Research Projects | Transportation Research and Education Center

Access to Opportunities: Redefining Planning Methods and Measures for Disadvantaged Populations

Principal Investigator: Arlie Adkins

Co-Investigator: Stephen Mattingly

This project will be made up of two separate studies that together will investigate areas where transportation planning and engineering can better serve disadvantaged and underserved communities. An interdisciplinary team of planning and public healt ... Read More

Integrate Socioeconomic Vulnerability for Resilient Transportation Infrastructure Planning

Principal Investigator: Liming Wang

Co-Investigators: John MacArthur , Yu Xiao

This research project develops a novel methodology for assessing transportation network vulnerability and resilience, with a particular focus on incorporating social vulnerability into the analysis. The study addresses a critical gap in existing rese ... Read More

Oregon Transportation Financial Analysis

Principal Investigator: Jenny Liu

Oregon Transportation Financial Analysis ... Read More

How Can E-bike Purchase Incentives Grow the E-bike Market?

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Co-Investigators: Christopher Cherry , Luke Jones

The electric bicycle (e-bike) is a low-emission mode of transportation that offers communities benefits in the areas of health, planning, time, cost, street safety, congestion, air pollution, noise pollution, and energy security, among others. Despit ... Read More

Real-Time Stochastic Matching Models for Freight Electronic Marketplace

Principal Investigator: Avinash Unnikrishnan

This grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support research investigating how a real-time marketplace might be constructed to match freight shipments with available carriers. In such a system, freight shippers make a request to the sy ... Read More

Pedestrian Wayfinding Under Consideration of Visual Impairment, Blindness, and Deafblindness: A Mixed-Method Investigation Into Individual Experiences and Supporting Elements

Principal Investigator: Martin Swobodzinski

Co-Investigator: Amy Parker

Navigating an unfamiliar place is uniquely challenging for people with disabilities. People with blindness, deafblindness, visual impairment or low vision, as well as those who use wheelchairs, can travel more independently in urban areas with the ai ... Read More

Pedestrian Behavior Study to Advance Pedestrian Safety in Smart Transportation Systems Using Innovative LIDAR Sensors

Principal Investigator: Taylor Li

Co-Investigators: Sirisha Kothuri , Xianfeng (Terry) Yang

Pedestrian safety is critical to improving walkability in cities. To that end, NITC researchers have developed a system for collecting pedestrian behavior data using LiDAR sensors. Tested at two intersections in Texas and soon to be tested at another ... Read More

Marginalized Populations’ Access to Transit: Journeys from Home and Work to Transit

Principal Investigator: Marisa Zapata

Co-Investigators: Ivis Garcia , Amy Lubitow , Miriam Abelson

Previous scholarship has shown that low-income individuals who also might identify as racial, ethnic, and gender minorities (such as transgender and gender nonconforming) are more likely to be dependent on public transportation. What remains understu ... Read More

Accessing Opportunities for Household Provisioning Post-COVID-19

Principal Investigator: Kelly Clifton

Co-Investigators: Kristina Currans , Amanda Howell

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

Statistical Inference for Multimodal Travel Time Reliability

Principal Investigator: Avinash Unnikrishnan

Co-Investigators: Miguel Andres Figliozzi , Subhash Kochar

Travel time reliability – or the consistency and dependability of travel times from day to day, and at different times of day – is a key metric that significantly affects people’s travel behavior. Since businesses rely heavily on transportation ... Read More

New Mobility For All: Can Targeted Information And Incentives Help Underserved Communities Realize The Potential Of Emerging Mobility Options?

Principal Investigator: Nathan McNeil

Co-Investigator: John MacArthur

Low-income residents, immigrants, seniors, and people with disabilities – these are people who stand to gain the most from new tools and services that reduce transportation costs and travel time. However, issues of affordability, technology adoptio ... Read More

Updating ODOT Safety Investigation Manual

Principal Investigator: Christopher Monsere

Co-Investigators: Sirisha Kothuri , Jason Anderson , David Hurwitz

Researchers at Portland State University (PSU) and Oregon State University (OSU) have updated the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Safety Investigation Manual, materials and training resources to assist ODOT traffic investigators with highw ... Read More