Students on bikes in the Netherlands

It's been nine years since we first started offering our transportation study abroad course in the Netherlands, and the program is still going strong. This year we're offering two versions of the course - one geared towards students and another focused on active professionals:

These courses create an immersive experience to explore the Dutch approach to cycling, transit, innovative mobility and land use. Students and professionals will develop a broader understanding of sustainable transportation issues and expand their toolkit for context-sensitive solutions.

Today, the Netherlands is the safest place in the world to operate a bicycle, based on injury and fatality rates per miles traveled. But in 1967, Amsterdam’s chief inspector of traffic police called bicycling in the Netherlands "tantamount to attempting suicide." In just five decades, the Dutch built a bicycle infrastructure that is the envy of the rest of the world. How did they do it?...

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Bike signals at an intersection
Photo by Christopher Monsere
 
Christopher Monsere and Sirisha Kothuri; Portland State University
David Hurwitz and Douglas Cobb; Oregon State University
Christina Fink, Bill Schultheiss, Thomas Hillman, Gwen Shaw and Jesse Boudart; Toole Design Group, Inc.

The latest report from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), “Road User Understanding of Bicycle Signal Faces on Traffic Signals” (20-07/Task 420), zeroes in on some key gaps in research and practice around road...

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An intersection with a bike lane going through it
Photo by Cait McCusker
Christopher Monsere, Portland State University; Nathan McNeil, Portland State University
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TREC table at TRB 2019

The 99th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) will be held in Washington, D.C. January 12–16, and TREC will be there in force, as is our tradition. Portland State University is sending 14 faculty and staff to present their expertise at TRB, and you can download our full guide here:

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE TO PSU AT TRB 2020 (PDF)

Here are some highlights of lectern presentations:

  • Monday, 10:15 AM, Addressing Equity in a Changing World – Aaron Golub and Nathan McNeil of the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning (USP) will present in lectern session 1166 on Addressing Changing Demographics in Environmental Justice Analysis: Review of Demographic Trends and State of Practice

  • Tuesday, 8:00 AM, Bicycling Toward Equity: Opportunities, Barriers, and Policies for Vulnerable Groups – Jennifer Dill, Nathan McNeil, John MacArthur and Joseph Broach (USP) will present in lectern session 1394 on Bicycling and Bikeshare among Women of Color in 3 US Cities: Barriers and Opportunities...
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Last week the Portland State University’s Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (STEP-ITE) group competed in the 28th annual Bill Kloos Traffic Bowl Competition held by Oregon ITE.

Competition in this trivia-based challenge was fierce, but the PSU student team took first place against the ITE student chapters of Oregon State University, Oregon Tech, and the University of Washington. In addition to bragging rights, they won a $500 cash prize that will go towards supporting STEP student activities for PSU transportation students.

Portland State University 2019 Team

  • STEP President Nicholas Puczkowskyj | PhD Candidate, Urban Studies
  • STEP VP Finance Rohan Sirupa | Graduate Student, Civil Engineering
  • STEP VP Communications Katherine Keeling | Graduate Student, Civil Engineering
  • STEP VP Events Gabby Galvez | Undergraduate Student, Civil Engineering
  • STEP VP Creativity Polina Polikahina | Undergraduate Student, Civil Engineering

Photo Credit: Oregon ITE Chapter

In addition to this annual event, Oregon ITE...

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Students on bikes in the Netherlands

In celebration of Portland State University's Day of Giving on December 3rd, we're devoting our efforts this year to raising funds in support of experiential learning opportunities through travel scholarships for transportation students.

TREC Experiential Learning Scholarships are part of a new initiative to broaden our student impact beyond our hands-on experience in research and support of PSU's Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (STEP). We want to support immersive, experiential trainings outside of the Portland metro region. Introducing students to people and learning opportunities in other states and countries will allow them to bring innovative transportation concepts back to Portland, Oregon. This includes our flagship study abroad program: "Sustainable Transportation in the Netherlands" which will be held again this summer June 21 - July 4, 2020.

DONATE TO THE TREC SCHOLARSHIP

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LEARNING...

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Street icons for bicycle and pedestrian
Photo by Cait McCusker
Nathan McNeil, Portland State University; Kristin Tufte, Portland State University

In the past decade bike and pedestrian count programs have sprung up all over the United States, gathering data to evaluate biking and walking infrastructure. However, these modes have not been studied with the quantitative rigor applied to motor vehicle travel. A research project funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), led by Nathan McNeil of Portland State University (PSU), offers a method for monitoring the quality of this bike-ped count data.

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Eisenhower Fellow Mike McQueen presents research at 2019 Transportation & Communities Summit

Nine Portland State University graduate students will receive Eisenhower Fellowships presented by the U.S. Department of Transportation at next year's annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB): Phillip Longenecker, Nicholas Puczkowskyj and Baxter Shandobil of the Nohad Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, and Gabby Abou-Zeid, Travis Glick, Katherine Keeling, Mike McQueen, Greg Norton and Jaclyn Schaefer of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University.

This is the second Eisenhower award for Baxter Shandobil and Mike McQueen, who were awarded the fellowship in 2019 also. Travis Glick and Greg Norton both won Eisenhower fellowships the past two years, making 2020 their third year in a row to earn the prestigous award. Meet the PSU Eisenhower Fellows of 2018, and the Eisenhower Fellows of 2019.

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Gabby Abou-Zeid is a first-year graduate student pursuing her M.S. in civil engineering at Portland State University and working with Dr. Kelly Clifton's SUPER (Sustainable Urban Planning & Engineering Research) Lab.  Her...

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A bicycle passes in front of a bus
Photo by Canetti
Miguel Figliozzi, Portland State University

When buses and bikes share space, it's complicated. Not only are there safety risks for cyclists, but also potential delays in bus service and stressful navigation for bus operators. The quest to increase bus speeds—and plausibly...

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Screenshot from the YouTube video showing Angie Schmitt at the podium

Over 120 active transportation professionals, researchers, students, and community members joined us October 15 on the Portland State University campus to hear journalist Angie Schmitt speak on the Pedestrian Safety Crisis. Miss the lecture, or want to share it with someone?

Angie may no longer be writing for StreetsBlog USA, but you can still follow her on Twitter or her freelance journalism for The Atlantic. She recently published her first Atlantic article on "Inequality is Slowing...

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