The class takes a break while on a bike tour underneath a tree in a public park, listening to a guest speaker. The image on the right shows a streetcar approaching with tracks running through a grassy park. 

After 2 weeks of a hands-on, in-person participatory exploration of a city with world-renowned multimodal infrastructure, the 2026 Portland State University (PSU) Sustainable Transportation Study Abroad class has concluded. 

“It’s really about giving them a real-life experience of riding in a world-class biking city,” PSU lead instructor John MacArthur said. 

Alongside MacArthur and co-instructor and PSU alum Nick Falbo (Mobycon), this year’s class of 16 students rode buses, light rail, and subway trains, walked, biked, and absorbed how Copenhagen was built for human connectivity and accessible transportation. The students experienced the city's interlinked multimodal system through lectures, guided tours, guest speaker presentations, and daily multimodal trips as they traversed the city and beyond to Malmö, Sweden and Odense, Denmark. Guest speakers included representatives from the Copenhagen Metro, Danske Statsbaner (DSB) train operating company, Danish Road Directorate, Cycle Superhighways, and other active and sustainable transportation and livable community design professionals. 

The class was made possible by the long-standing relationships and support from Scan Design Foundation, which provided student scholarships and invaluable partnerships with in-country organizations, and DIS Copenhagen, which was the host organization managing the trip. 

Material Application 

The students immersed themselves in a place where the decentering of designing for cars contrasts starkly with many major cities in the U.S., learning from how Copenhagen manages land use. 

“What can be brought back and used in the U.S. context—that's the main goal of the program and what we try to do by getting the students out every day and using multimodal transit,” MacArthur said. 

In addition to the direct experience they were gaining through the curriculum, students were asked to think critically and apply what they had learned regarding Danish approaches around comfort, travel time, and sense of security to a Portland neighborhood or town center with the goal of creating a more people-oriented transportation system and community. 

“I loved observing and engaging with my peers' interest in and enthusiasm for planning, urbanism, and sustainability,” Anna Dearman, a PSU civil engineering graduate student, said. “One of my favorite memories integrated the experience of studying urban planning with being immersed in a different social culture abroad: we were discussing with one of our lecturers in Copenhagen how Danish people come to be so critical of their infrastructure (in a good way), and the professor responded that it's because Danish people live their lives in public and take ownership over public space, to an extent that results in high voter turnout as well!”  

Each project explored important aspects of a city’s infrastructure and key factors that comprise a community's quality of life. The Sellwood team addressed waterway access and neighborhood orientation particularly for families with children and travelling to school; the Kernside team proposed light rail, street car, and bike lane additions as both increasing connectivity and bike use; the Goose Hollow Team utilized public space activation techniques around Providence Park and creatively increased bike infrastructure; reconnecting bike paths broken by bridges, encouraging community with street plazas, and increasing access to nature were priorities for the St. Johns team. 

Students presented to the class how they would apply Danish approaches to a Portland neighborhood. 

Dearman said she is already applying treatments she observed in Europe, such as speed deflection at conflict points. 

“Consistent with my experience of PSU in the MURP program (class of 2016), PSU does a great job integrating faculty and practitioners, lecture and immersive experience,” she said. “So that knowledge can serve the city, we let the city serve up knowledge, which is a great way to learn and be!” 

Learn more about the Sustainable Transportation Study Abroad program, or sign up to be notified when applications open for future courses.