Portland State University

We’ve got a new curriculum guidebook for undergraduate and graduate students in transportation: a comprehensive set of class exercises to learn pedestrian observation and data collection strategies.

Addressing the challenges of an evolving transportation industry means embracing the study of non-motorized travel and preparing the new workforce for it. Funded by our university research consortium National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), this guidebook was designed to enable instructors with little or no experience to integrate pedestrian-related curriculum into their teaching. While accessibility is a key feature, the guidebook combines both new and existing resources into one comprehensive set of learning modules for more experienced instructors. 

These pedestrian observation strategies not only benefit university faculty and their students, but they can also serve local agencies. Jurisdictions are often...

In honor of our 10-year anniversary, we’re trying something a little different. Instead of brief sessions that introduce you to a topic– we will be offering fifteen half-day workshops that focus on skill building and providing the tools to apply the latest research to practice. These will be hands-on, immersive learning experiences in a small classroom setting.

REGISTRATION

This event is a la carte, and pricing is per workshop. You may attend as few as one, or as many as four workshops.

• Half-Day Workshop (general admission): $95
• Half-Day Workshop (student rate): $50

THE PROGRAM

⇨SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE AND DETAILS

• Survey Design: Asking the Right Questions
• Bicycle/Pedestrian Focused Signal Timing Strategies: What, When, Where, Why, and How?
• Activating Community Opportunities Using Transportation Organizations as Assets
• Cost Accounting for Program and Budget Planning Today and Tomorrow
• Data Analysis for Smarties Who Forgot What They Learned in College
• What’s New in the HCM 6th Edition?
• Ecological Momentary Assessment Methods with Transportation Disadvantaged Populations
• Calculating...

Sirisha Kothuri, a Portland State University research associate, has recently completed two distinct studies taking different approaches to advancing bicycle safety. Kothuri will lead a Sept. 13 workshop on Bicycle/Pedestrian Focused Signal Timing Strategies along with Peter Koonce, the division manager of Signals & Street Lighting for the City of Portland. The half-day workshop will be part of Transportation and Communities 2018, a two-day intensive training event for transportation professionals.

If more drivers switched seats to a bicycle, there would be immediate and tangible benefits on the road. Widespread adoption of bike commuting could improve public health through increased physical activity and reduced carbon emissions, as well as ease the burden on congested roads. However different lifestyle demands, physical ableness, and varied topography create an unequal playing field that prevents many from replacing their car trips.

Electric bicycles (e-bikes) are a relatively new mode of transportation that could bridge this gap. If substituted for car use, e-bikes could substantially improve efficiency in the transportation system while creating a more inclusive biking culture for people of all ages and abilities.

A newly published NITC study by John MacArthur of...