Originally called the Women in Transportation Seminar, WTS annually awards scholarships to support women studying in the field of transportation. These competitive scholarships are awarded to applicants who are assessed by their goals, academic achievements, and transportation related activities. 

This year two of the scholarships were awarded to Portland State University (PSU) students. Jiahui Ma and Lydia Ivanovic will be presented with the awards during the 2026 WTS Scholarships at the 2026 WTS Scholarships and Awards Gala. 

Congratulations to the 2026 WTS scholars of PSU!

Jiahui Ma: 

Jiahui Ma is a PhD student in Urban Studies at Portland State University focusing on travel behavior. Her research examines how social contexts and psychological factors shape adolescents' public transit use and attitudes.…

Portland State University (PSU) has been awarded a new contract by the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) for $300,000 to research “Measures of Transit Ambassador and Outreach Program Effectiveness.” TCRP is a program of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and supports research analyzing the public transportation industry to provide innovative solutions to current issues, particularly for policy and decision makers. The project team includes the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs & Institute of Transportation Studies, and the KFH Group.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated several issues…

A new report from the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University (PSU) finds that e-bike incentive programs across North America are evolving rapidly, with a growing focus on point-of-sale discounts, equity, and safety standards. Check out the online e-bike incentive tracker.

“An Update of E-Bike Purchase Incentive Programs in North America (PDF),” authored by TREC researchers John MacArthur, Kyu Ri Kim, and Cameron Bennett, provides an updated scan of 118 e-bike incentive programs in the United States and Canada. The report builds on a previous 2022 scan and offers insights for policymakers seeking to ex…

For transportation planners and engineers, the problem is visible every day: the sidewalk that ends abruptly in the grass, the bike lane that vanishes at a dangerous intersection, or the neighborhood cut off from a nearby park by a highway. These are gaps in the active transportation network. While the need to fix them is obvious, quantifying the benefits to justify the funding has historically been a stumbling block.

A newly published report, Estimating Benefits of Closing Gaps in Active Transportation Networks: A Guide, aims to solve this problem. 

Developed by a research team led by Alta Planning + Design, in partnership with Portland State University (PSU), Safe Streets Research + Consulting, and Cambridge Systematics, the guide provides a comprehensive framework for agencies to estimate the economic, health, and social benefits of connecting th…

Tara Goddard graduated from Portland State University in 2017 with a Ph.D. in Urban Studies & Planning. She now works as an assistant professor of civil engineering at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. Previously, she was an assistant, then associate, professor of urban planning at Texas A&M University.

Connect with Tara on LinkedIn

What do you do in your current role, and what does a typical day look like?

Like most faculty, my days vary a lot, which is something I love about being an academic. Depending on the day of the week, my time is differently split between teaching, research, and service or administrative tasks. For teaching, I may be prepping class or lab, doing teacher trainings, teaching class and lab, grading, arranging guest speakers or field visits, or talking with students in office hours. For research, I may have meetings with r…