Electronic Wayfinding for Visually Impaired Travelers: Limitations and Opportunities
It's 2019, and with the explosion of mobile technology that has affected all other areas of life, it would seem to be a golden age for people living with visual impairments. Like never before in history, blind, deaf-blind, and low-vision individuals can access a plethora of mobile apps offering a range of services to aid in navigation and wayfinding. But the words "explosion" and "plethora" hint at an underlying problem: there are so many different apps, each one addressing only a segment of their mobility...
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This week, Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) releases a new research report comparing equity-oriented programs across several U.S. bike share systems. The research finds a variety of methods in place, ranging from affordability to internal hiring practices and beyond. The report is assisted by Toole Design, and funded in part by BBSP.
DIMENSIONS OF EQUITY
In any evaluation study, it’s important to define the metrics for observation. TREC decided to look at...
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- Download the Final Report (PDF)
- Download the Project Brief (PDF)
- Use the STAT Toolbox
- Join the DEMO WEBINAR: STAT will be demonstrated by its creators on Sept 4
With today's profusion of open data sources and real-time feeds, transit agencies have an unparalleled opportunity to leverage large amounts of data to improve transit service. Thanks to NITC researchers,...
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- Download the Final Report (PDF)
- Download the Executive Summary (PDF)
- See the big picture: Read about the ongoing work
Many cities are reconsidering their reliance on ITE's Trip Generation Manual, now in its 10th edition.
Kelly Clifton, TREC researcher and associate dean for research of Portland State University's Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science, is one of the people leading the charge to identify better, more nuanced ways to anticipate transportation demand; especially person (non-car) trips. In an extended series of TREC projects,...
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The National Institute for Transportation & Communities (NITC) research consortium, led by Portland State University, has awarded $1.035 million in total funding for ten research projects spanning five universities. This year we focused funding on micromobility, traffic, meeting the transportation needs of underserved populations and people with disabilities, and the intersection of transportation and housing.
Darshan Chauhan, Portland State University
Darshan Chauhan is a graduate research assistant in civil engineering at Portland State University. He currently serves as the treasurer of STEP (Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning), PSU's transportation student group, and generously volunteers his time at a variety of transportation-related events via PSU's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC). He will defend his masters thesis on network flow problems this year, and plans to continue on to earn his PhD. In the 2018/2019 academic year, Darshan earned a Walter H. Kramer Fellowship from Portland State University.
Tell us about yourself?
I am a second-year Masters student in the civil engineering program with a transportation focus at PSU. I have been training with Prof. Unnikrishnan here to understand, model, and tackle uncertainties in different transportation networks. Before coming to Portland, I completed my Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus, working as an undergraduate researcher in areas like fracture mechanics, optimization, and alternate cementitious materials through my junior and senior years. After completing my masters, I am continuing for my Ph.D. in transportation at PSU. Apart from school, I really enjoy...
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Photo of CUPA 2019 Graduation Ceremony by Nina Johnson
As the spring term comes to a close and many Portland State University students celebrate graduation, we'd like to take a moment to highlight two excellent transportation-focused projects from this year's Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) graduates of the College of Urban and Public Affairs. Last year's graduating masters students worked on equitable travel to Marquam Hill, active transportation in North PDX, car-free access to the outdoors and an examination of skateboarding for transportation.
This year, two student groups took on projects related to walking and bicycling.
ReadyStreets: Human Powered Mobility in the Post-earthquake Recovery Period
SAFE (Supporting Access for Everyone) Planning Group: Kerry Aszklar, Jaye Cromwell, Bryan Nguyen, Joey Posada, Sabina Roan, and Sophie Turnbull-Appell...
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In the latest report published by TREC, we partnered with Explore Washington Park (EWP) to better understand how to meet the needs of underserved populations in Washington Park.
EWP was formed as a Transportation Management Association and operates as a 501(c)3 non-profit with a license agreement with the City of Portland for transportation management in Portland's Washington Park and everything in it: Oregon Zoo, Portland Children's Museum, World Forestry Center, Hoyt Arboretum, Portland Japanese Garden, International Rose Test Garden and all of the park space in between. A Metro grant in 2017 provided investments to support transit to and within the park...
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Our Transportation Undergraduate Research Fellowship (TURF) program is in its second year, and we're excited to introduce our 2019 cohort. The TURF program advances critical thinking and research skills under the guidance of a PSU transportation faculty mentor. This year's fellows are working on various research initiatives at TREC, including e-scooters, bicycle and pedestrian count data, multimodal trip generation, pedestrian safety and equitable transit.
TURF is funded by an education grant through our U.S. DOT funded program the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC). Students were selected through a competitive application process; we had 103 applications from 23 U.S. states and 4 countries.
The TURF fellows will spend six weeks during the summer of 2019 at Portland State University, tackling transportation engineering and planning research questions.
MEET THE 2019 TURF FELLOWS
Anaisabel Crespo - Leiva, SUNY Plattsburgh
- Download the White Paper: Estimating the Effect of E-bikes On Person Miles Travelled and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (PDF)
- Download the White Paper: How E-Bike Incentive Programs are Used to Expand the Market (PDF)
- ...