the U.S. Department of Transportation at this year's annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB): David R. Soto Padín, Travis Glick, Gregory Norton and Jael Wettach-Glosser are all civil engineering students in the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science at Portland State University.

David Soto Padín, current President of Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (STEP) at PSU, presented his research in a poster, "Bikeshare + Transit Integration: Best Practices for Increasing Ridership (PDF)," during TRB's Eisenhower Fellowship poster session. He will be working on researching bike share as a "last mile" mode choice for rail rapid transit in the American context. He also presented research on bicyclist positioning behavior at signalized...

Student Spotlight: Maria Sipin, Portland State University

Feb 28, 2018

Maria Sipin, Graduate Assistant, Portland State University

Maria Sipin is a Portland State University grad student in Urban Planning and Public Health, and an IBPI Active Transportation Scholar. Watch Maria's video, "Communicating Intersections," on the power that transportation planners have to affect positive, equitable change in our daily lives. Or, read the 2018 final report she co-authored "Elevating People: Planning for Equitable Travel to Marquam Hill" - a report on OHSU’s vision for diversity and inclusion and their goals to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips and promote the increased use of sustainable multimodal transportation.

IBPI 2017 - 2018 Scholar| LinkedIn | PSU Institute for Sustainable Solutions Staff Member

Tell us about yourself:

I started grad school in fall 2016, just a week after moving to Portland from Los...

Alex Bigazzi, graduate of Portland State University and Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia

Alumni Spotlight: Alex Bigazzi, University of British Columbia

Dec 19, 2017

Alex Bigazzi, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia

Alex Bigazzi, a former Post-Doctoral NITC researcher and student, received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Portland State University in 2014. Learn more about Alex:

NITC Researcher Profile | LinkedIn | UCB Faculty Profile

Read an article on his recent research on congestion pricing

Tell us about yourself:

My name is Alex Bigazzi and I am an assistant professor, joint-appointed in transportation engineering and planning at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. My main research areas are transportation emissions and air quality and active travel.

Why did you decide to attend Portland State University?

The original decision was driven almost entirely by location. I was living in Portland, decided to go back to school for a second...

Steven Howland, PhD Candidate in Urban Studies at Portland State University

Student Spotlight: Steven Howland, Portland State University

Sep 23, 2017

Steven Howland, PhD Candidate in Urban Studies at Portland State University

In addition to being a student, Steven has also acted as a researcher on a number of TREC projects:

Suburban Black Poverty in East Portland: The Role of Transportation in Making Ends Meet
Evaluating Efforts to Improve the Equity of Bike Share Systems
Peer-To-Peer Carsharing: Short-term effects on travel behavior in Portland, OR

Learn more about Steven by checking out his researcher profile, following him on Twitter @SHowland886, or read his recently published article in Metroscape Magazine "The Geography of the Commute".

Tell us about yourself:

I am Steven Howland, a PhD candidate in Urban Studies, where I specialize in economic development and poverty with particular interest in the intersections of the two with transportation issues. I hold a Bachelor's and Master's in Planning from Arizona State University. My dissertation looks at the transportation...

TREC research stands out at Oregon Active Transportation Summit

Mar 21, 2017

The 2017 Oregon Active Transportation Summit is happening, and TREC and Portland State University are well represented.

The event began yesterday, March 20th, and continues through today at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. In a breakout session yesterday afternoon, TREC researchers Sirisha Kothuri and Tara Goddard presented along with Rebecca Sanders of Toole Design Group in a session titled “The Latest in Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Research” which explored systemic safety analysis, safety performance along road segments, and the psychology of roadway interactions.

Kothuri is a postdoctoral researcher and Goddard is a current Ph.D. candidate at Portland State. Both of them have been former NITC dissertation fellows, and Goddard presented her dissertation research on the effects of explicit and implicit attitudes on self-reported safety behaviors in yesterday’s session.

Both Kothuri and Goddard are also working on ongoing research through the NITC program. Goddard studies transportation psychology and Kothuri’s research centers on bicycle and pedestrian safety and signal timing.

Kothuri was also a presenter in a morning session yesterday, “Making...

PSU Students win 2017 AICP Student Project Award

Mar 20, 2017

HT planning team.JPG

Hilltop Planning, a group of students from the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program at Portland State University, received a 2017 Student Project Award from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) for their Planning Workshop project, OHSU Night Access Plan.

The group took third prize in NITC's 2016 student video contest with their short video about the Night Access Plan:

...

Spirit of Portland Award honors Better Block PDX, Better Naito

Feb 03, 2017

Better Block PDX, a nonprofit dedicated to revatilizing urban spaces, won a Spirit of Portland Award for work on projects including the Better Natio project. Better Naito, which repurposed a lane of Portland’s Natio Parkway to preserve bicycle and pedestrian access, grew out of a Portland State University engineering capstone project in 2015.

Gwen Shaw was then a senior at Portland State. Her work gained the attention of city leaders, with then-Commissioner Steve Novick singling out the quality of the project’s traffic control plan.

It began as a temporary demonstration project, but the city brought back Better Naito in 2016 and left the configuration in place for three months, as reported in BikePortland.

Shaw, who is still involved with Better Block PDX, the experience served as an introduction to transportation. “It’s the most educational experience you can get,” Shaw said.

“You’re meeting with the city traffic engineer and he stamps your report and asks you if you know what the MUTCD is,” she said. “It’s fun to get that experience.”

Shaw built that experience into a profession: she’s now a transportation analyst with Lancaster Engineering...

Portland State student wins top modeling presentation award at TRB

Jan 20, 2017

Portland State doctoral student Patrick Singleton won the best presentation award for the Doctoral Research in Transport Modeling and Traveler Behavior session of the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington, D.C. This marks the second year running that a Portland State student has won the award, after Steven Gehrke won in 2016.

Singleton presented “Exploring the Positive Utility of Travel and Mode Choice,” drawn from his dissertation research. Positive utility of travel is a concept that travel can provide benefits and be motivated by factors beyond reaching a destination.

The award will be formally presented during the Network Modeling Committee meeting at next year’s Transportation Research Board conference.

Singleton continues to rack up awards. He has been named the NITC university transportation center student of the year and has received Eno and Eisenhower fellowships, being named the top-ranked Eisenhower recipient at the 2015 TRB annual meeting. He was also named a NITC dissertation fellow in 2016.

He is a doctoral student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department and is involved in several TREC research projects. His adviser is Prof....

Tara Goddard Named 2016 UTC Student of the Year

Jan 06, 2017

Read more of our TRB 2017 coverage here.

Tara Goddard, a doctoral candidate in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University, has been selected as the 2016 NITC university transportation center student of the year.

NITC takes pride in the development of tomorrow’s transportation leaders, involving students in research and supporting student transportation groups.

Goddard is the 11th student of the year since Portland State established its university transportation center in 2006. She is being recognized at the Council of University Transportation Centers 2017 Annual Awards Banquet in Washington, D.C., where she's also attending the Transportation Research Board annual meeting.

Goddard’s dissertation research explores drivers’ attitudes and behaviors toward bicyclists. This reflects her broader interest in the intersectionality between transportation and the social sciences, and how professionals in both disciplines can work together to improve upon public spaces and the ways that people interact within them.

This research focus comes with exciting opportunities for future work, a future which is still being determined: Goddard has applied for academic positions in different parts of the world and is waiting to...

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