Friday Transportation Seminars at Portland State University have been a tradition since 2000. We've opened up PSU Transportation Seminars to other days of the week, but the format is the same: Feel free to bring your lunch! If you can't join us in person, you can always watch online via Zoom.

THE TOPIC 

Planners and decision-makers have increasingly voiced a need for network-wide estimates of bicycling and walking. Such volume estimates have for decades informed motorized planning and analysis but have only recently become feasible for non-motorized travel modes. Recently, new sources of activity data have emerged derived primarily from GPS-based smartphone location data, both app-based and passively collected. The project team has led several research projects aimed at evaluating and integrating the emerging sources with conventional demand data, including observed bicycle and pedestrian counts, to assess the value added of various emerging sources and the potential for estimating network-wide volumes. This presentation will summarize lessons learned and propose next steps for agencies and researchers who want to incorporate big data into active transportation volume / exposure estimates.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• The contributions and cautions of using emerging big data sources for AT volume estimates.
• The importance of adjusting for potential bias when using big data sources.
• The continuing value of traditional bicycle and pedestrian counters.
• The transferability of volume estimate models across geographies and time.

SPEAKERS

Joe Broach, Portland State University

Joe Broach is a research associate at the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University (PSU) and a Senior Researcher and Modeler at Metro, Portland’s MPO. He has more than 15 years of experience in transportation research and planning, in both academic and public agency settings. His work on non-motorized transportation modeling, behavior, and data has been widely published, incorporated into federal guidance, and used in regional travel models. He holds a PhD in Urban Studies from Portland State University and a Master’s in Economics from the University of Montana, Missoula.

  

Sirisha Kothuri, Portland State University

Sirisha Kothuri, Ph.D. is a senior research associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University. Dr. Kothuri’s primary research interests are in the areas of multimodal traffic operations, bicycle and pedestrian counting, and safety. Dr. Kothuri is the research co-chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Pedestrians Committee (ANF10) and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Data Subcommittee (ABJ 35(3)) and a member of Traffic Signal Systems committee. Dr. Kothuri received her BCE from Osmania University, India, MSCE from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge and Ph.D. from Portland State University.

 

Nathan McNeil, Portland State University

Nathan McNeil is a Research Associate at Portland State University's Center for Urban Studies. He researches the impacts of active transportation and transit equity, on new bicycle infrastructure and programs on travel behavior and attitudes towards cycling, on shared-use mobility programs including carsharing and bike-share, and on the connection between land-use and transportation. He was Co-Principal Investigator on recent national studies of bike share equity (Breaking Barrier to Bike Share and National Scan of Bike Share Equity Programs) and of protected bike lane implementations (Lessons from the Green Lanes). Nathan received a master of urban and regional planning from Portland State University (PSU) and studied history at Columbia University as an undergraduate. Before PSU, Nathan worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City as a performance auditor where he evaluated capital programs and contractors.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute seminar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We can provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

ADD IT TO YOUR CALENDAR

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is a multidisciplinary hub for all things transportation. We are home to the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), the data programs PORTAL and BikePed Portal, the Better Block PSU program, and PSU's membership in PacTrans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium. Our continuing goal is to produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education, seminars, and participation in research.

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