The video begins at 1:44.

Oliver Smith (USP PhD) - Peak of the day or the daily grind? Commuting and subjective well-being

To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and societal well-being, measurement techniques that go beyond satisfaction-based measures of travel are used. Such metrics are increasingly important for evaluating transportation and land-use policies. This study examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and its influences using data from a web-based survey that was distributed to Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. workers. Valid surveys (n=828) were compiled from three roughly equally sized groups based on mode: bike, transit and car users. Average distances between work and home varied significantly among the three groups. Descriptive results show that commute well-being varies widely across the sample. Those who bike to work have significantly higher commute well-being than transit and car commuters. A multiple linear regression model shows that along with travel mode, traffic congestion, travel time, income, health, job satisfaction and residential satisfaction also play important individual roles in shaping commute well-being. While more analysis is needed, these results support findings in previous research that commuting by bike enhances well-being while congestion detracts from well-being. Implications for future research and sustainable transportation policy efforts are discussed.

Colin Rowan (USP MURP) - Toward an Age-Friendly Portland: Preparing Portland's Transportation System for Demographic Shifts

Colin will introduce one component of Portland's efforts to become a more livable, vibrant place for all people: age-friendly planning. Beginning with an introduction to the City's and stakeholders' history of efforts to provide better services, transportation infrastructure, and awareness to the needs of older people, the presentation will then go into greater detail about the 2012 PSU MURP Planning Workshop project titled "Toward an Age-friendly Portland." The workshop team partnered with the Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability and PSU's Institute on Aging in order to create a vision for an age-friendly Portland and to develop policy and action recommendations that may improve Portland for older adults and people of all ages. The presentation will illustrate how transportation is integrally connected to many planning and service considerations for older adults. Colin's presentation will conclude with thoughts about the direction of planning curriculum and how planning for changing demographics may be incorporated in the future.

Alex Bigazzi (CEE PhD) - Truck Emissions & Lane Management

Traffic congestion mitigation has been proposed as a strategy to help attain air quality goals. A better understanding of the full impacts of congestion on heavy-duty vehicles is needed because heavy-duty vehicles contribute a large share of on-road emissions and are more sensitive to speed than light-duty vehicles. Analysis of four different managed lane scenarios shows that vehicle class-segregated facilities tend to out-perform general-purpose lane strategies in terms of emissions reductions. Although potentially controversial, from an emissions perspective, conversion of a general purpose lane to a truck-only lane may produce more emissions benefits than adding either a truck-only lane or a general purpose lane.