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.
PRESENTATION ARCHIVE
THE TOPIC
Bike Buses are a relatively new form of Active Transportation to School (ATS) that have gained popularity in Europe and the United States in recent years. Generally, a bike bus consists of one or more adult supervisors, often parents, who guide a group of students along a defined ‘route’ to one or more schools. Using literature from the last 15 years published on ATS in North America, we identify four thematic areas of influence on Bike Buses: school policies, parent and student attitudes and behaviors, the urban environment, and the street environment. We conclude that Bike Buses can be situated within the larger body of literature about ATS and Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) but deserve research on their own merits for a variety of reasons. The presentation will also present findings from surveys of bike bus coordinators and parents at schools with bike buses in Portland, Oregon.
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Understand how Bike Buses fit within the larger framework of SRTS and Active Transportation to School ATS;
- Learn about how Bike Buses are formed and operated;
- Understand how Bike Buses are perceived by parents in encouraging more biking to school.
SPEAKERS
Evan Howington, Portland State University
Evan Howington is a second-year Masters student in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. Prior to working with TREC, Evan worked at Trillium Transit and Optibus supporting transit agencies nationwide with disseminating passenger information and making it easier to take transit.
John MacArthur, TREC at Portland State University
John MacArthur is the Sustainable Transportation Program Manager at TREC at Portland State University and an instructor in civil and environmental engineering, teaching on new & emerging technologies in transportation. He is active in research related to sustainable and equitable transportation, particularly in the areas of emerging tech such as e-bikes, bike share, transit, and the relationship between transportation and public health. Mr. MacArthur is the Section Chair for Transportation Research Board’s AME00 Transportation and Society and a member of Innovative Public Transportation Services and Technologies (AP020). He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and a MS in Environmental Health Sciences from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.
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.
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.