New research from Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) shows that transit-oriented developments (TODs) in the Portland metro area generate far fewer car trips than standard estimates suggest—especially at sites that include affordable housing.

A 2025 report, "Portland Metro Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs): 2024 Resident Survey Findings (PDF)," builds on a long-running PSU study tracking TOD residents since 2005. Led by Nathan McNeil, Jennifer Dill, and Kyuri Kim, the research surveyed residents at TODs built between 2018 and 2023 across eight Oregon cities: Portland, Beaverton, Cornelius, Milwaukie, Gresham, Tigard, Hillsboro, and Happy…

A strong, diverse workforce is key to attracting and keeping the talent needed for Oregon’s expanding infrastructure projects. A new report from Portland State University (PSU) reveals significant strides in diversifying Oregon's construction workforce and improving apprenticeship completion rates.

Led by sociology professors Maura Kelly and Lindsey Wilkinson, and funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), the study highlights how targeted services and pre-apprenticeship programs are helping recruit, train, and retain a workforce that reflects Oregon’s communities.

The report, "Evaluation of the Highway Construction Workforce Development Program (PDF),"  offers practical recom…

The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University (PSU) has been teaching a professional workshop on Comprehensive Bikeway Design since 2009. Our 2025 workshop just wrapped up, with one of the largest groups we've had so far—twenty practitioners from fifteen different U.S. states—who came to Portland to learn from local experts the ins and outs of designing a complete bicycle network. Check out some photos from the week.

"The workshop allows us to showcase the work that has been done, and is being done, in Portland to innovate and improve bicycle safety," said John MacArthur, the lead instructor of the workshop. Over the years, workshop participants have hailed from almost every state and province i…

The 2025 Transportation Summer Camp for high school students at Portland State University (PSU) recently concluded, and was featured in an article by Oregon Public Broadcasting's Tiffany Camhi: Bikes, buses and bridges: Teens explore transit at Portland State camp.

Held from August 3rd to August 8th, 2025, the residential camp offered 24 Oregon students a deep dive into the world of transportation. The program, hosted by PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) since 2016, is free for students and funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).

The primary goals of the camp are to introduce students to diverse transportation careers, provide insights on how the transportation system works, and connect them with current transportation professionals and like-minded peers.

"I enjoyed learning about the…

Forty-four students presented original work at the Portland State University (PSU) Summer Research Symposium on August 15, and six of those students chose to focus on transportation topics.

Naomi Cai, River Johnson, Danielle Justo Olivia Wang, Paris Wu, and Rayna Yu all devoted their work during a ten-week research program to solving transportation challenges with the use of advanced computational techniques. Each student was advised by a PSU faculty member.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Research for Undergraduates (REU) and altREU programs are managed by PSU's Teuscher Lab, a lab focused on next generation computing models and architectures led by professor Christof Teuscher of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. The programs are designed for curious, motivated students from any university who are interested in designing, programming, and using compu…