Research Projects | Transportation Research and Education Center

Evaluation of Road User Comprehension and Compliance with Red Colored Transit Priority Lanes

Principal Investigator: Christopher Monsere

Co-Investigators: Jennifer Dill , Nathan McNeil

As part of the City of Portland Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is working with TriMet and Jacobs Engineering to evaluate the impact of red colored transit priority lanes at key locations in and around do ... Read More

Strategies to Address Homelessness at Airports (ACRP 03-59)

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Co-Investigator: Marisa Zapata

There has been an increase in the number of homeless individuals at airports in recent years. There are many reasons for this increase, including a reduced number of city shelters and the attractiveness of airports for homeless people due to their r ... Read More

Applying an Equity Lens to Automated Payment Solutions for Public Transportation

Principal Investigator: Aaron Golub

Co-Investigators: Anne Brown , Candace Brakewood , John MacArthur

Our multi-year study on automated transit fare collection offers a key finding that won't surprise you: Despite the convenience, the rush toward cashless fare systems has created barriers for lower-income riders seeking to use transit. Results from f ... Read More

NSF SCC RAPID: Consumer Responses to Household Provisioning During COVID-19 Crisis and Recovery

Principal Investigator: Kelly Clifton

Co-Investigator: Rebecca Lewis

When the COVID-19 pandemic first swept across North America and led to emergency shutdowns during the spring of 2020, the way people acquired food and household necessities was dramatically impacted. As stay-at-home orders minimized personal travel, ... Read More

Research Roadmap for the AASHTO Council on Active Transportation (NCHRP 20-123(02))

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Dill

Co-Investigators: Christopher Monsere , Nathan McNeil

Funded by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), a team of researchers from the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University (PSU) and Toole Design prepared the Research Roadmap for the American ... Read More

Advancing Transportation Resilience and Recovery Collaborations in the Greater Portland Metro Region

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Portland State University (PSU)’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) and the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization (RDPO), supported by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM), are collaborating on a pr ... Read More

NSF Collaborative Research: RAPID: Maintain Mobility and Reduce Infection Through a Resilient Transit and Micromobility System

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to health, the economy, and transportation systems in cities. The key strategy to combat growth in the infection rate is through "social distancing," maintaining physical separation from othe ... Read More

Homelessness: A Guide for Public Transportation (TCRP J-11/Task 40)

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Co-Investigator: Marisa Zapata

Unemployment, low wages, poverty, and lack of affordable housing are the main drivers of an increasing homeless population throughout the U.S. in recent years. Transit agencies are being impacted by homelessness. While transit agencies cannot address ... Read More

Active Transportation Return on Investment Study

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Dill

Co-Investigators: Jenny Liu , Marisa Zapata

The Active Transportation Return on Investment (ATROI) study aimed to provide a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the benefits of active transportation infrastructure in the Portland, OR region. The study used a selection of projects constru ... Read More

Bi-objective Optimization for Battery Electric Bus Deployment Considering Cost and Environmental Equity

Principal Investigator: Xiaoyue Cathy Liu

Co-Investigators: Aaron Golub , Ran Wei

Led by Xiaoyue Cathy Liu of the University of Utah, researchers have created a web-based modeling tool that enables U.S. transit providers to explore the impacts of changing over their systems to battery electric buses, or BEBs. The researchers ran ... Read More

Methodologies to Quantify Transit Performance Metrics at the System-Level

Principal Investigator: Travis Glick

Performance metrics have typically focused at two main scales: a microscopic scale that focuses on specific locations, time-periods, and trips; and, a macroscopic scale that averages metrics over longer times, entire routes, and networks. When applie ... Read More

National Scan of Bike Share Equity Programs

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Co-Investigators: Nathan McNeil , Joe Broach

As bike share systems around the United States have grown in number and size in recent years, there has been an increasing effort to ensure that those systems are accessible to all residents, particularly those who have the fewest resources or have b ... Read More