PSU Transportation Seminar: Bike Buses: An Evaluation of An Emerging Active Transportation to School Intervention
Friday, October 25, 2024, 11:30am to 12:30pm PDT
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
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...
PSU Transportation Seminar: Let Knowledge Serve the City! A Decade of Better Block PSU Projects
Friday, November 1, 2024, 11:30am to 12:30pm PDT
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.
Can't make it? A recording of this seminar will be posted here by Tuesday, November 5.
THE TOPIC
Better Block PSU works with Planning and Civil Engineering students to bring community ideas to life! Over the last 10 years, the pathway has resulted in many real world pop ups and capital projects implemented by volunteers and PBOT.
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Student work has been crucial to advancing difficult conversations within the bureaucracy & bureaus
- Create win win opportunities to share credit with civic leaders and electeds
- Celebrate the internal staff who are project champions
SPEAKER
Ryan Hashagen, Director, Better Block PDX; Founder, Icicle Tricycles
Read morePSU Transportation Seminar: Revisiting the Impact of Daily Commuting on Well-Being
Wednesday, November 6, 2024, 4:00pm to 5:00pm PST
This special seminar at Portland State University will be in-person only, in room 315 of PSU's Engineering Building.
THE TOPIC
This study examines the impact of daily commuting on physical and mental health using time-stamped objective and subjective data. We tracked 203 Beijing employees over 10 days with smartwatches (Garmin vivosmart 4) to measure physical activity intensity and stress levels (via heart rate variability). Additionally, participants completed three random experience sampling surveys daily for five workdays to capture real-time mood data. We found that public transport commuting contributed the most to daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Longer commutes were associated with poorer moods but lower stress levels. Bus and bike commutes improved mood compared to driving, while walking and cycling elevated stress, with shuttle bus use showing the lowest stress levels. A key finding was the discrepancy between physiological stress, measured by biosignals, and self-reported psychological stress, highlighting the complexities of assessing mental well-being. These insights advance our understanding of the nuanced relationship between commuting and health.
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Public transit significantly boosts daily physical activity levels.
- Active travel improves mood but may lead to higher stress levels.
- A discrepancy exists between physiological stress and self-reported...
PSU Transportation Seminar: Division Transit project, signal priority
Friday, November 8, 2024, 11:30am to 12:30pm PSTFriday 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
More information coming soon!
SPEAKER
Mark Haines, Portland Bureau of Transportation
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...
Read morePSU Transportation Seminar: Addressing Transportation Emissions through State Climate and Energy Policy
Friday, November 15, 2024, 11:30am to 12:30pm PST
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
Oregon has adopted policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy and transportation sectors. This presentation will provide some background on these policy frameworks and explore how these policies impact transportation fuels and the transportation sector more broadly.
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Develop a general or better understanding of Oregon's energy and climate policy mechanisms and the interplay between them;
- Understand how Oregon's policies impact the transportation sector;
- Understand some of the costs, benefits, and other implications for consumers and businesses; and
- Gain an understanding of some of the legal and regulatory constraints affecting transportation decarbonization.
SPEAKER
Amy Schlusser, Climate Policy Lead, Oregon Department of Energy
PSU Transportation Seminar: EV Charging at Multifamily Properties: Moving Beyond Barriers
Friday, November 22, 2024, 11:30am to 12:30pm PST
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
Transportation is the top contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the US and light-duty vehicles are the #1 contributor to transportation emissions. Mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is key in the fight toward a more sustainable future, but there are several factors that have delayed our transition to EVs.
EV charging at home is the most convenient and cost-effective charging option for EV drivers, but people living in multifamily housing face serious barriers to accessing home charging. During this session, we will explore why EV charging at multifamily housing is critical to mass adoption of EVs, barriers to charging access at multifamily developments, and potential solutions. Among the solutions discussed, we will delve into Forth's experiences with carshare located at affordable housing developments.
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Until access to EV charging at home is as easy for multifamily residents as single-family home residents, EV adoption rates in MFH locations...
PSU Transportation Seminar: Metro Smart Climate Strategy
Friday, December 6, 2024, 11:30am to 12:30pm PSTFriday 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
More info coming soon!
SPEAKERS
Thaya Patton, Metro
Jonathan Slason, RSG
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...
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