Portland State University (PSU) students are once again transforming ideas into action through Better Block PSU, a program that brings community-driven transportation and placemaking projects to life. Three Better Block PSU projects made forward strides this year, thanks to teams of students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Capstone program and the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program.

Last year, we reported on two of the projects:

• A Bridgeless Interval: Better Block PSU Reimagines Burnside Street
• Better Block PSU Gives International School of Portland a Neighborhood Makeover

These two have both made additional forward progress, and we also have updates on a third project, in which PSU students improved bicycle and pedestrian access to Vancouver, Washington's Amtrak Station. Read more about each of the projects below, and visit the Better Block PSU page to learn more about the program overall.

Reimagining Sheridan Street

The International School of Portland has been working with Better Block PSU to improve walking and biking access to the school's campus. In 2024, urban planning students engaged with the local community and developed design alternatives. Building upon their work, a team of civil engineering capstone students developed five potential design solutions for the area.

The goals include enhancing pedestrian safety, achieving Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, expanding bike lane access, and aligning with the City of Portland’s transportation objectives. Students Derek Leland, Dinah Sosa-Martinez, Mohammad Alenezi, Zahra Alramadhan, and Revanah Polus developed five design options to balance safety improvements, construction feasibility, and aesthetics. They are:

• Advisory Bike Lane: Enhances connectivity and promotes alternative transportation by delineating space for cyclists.
• Continuous Sidewalk: Provides a safe, accessible, ADA-compliant pedestrian pathway by connecting fragmented sidewalks and adding crosswalks.
• Three-Way Stop: Slows traffic and improves pedestrian visibility at a key intersection near ISP.
• Bike Exit off Harrison Street: Facilitates smoother transitions for cyclists between bike paths and sidewalks, encouraging cycling.
• Temporary Traffic Control (TTC) plan: Implemented as a first phase to test interim solutions and raise awareness for long-term improvements.

Bodo Heiliger, Head of the International School, expressed gratitude for the team's work. "Your presentation was on-point, and you truly have formed the foundation for us to move this project forward," Heiliger said.

Bridgeless Burnside

Building upon last year's reimagining of Burnside street done by PSU urban planning students, this project was picked up and moved forward by a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) workshop team. Students Michael Azierski, Brian Bill, Eric Gasper, Alex Gill, Jackson Morrison, and Michel Rojas developed plans to create a multimodal corridor which would highlight the cultural and economic amenities of West Burnside Street during the upcoming Burnside Bridge closure.

The goals of the project were to create a pedestrian-friendly corridor, support economic and cultural vitality, enhance community identity in the neighborhood, and prioritize historically marginalized communities and mitigate displacement. Working with neighborhood stakeholders and cultural organizations, the MURP team held several community engagement charrettes and developed a set of recommendations.

For the "bridgeless phase" of Burnside, which is expected to be between 2028 and 2033, the team developed designs to activate West Burnside and reduce economic and cultural disruptions during the bridge closure. These include a temporary plaza between 2nd and 2rd Avenues, with street furniture, planter boxes, and wayfinding signage; and a street plaza in the northbound right turn lane on 4th Avenue. This would convert an empty lot into a flexible program space for cultural events. The team also recommended sites for specific street treatments including raised intersections, bike lanes, bus-only lanes, new bike boxes and bus stops, and other infrastructure improvements. 

Once the new bridge is in place, a second set of designs address longstanding safety and livability issues and bring lasting activation to the space. On a network level, the changes are aimed at improving connectivity and safety across the entire project focus area, while improving comfort and safety at key intersection crossings. The "New Bridge Phase" of the project includes changes to Broadway including additional tree canopy, murals and public art, a planter-box community garden, and a small structure with restrooms, power access, and other amenities. Meanwhile, 10th Avenue would see a priority placed on foot traffic and a set of pocket parts, shade structures, and other amenities to make the space more inviting and welcoming to pedestrians.

See the group's final public presentation and learn about other 2025 MURP workshop projects.

Vancouver Amtrak Station

Working with Better Block PDX on behalf of the City of Vancouver, WA, a team of civil engineering students focused their capstone project on improving pedestrian and bicycle access to the Vancouver Amtrak Station. Students Valentina Castellanoes Ramirez, Matthew Samsom, Ike Agum, and Blu Luz began with a thorough analysis of existing site conditions and stakeholder needs, then evaluated a range of design alternatives.

The study area includes two primary corridors connecting the Amtrak station—located near the Esther Short neighborhood and Columbia River—to downtown Vancouver and the waterfront district. Current conditions present challenges such as inadequate pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, non-compliant Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ramps, and poor stormwater management. The project aimed to enhance multimodal access, improve safety, and create a more inclusive and efficient experience for all users.

The team developed multiple design alternatives with varying costs, lifespans, and feasibility. Their final recommendations prioritize a set of low-cost, easily implemented improvements—such as signage, wayfinding aids, shared lane markings (sharrows), and visual cues—to address immediate connectivity and safety issues while laying the groundwork for future infrastructure investments.

See their final Design Report for more details.

Value For Community Partners

Working with the Better Block PSU program gives community organizations the chance to test bold ideas for safer, more vibrant streets with the support of PSU students and faculty. Through hands-on design, tactical urbanism projects, and community engagement, organizations gain both a proof of concept and the momentum needed to advocate for lasting change. PSU students' work on the Bridgeless Burnside project has been included in the Governor's Central City taskforce report as well as Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) workplans.

"The students' work completed in USP 465/565, USP 511, and culminating in the Bridgeless to Better Burnside MURP Workshop project has continued to generate positive conversations amongst elected leaders and staff," said Ryan Hashagen, Better Block PDX Managing Director.

Interested in having PSU students take on design challenges for your neighborhood? The Better Block PSU program has an annual call for community organizations to reimagine their streets and underused public spaces in a way to bring people together and reclaim it for their community’s future. Join the Better Block PSU email list to be notified when the next RFP opens in early 2026.

Value For Students

For students, Better Block PSU offers real-world experience in urban design and community engagement, allowing them to apply classroom knowledge to hands-on projects. They gain valuable skills in collaboration, project management, and placemaking while being able to make a tangible impact on local neighborhoods.

"Reminiscing on my time in college, the BetterBlockPDX classes were by far the most impactful and inspiring courses I have taken," said Steven Lowe, who worked on the Better Routes to International School project. 

"Working with Better Block PSU was one of the most educational parts of my planning education. I gained real-world experience interpreting planning documents like the zoning code, city plans and initiatives, and design guidelines. I’ve successfully referenced this work in cover letters, and it’s been extremely helpful to have concrete experiences to draw from," said Michael Azierski, a member of the Bridgeless Burnside MURP team. 

"The  Better Block PSU program offered everything I hoped for in terms of building skills in research, writing, and design, and the opportunity to apply theories from graduate courses to a real and immediate planning challenge was invaluable. Beyond that, I was able to expand my network of activists and changemakers in the Portland area and get a glimpse of the social and political forces that really make things happen," said Eric Gasper, another member of the MURP team.

The latest updates from these three projects underscore how Better Block PSU continues to serve as a powerful bridge between academia and community, helping Portland State fulfill its mission to Let Knowledge Serve The City and helping neighborhoods envision safer, more inclusive, and more vibrant public spaces.

Four new projects took their first steps down the Better Block PSU Project Pathway, this Spring term at Portland State. Submitted by community members, the projects got underway with students beginning to investigate their potential in the Spring 2025 Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning course taught by Drusilla Van Hengel and Ryan Hashagen.

The Better Block PSU program has been getting a bit of attention in recent months, with coverage such as "Dreaming Big Might Mean Starting Small" from the Portland Mercury, a BikePortland article, plus Better Block PDX managing director Ryan Hashagen's presentation, "Let Knowledge Serve The City And Beyond," at The Street Trust's Oregon Active Transportation Summit last month. So we're extra excited to welcome four new projects and see where they go.

Several community-led projects are moving through the pathway at any given time, and no two take the exact same path. For example, the Bridgeless Burnside project went through two terms of transportation planning and engineering classes in 2024 before being picked up by a Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) workshop team last fall, whose goal is to deliver a 90-percent complete plan to Better Block PDX by June of 2025. Meanwhile, other student groups have been working on plans and designs for the Steel Bridge Skatepark and the International School of Portland.

The newest projects to launch this spring are:

Alternative Pedestrian Walkways 

Project champion: Gena Gastaldi, Pedestrian Realm Coordinator, Complete Streets team, Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT)

Goal: Identify promising sites for alternative pedestrian walkways in Portland.

The City of Portland's Pedestrian Design Guide provides detailed guidance on "alternative pedestrian walkways" in places where standard sidewalks cannot be installed. The treatment is a painted walkway for pedestrians (with or without physical barriers) on the shoulder of the road or on the street similar to a bike lane. As part of its PedPDX strategies, PBOT is looking for opportunities to implement this treatment when geography, topography, or neighborhood preference do not allow a traditional concrete sidewalk to be constructed. 

Two groups of students took on the task this Spring, with one group focusing on Northeast Portland and a second group in Southwest Portland. Students have created an Existing Conditions Report for each neighborhood and selected potential sites that would be good candidates for alternative pedestrian walkways.

Northeast Lloyd Carfree Block 

Project champion: Joshua Baker, Lloyd EcoDistrict

Goal: Activate a public space for the community.

In the NE Wasco St and NE 6th Ave area, there is some potential for improving a public space. The project's original proposal describes the space as "underutilized," saying that "through extensive community engagement for our 2030 Neighborhood Roadmap, residents have repeatedly voiced the need for more access to green spaces, play areas, and healthy food options—especially community gardens… A redesign of one of the blocks by the site would help transform this overlooked and underutilized space into a vibrant, community-centered area."

In the Spring term so far, students have conducted site observations and data collection to create a memo of the existing conditions within a four-block area in Portland’s Lloyd District, where the potential for a temporary parklet or community garden installation is being explored. The report considers the feasibility of placing a community garden or parklet, and includes an overview of neighborhood demographics, relevant traffic data, and key insights from six hours of field observation conducted over a two-week period. These findings aim to provide a clear understanding of existing uses, mobility patterns, and community context within the location.

East Burnside Corridor

Project champions: Strong Towns PDX, Kerns Neighborhood Association

Goal: Re-envision the corridor of 20th to 28th on East Burnside.

The intersection of 28th and East Burnside sits at the boundary line between the Buckman neighborhood and the Kerns neighborhood. The aim of this project is to improve the corridor's bike and pedestrian access, connections to neighborhood greenways, and crossings to make the 20mph, school-dense neighborhood more walkable.

Two groups of students have each taken on a section of the 20th to 28th corridor. Students have so far created detailed reports on the existing conditions for each section, identifying the area's history, planning context, demographics and safety considerations as well as crafting a set of metrics to assess the success of any improvements made. The types of improvements being considered include improved daylighting, traffic calming measures, enhanced pedestrian and bicycle crossings and transit priority areas.

Southeast Henry Street 

Project champion: Catie Tam, Woodstock Neighborhood Association - Neighborhood Accessibility Committee

Goal: Improve Lewis Elementary School Access.

In the Woodstock neighborhood, Southeast Henry Street is a Safe Routes to School Priority Investment Route. An unimproved roadway connects parts of the neighborhood to Lewis Elementary School, with limited access especially in muddy conditions. The neighborhood association has previously reached out to PBOT to ask if this segment of Henry Street could be converted into a pedestrian/cyclist only path. PBOT gave permission to install motor vehicle traffic diverters at each end of the block which would still allow pedestrians and cyclists. However, a lack of funding support has made pedestrian and bicycle improvements difficult to implement. A redesign of this road segment would connect the area and create an easier way for families to get to school.

Students explored the area's history and context, conducting site observations and data collection over the course of the term. They identified the neighborhood's demographics, crash patterns and traffic volumes, and the main issues and needs of the area, finding that a stable pathway and safe cycling facilities would improve the potential for year-round use of the road segment.

What's next for the new projects?

The existing conditions reports, created by students for all of the above projects, are a crucial first step and starting point for any community improvement effort. By collecting data and analyzing each of the sites, students have created a foundational document for each project area that can serve as a comprehensive snapshot of the physical, environmental, social, and infrastructural conditions at each location and help planners, engineers, and designers make informed decisions.

What's next for the new projects? It remains to be seen - Flexibility and adaptability are key aspects of the Better Block PSU program, so next steps will depend on the projects' needs and course capacities.

Learn more about the Better Block PSU program.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is a multidisciplinary hub for all things transportation. We are home to the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), the data programs PORTAL and BikePed Portal, the Better Block PSU program, and PSU's membership in PacTrans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium. Our continuing goal is to produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education, seminars, and participation in research. To get updates about what's happening at TREC, sign up for our monthly newsletter or follow us on social media. 

The Better Block PSU program at Portland State University (PSU) has opened our annual call for community organizations to reimagine their streets and underused public spaces in a way to bring people together and reclaim it for their community’s future. 

A partnership between the public spaces advocacy nonprofit Better Block PDX and the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at PSU, students in the Better Block PSU program have developed plans and designs for many community-driven projects that promote equitable placemaking, community building, and active transportation–including the well-known Better Naito project. What began as a PSU student-led initiative for safer and higher capacity bicycle and pedestrian facilities along the Waterfront Park, has gained so much public support that it was permanently implemented by the City of Portland.

Integrated into PSU planning and engineering classes, these projects can be powerful demonstrations of community-led ideas.

Do you have an idea for a project that could help activate space for your community? Submit your proposals by March 10, 2025. Selected projects are eligible for grant funding up to $1,000. You can find the application and more information on the Better Block PSU webpage.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is a multidisciplinary hub for all things transportation. We are home to the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), the data programs PORTAL and BikePed Portal, the Better Block PSU program, and PSU's membership in PacTrans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium.

Better Block PDX is a local non profit dedicated to reimagining public spaces using temporary traffic control. Collaborating on the Better Block PSU program, we bring together community groups, public officials, and PSU students to test out new uses of our public right of ways. 

As plans move forward for an earthquake-ready replacement of Portland's Burnside Bridge, several Portland neighborhood associations and the Better Block PSU program are taking the opportunity to reimagine a segment of West Burnside street. 

With bridge closure and construction anticipated to begin as early as 2026 and last for several years, the temporary period of reduced traffic on Burnside will offer a unique chance for the neighborhood to test out some designs and placemaking strategies aimed at making the area more people-friendly.

"Currently, West Burnside street acts as a barrier separating the northwest and southwest portions of the Central City from each other, and discouraging movement between them," said Xavier Stickler, chair of the Downtown Neighborhood Association's Land Use and Transportation Committee. He, along with Sean Sweat of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association and Mary-Rain O'Meara of the Old Town Community Association Board, applied to the Better Block PSU program to request the assistance of Portland State University students with connecting those neighborhoods and making Burnside more pedestrian friendly.

"We can use the closure period as a test bed; a pilot for what we want the street to be in the future," Stickler said.

In the Spring term of this year, students in a Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning course began investigating the area, outlining possible design approaches and drafting a public engagement plan. As we head into the Fall term, students in an Active Transportation Studio course will build upon that work. Meanwhile, the neighborhood associations are in the process of reaching out to adjacent businesses to get their ideas and feedback as well.

"Grounded in this project is the recognition that we've already got some challenges in our neighborhood. We want more foot traffic and ground floor activation. We want there to be better connectivity between downtown and Old Town. Now we're going to have a major thoroughfare close for at least five years. So how can we be proactive about looking at opportunities for improvement and engagement during that time? That's why we've been really excited to engage with the students," O'Meara said.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR?

Students in the Spring 2024 course created a set of preliminary materials for the project:

• Existing Conditions Report
• Public Participation Plan
• Project Decisions and Performance Measures

The team members were Joshua Miller, a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) student; Shane Morrison a Post-Baccalaureate student studying Community Development & Sustainable Urban Development; Ilan Gerould, an undergraduate studying Geography and Cartography; and Alex Gill, a dual graduate student in the MURP and PSU-OHSU Masters of Public Health programs.

At the start of the term, the team met with project champions Stickler, Sweat and O'Meara as well as Ryan Hashagen, one of the community volunteers leading Better Block PDX, who was able to introduce them to more community stakeholders.

"Our next step was to do some observations, so we did a few bicycle and pedestrian counts on the street in different locations. Basically starting at the park blocks and moving towards the bridge, we sat at three intersections along that segment just to see what kind of activity was going on there and what we would expect to change during the project when the bridge is down," Morrison said.

Zeroing in on two locations along Burnside—the Park Blocks and Third Avenue—the team outlined several possible design approaches.

The most ambitious option for the park blocks includes a shared bike and bus only lane in each direction, buffered by bollards from car traffic, with parklets, food carts, pedestrian-scale lighting and raised crosswalks. A second option also focuses on the park blocks, with relatively more easily implementable changes that would still improve safety and human connectivity.

For Third Avenue, the students proposed removing a right turn lane in front of Dante’s and turning it into a public parklet, as well as expanding the median and painting a street mural in the intersection.

A final option, which the students termed "Burnside Sunday Parkways," would include temporary placemaking installations to enhance Portland Sunday Parkways. In this scenario, local businesses and organizations could partner with the city to provide cultural programming, create educational opportunities, and prepare for increased business activity along with the increase in bike and pedestrian traffic.

Gill was excited to work on this project because they travel along that stretch of Burnside street on a daily basis. "That's where I do most of my drive to work. So I'm interested in improving it for obvious reasons. If you're making pedestrian friendly spaces, that's also helpful for drivers. Having physical barriers to slow cars down and tell them, this is not a space that's entirely just for you? I want that as a driver," Gill said.

WHAT'S NEXT?

There are three phases of the Better Block PSU project pathway.

Phase 1—Spring term 2024: In this phase, students Miller, Morrison, Gerould and Gill worked with the project champions to conduct activity and behavior monitoring in the area, collect data, and develop the community engagement plans and performance measures.

Phase 2—Fall term 2024: This fall, students in the Active Transportation Planning and Design Studio will develop design alternatives and cost estimates.

Phase 3—Winter and Spring term 2025: In the final phase, the project will move from the Urban Studies and Planning department to the Civil Engineering department. A student or students in civil engineering will use their capstone project to develop an engineering plan with designs and other materials that can help with the city permitting process.

Bridgeless Burnside is one of two Better Block PSU projects currently making its way along this pathway; the other is a redesign of South Sheridan Street on behalf of the International School of Portland.

Image from Google Streetview

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research. To get updates about what's going on at TREC, sign up for our monthly newsletter or follow us on social media.

Not far from Portland State University, down a little road tucked under three highway overpasses, sits the International School of Portland (ISP)—a leafy four-acre campus serving nearly 400 students from preschool to fifth grade. Despite its proximity to popular pedestrian areas, including the Downtown Waterfront, the International School of Portland is nestled amongst a few private blocks and can be difficult to access by foot or by bike. Naturally, most students arrive by car, which creates the familiar traffic jam at pickup and dropoff times.

To provide more transportation options and give the students more access to the school's surrounding neighborhood, Portland State University students are working to improve walking and biking access to the campus. Championed by ISP’s volunteer Green Team, Facilities Manager Steven Borcherding, and Head of School ​​Bodo Heiliger, the project is now about one-third of the way through the Better Block PSU Project Pathway. Progress so far looks promising: PSU students in the 2024 Spring term spent time engaging with ISP’s school community and investigating the features of the neighborhood. This fall, PSU students in the Active Transportation Planning and Design Studio course (for which enrollment is open now) will delve further into the nuts and bolts of potential designs.

By the time the project crosses the finish line, the goal is to have a complete engineering plan for viable and affordable biking and walking facilities. Having an existing plan should make it much easier for the school to work with the city to implement the changes.

GOALS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF PORTLAND

The focus of the project is a small stretch of South Sheridan Street, under the Interstate 5 on-ramp and Interstate 405. The highway overpasses create a unique access obstacle, partly because of the lack of sidewalks on a road under multiple overpasses, but also because cars exiting the highway are entering the small road at close to highway speeds. There is also no accessibility for individuals in wheelchairs or with any mobility challenges.

The area is frequented by people who park there and walk to the South Waterfront along South Moody Avenue, where they can find multiple transit and micromobility options by the car-free Tilikum Bridge Crossing. Some of them are students and staff of downtown employers like nearby Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Connecting this stretch of Sheridan to the International School of Portland would also improve general access to the facilities on South Moody, and greater connectivity between the different parts of downtown.

"Ultimately, we see this as a great opportunity to beautify and create a safe access route for our entire neighborhood," said Heiliger. Based on a recommendation from a parent, he and Facilities Manager Borcherding are the ones who reached out to TREC with their project proposal for the Better Block PSU program.

Why turn to PSU students? 

There are many reasons. There is no cost to work with PSU transportation planning and engineering students in Better Block PSU, and the work the students produce can help community members navigate permitting processes and propose informed solutions to be implemented. Additionally, working with the students and engaging with neighborhood stakeholders is a form of community building, and in line with ISP's values of education to help students inquire, take action, and learn from real-world experiences.

WHAT WORK HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR?

Early in the Spring term of 2024, a group of students in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning course met with Heiliger and Borcherding to discuss the project. The team members were:

• Evan Howington, a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) student who also works as a graduate research assistant on other projects for TREC;
• Shotaro Kato, an exchange student from Japan and an undergraduate in Urban and Public Affairs;
• Steven Lowe, a senior-year undergraduate in Urban and Public Affairs;
• Tristan Stretch, a graduate student in the Graduate Certificate for Transportation program.

After getting a sense of what the International School of Portland was hoping for, the group examined the history of the area to understand how it came to be. The road and the little patch of land under the overpasses are specifically mentioned in highway planning documents going back as far as the 1980s, but these spaces have not been meaningfully utilized in the years since. Team member Tristan Stretch felt good about helping to rectify a long-ignored situation that directly involves young schoolchildren.

"They're kids. They deserve safety and a nice enjoyable space to learn and grow," said Stretch.

The team came up with three main deliverables over the course of the term:

• Existing Conditions Report – This report offers an overview of the site, including its planning history, land use, weather, and surrounding features. Students also conducted manual counts to identify how many bicycles, pedestrians and cars use the street during peak times of day.
• Public participation plan – This report includes a project impact analysis and sample outreach materials, as well as a comprehensive public participation strategy.
• Project Decisions and Performance Measures – This report defines the goals and objectives of the project, outlined below, along with design ideas. It also includes a decision matrix to evaluate the designs based on cost, time, accessibility, and how each design meets the needs of the school.

"Working with the PSU students and the university has been great; everyone is very flexible and curious to find solutions. This tiny little underpass by ISP creates a great deal of congestion, so this is a chance to bring our community together around a vision and expand safe access not only to our school but to the South Waterfront," Heiliger said.

If this project results in an easy walking connection from ISP to South Moody, that would open up brand-new transit options for parents who currently drive in from all over the metro area.

"We didn't record anyone that took public transit to school, only cyclists and pedestrians that were walking to school from a car, or from home. We made a map of the zip codes that people are driving from; some people come from as far as Vancouver, Washington. They drive that far just for the International School of Portland. Yet they are so close to so much transit," said Lowe.

WHAT'S NEXT?

There are three phases of the Better Block PSU project pathway each year.

Phase 1—Spring term 2024: Students in a Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning course work with the project champions to develop community engagement plans, activity and behavior monitoring, data collection plans, and performance measures.

Howington, Kato, Lowe and Stretch have completed this phase. This Fall, the South Sheridan Street project will move on to phase two.

Phase 2—Fall term 2024: Students in the Active Transportation Planning and Design Studio develop design alternatives and cost estimates.

This Fall, the Active Transportation Planning and Design Studio course may include some members of the group who worked on the project in the Spring term, continuing to develop what they started, while other students may be new to the project. 

Phase 3—Spring term 2025: A year after it first began, the project will be ready to move on to the final phase: the engineering capstone. In this phase, student(s) in the civil engineering program will develop an engineering plan that includes design alternatives, a traffic control plan, and other materials that can assist with the city permitting process.

"The Better Block PSU process is really cool because it starts broad and democratic, and then you get to the point where you can get the shovel out and actually do it," Howington said.

For the South Sheridan street redesign, it is anticipated that an engineering capstone student will take on this element of the project in early 2025.

MORE ABOUT BETTER BLOCK PSU 

Better Block PSU is a partnership between volunteer-led group Better Block PDX and Portland State University. Projects are submitted by community members, and can range from short-term demonstration projects—like the Montgomery Street Pop-Up Plaza on the PSU campus—to long-lasting changes like Better Naito, a student design which was first implemented in 2015 on a temporary basis and later made permanent. 

A more recent success story is the Steel Bridge Skatepark, which was designed by PSU students in 2023 and funded by the City of Portland in 2024. Construction of the park is ongoing. 

Read about other Better Block PSU projects here.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research. To get updates about what's going on at TREC, sign up for our monthly newsletter or follow us on social media.

Portland's Old Town neighborhood is getting a new skatepark, and a team of PSU transportation students were instrumental in bringing the project from idea to reality. 

Given the project of activating a vacant lot on the west side of the Steel Bridge by transforming it into a community skatepark, students in the Spring 2023 bike-pedestrian planning class created a set of design options, a weighted decision matrix, and a memorandum of existing conditions for the site. They also developed performance measures to determine how best to meet the project's objectives of activating the space, creating a welcoming environment, and stimulating local business activity.

Their work provided a basis for ongoing conversations with stakeholders around the project, which ultimately resulted in a green light: Funding for the new skatepark was announced in January by Commissioner Dan Ryan, who oversees Portland Parks & Recreation. Work is slated to begin this spring on property acquisition, community engagement and design of the 35,000 square foot facility.

"Getting to see this skatepark regularly as I navigate the city will be a nice reminder of why I entered the planning field to begin with," said Lise Ferguson, a student who worked on the project.

The Steel Bridge Skatepark is just the latest of many successful projects to come out of the Better Block PSU project pathway: a process in which community leaders are connected with PSU planning and engineering students to design and implement community-driven projects in public spaces. Each Better Block PSU project has a project "champion" who serves as the point of contact between students, faculty, and external stakeholders.

The 2024 Better Block PSU RFP is open now. Have an idea to reimagine an underused public space in your neighborhood? Submit your project idea by March 11.

The project champion for the Steel Bridge Skatepark is Ryan Hashagen, director of the Steel Bridge Skatepark Coalition. He is also one of the community volunteers leading Better Block PDX, and has long been a proponent of the PSU project pathway.

"The Steel Bridge Skatepark Coalition utilized the amazing work of PSU Urban Planning students to further conversations around access opportunities, existing conditions, and stakeholder engagement with Portland Parks, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and City Hall. The PSU Better Block Project Pathway helped move the Steel Bridge Skatepark concept towards reality as PSU Students let their 'Knowledge Serve the City,'" Hashagen said.

The PSU Project Team

The PSU Steel Bridge Skatepark Team consisted of Urban Studies & Planning students Anchal Erachankandy Cheruvari, Summer Cook, Lise Ferguson, Andrew Napurano, Elias Peters, Symeon Walker, and Gabriel Quiñones-Zambrana.

Lise Ferguson, a second-year Master of Urban & Regional Planning (MURP) candidate who also works as an engineering intern at the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), was the project lead. She is intrigued with the concept of providing more accessible "third places," or public locations where people go to socialize or relax in between work and home.

"I am interested in ways to add more 'third places' to urban areas that are not necessarily commercial-based. While we tend to prioritize the revitalization of downtown's economic health, it is also important to activate the space by making it appealing to a wide variety of people, not just those who travel downtown to spend money," Ferguson said.

During their information-gathering stage, the student team spent time at the proposed site of the future skatepark, just being still and observing the area.

"These field observations were a new experience for me, and I learned a lot that you can't from combing through data alone—like learning the travel paths pedestrians and cyclists favored, and how that might impact the accessibility and visibility of the skatepark," Ferguson said.

The partnership between PSU students and community project leaders has obvious benefits for both sides: students gain work experience, and partnering organizations get free research and consulting. However, the collaboration brings an additional perk that's harder to define. Ideas from students can be like a breath of fresh air for the industry.

"Fresh in our minds are concepts of equity and theory, which I think are easy to lose focus on as planners get further into their professional careers," Ferguson said.

More Better Block PSU Success Stories

Grounded in tactical urbanism and pop-up demonstration projects, the Better Block PSU project pathway made a name for itself through projects like Better Naito, Better Broadway, and the Ankeny Alley/SW 3rd Plaza project. Since being officially added to the PSU curriculum in 2019, the program has continued to make its local impact felt. Below are just a few recent projects that moved through the Better Block PSU pathway:

• Safety Improvements to Hood River Middle School (Implemented in 2022)
• Re-Imagining a Safer Route to the César Chávez School (Implemented in 2021)
• SW Madison Bus Lanes (Built by PBOT)
• MLK/Grand Bus Lanes (Built by PBOT)
• Burnside Bridge Bus Lanes and Protected Bike Lanes (Built by PBOT)

Inviting PSU students in on the planning and design stages of projects like these both embodies PSU's role as an urban research university, and offers a shift from the status quo with a ground-up approach. The Better Block PSU program encourages everyone to imagine what spaces could be when they are designed for people.

Left image courtesy of PSU Steel Bridge Skatepark Team / Right image from Google Street View

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research. To get updates about what's going on at TREC, sign up for our monthly newsletter or follow us on social media.

The Better Block PSU program at Portland State University (PSU) has opened the annual call for community organizations to reimagine their streets and underused public spaces in a way to bring people together and reclaim it for their community’s future. 

A partnership between the public spaces advocacy nonprofit Better Block PDX and the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at PSU, students in the Better Block PSU program have developed plans and designs for many community-driven projects that promote equitable placemaking, community building, and active transportation–including the well-known Better Naito project. What began as a PSU student-led initiative for safer and higher capacity bicycle and pedestrian facilities along the Waterfront Park, has gained so much public support that it was permanently implemented by the City of Portland.

Integrated into PSU planning and engineering classes, these projects can be powerful demonstrations of community-led ideas.

Do you have an idea for a project that could help activate space for your community? Submit your proposals by March 11, 2024. Selected projects are eligible for grant funding up to $1,000. You can find the application and more information on the Better Block PSU webpage.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. Better Block PDX is a local non profit dedicated to reimagining public spaces using temporary traffic control. Collaborating on the Better Block PSU program, we bring together community groups, public officials, and PSU students to test out new uses of our public right of ways. 

Each year, Portland State University (PSU)'s graduating seniors work on capstone projects: community-based learning experiences throughout the Portland metropolitan region and beyond. This past spring, two student groups in the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science focused their capstone projects on sustainable transportation, and we'd like to take a moment to highlight their outstanding work. Both projects were completed as part of the Civil Engineering Project Management and Design course taught by PSU instructor Patrick McLaughlin, and each takes a different approach to enhancing safety and accessibility for people walking and riding bicycles in Portland. Read on to learn more about the students and their projects.

BikeLoud Day: Living Streets Downtown

Team: Rashid Abdussamad, Christian Galiza, Karla Real Gonzalez, Nomin Lyons, Zachary Person and Franklyn Santos

Client: BikeLoudPDX

BikeLoud PDX, a Portland-based bicycle advocacy nonprofit, initiated the "Living Streets Downtown" project as part of their continued efforts to encourage a car-free lifestyle and increase the number of cyclists in the city. In the summer of 2023, the organization is hosting "BikeLoud Day," an end-of-the-season event starting with an assembly to petition the city to follow through with its 2030 Bicycle Plan. The event is an opportunity to bring together carbon neutral transportation users in the city. But how do transportation advocates organize such an event?

The BikeLoud/Living Streets capstone team assisted their client by investigating the objectives, engineering analysis, permits, and other considerations necessary for BikeLoud Day to take place. Their final Design Report, BikeLoud Day: Living Streets Downtown, includes an overview of the regulatory compliance and permitting requirements, an analysis of four possible locations for it to be held, and a Traffic Control Plan – a requirement for any temporary activity that will disrupt the normal flow of traffic. The proposed event plan and temporary design they came up with aims to promote a car-free lifestyle, increase cycling opportunities, and create a safe and accessible traffic space for the event.

"The vision for Living Streets is really rooted in the belief that our cities should be designed to have people in mind. Through prioritizing active transportation modes such as biking and walking, we can foster healthier, more inclusive and environmentally friendly communities," said team member Zachary Person.

See the final design report: BikeLoud Day: Living Streets Downtown.

Learn more about the project in a project summary posted on LinkedIn by team member Nomin Lyons.

Waterhouse Trail Multimodal Intersection Design

Team: Mouhamad Taha, Joseph Lyon, Valentin Gashongore, Ahmad Alfadhli, Nabin Bhattarai and Juan Merida

Client: Washington County, Oregon

In Beaverton, Oregon, an intersection improvement project at NW Cornell Rd and Bethany Blvd aims to make the intersection more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Waterhouse Trail runs through the intersection, so Washington County is seeking multimodal solutions to improve safety. The students created a new intersection design using data from Numina sensors recently installed by Washington County.

"The Numina sensors let us select data by mode and see their patterns, and how people are currently navigating the intersection. It's been particularly useful for us to see how bikes are going through the intersection: Are they going through in the bike lane? Are they using the sidewalk or trail? Are they crossing like a pedestrian or a vehicle? That path is one of the things that the sensors provide us. So with that data, we asked the students to envision, what if we could redesign the whole intersection? What would that look like?" said Shelley Oylear, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for Washington County.

The capstone group proposed a new design with a range of measures including widening bike lanes and sidewalks, adding safety signage and a raised crosswalk, and installing bike boxes. By eliminating a left turn lane, the students freed up space to add two bike lanes (one in each direction) on NW Bethany Ct. Another proposed change is to reduce the size of a northbound travel lane on Bethany Blvd.

"Looking at the north end of the intersection, it has …a super wide one-way northbound travel lane. We're proposing a new design which maximizes that space, so we're using a lot of that space from the northbound travel lane and implementing it on the southbound side. We're proposing widening up that sidewalk and adding a traffic signal as well as a pedestrian push button signal," said team member and project manager Valentin Gashongore.

The team's final design report contains an alternatives analysis, information on regulatory compliance, their design development process, and aerial views of the intersection with details on the existing conditions and proposed design features.

See the final design report: Waterhouse Trail Multimodal Intersection Design Project. 

Learn more about the Waterhouse Trail Intersection Redesign in a project summary posted on LinkedIn by team member Nabin Bhattarai.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research.

In the 1970's, Portland had a dream: to create a "pleasurable human environment" by giving space to people rather than cars. Several car-free areas were identified in the city's ambitious 1972 Downtown Plan, approved by city council at the time.

Four Portland State University (PSU) students took that dream a little further this year. In the Fall 2022 term, Cameron Bennett, Owen Christofferson, Emily D’Antonio and Aidan Simpson created a Downtown Portland Living Streets Plan centered around a new street typology for Portland: Living Streets.

Like the public plazas common in cities outside the US, living streets are defined by slow speeds and shared space. But unlike European old towns, Dutch Woonerfs or Barcelona's Superblocks, Living Streets were designed specifically with Portland in mind. Bennett describes them as "a pedestrian-focused equivalent to the neighborhood greenways in Portland: Not explicitly car-free, but kind of implicitly. It's a street where through the design it's shown that it's a space for pedestrians first and cars second: a street where people can feel comfortable lingering, mingling, and enjoying being in public space."

The class was Active Transportation Planning and Design Studio, an urban studies & planning course taught by PSU instructors Derek Abe and Kirk Paulsen. As part of the course, students create plans for real-world clients. The client for this group was Cathy Tuttle, an urban planning consultant & community organizer of BikeLoud PDX. Learn more about her connection to the project in this 2022 PSU Transportation Seminar: Why Your City Needs a Car Master Plan.

WHAT'S IN THE DOWNTOWN PORTLAND LIVING STREETS PLAN

Living Streets are defined in the plan as streets that "support street life and a high density of commercial and residential activity through extensive traffic calming, pedestrian-scale design, and activation of the streetscape." They are distinct from another familiar concept, Complete Streets, because they have no dedicated automobile-only traffic lanes. Flexibility and adaptability is built into the concept, making such changes less committing than they may initially seem for political leaders and community members alike.

"It wasn't just one type of street that we imagined. We realized that there are different types of living streets for different use cases, and different places in downtown Portland," Christofferson said.

The plan suggests that PBOT adopt a new street typology with explicit guidelines to reduce vehicle volumes, amplify crossing opportunities, and design for accessibility, safety, and vibrancy rather than for throughput. A standardized toolkit for Living Streets could streamline the planning and design process for new pedestrianized spaces throughout the city, reducing the barriers to wholesale street design changes.

The students first referred to the 1972 plan with an eye toward updating and modernizing it, doing a corridor-level analysis rather than an area-level analysis. Based on this work, their Portland Downtown Living Streets Plan is an effort to create a network of pedestrian-oriented streets within the downtown core. The plan identifies twelve "opportunity areas" and provides specific design elements for four of them: Old Town, the Burnside Wedge, the Extended Halprin Sequence (a continuation of the original Halprin Sequence, a series of fountains and parks connected by pedestrian pathways), and the Transit Mall.

Starting with an overview of existing conditions for each of the four areas, the students propose designs for facilities to improve access. These include plaza activation through public art, street furniture and food trucks; moveable bollards to define access areas at different times; shortened pedestrian crossings; the replacement of automobile travel lanes with alternative uses of curb space; and other features. See the full plan for details.

A GOOD TIME TO EMBRACE A NEW STREET

"There's a lot of conversation about revitalizing downtown, and that means different things to different people. Some discussions are on houselessness, some are on transportation, some are discussions around economic vitality. I think that a vision like this promotes a lot of those goals. This is a way to revitalize downtown. That, you know, is well proven. These sorts of car-free streets are not a new concept. I think this is potentially really powerful, specifically in Portland," Bennett said.

Group member Owen Christofferson concurs that the time is ripe for a reimagining of downtown. "We're at this very interesting point in the pandemic; Portland's downtown has struggled a lot recently, and is in need of some out-of-the-box thinking. There's the potential for a real blank-slate reimagining of what downtown could be, in the wake of this massive global event that has really changed a lot of the ways cities interact with their own downtowns. It's good timing for innovative thinking in that part of the city," Christofferson said.

Known for its "Let Knowledge Serve the City" motto, Portland State University places great emphasis on students learning by doing. The benefits of this educational model are easy to see on the students' side; they gain professional experience that can lead to career opportunities. On the clients' side however, there are significant gains as well. By doing this downtown plan as a class project, the students were unconstrained by permits or regulations, and were free to dream big. 

“One major constraint of the course is the short, 10-week time span that students have to complete their planning projects. That leaves very little time for a meaningful real-world community and stakeholder engagement process, so we ask the students to present us with a strategy for advancing those efforts, framing it as guidance for their community partners. In this way, they are creating the road map for their community partners and clients to advance this work beyond the end of the term,” Abe said. 

"Not having as much community input, you can really imagine whatever you want. It makes projects like this more fun, because you can reach out to [professionals] and they're willing to talk with you. They're ready to try and give you inspiration and work with you," D'Antonio said. 

Having been conceived in this environment of creative freedom doesn't mean that there's no chance of any part of the plan eventually being implemented. Sure, "the plan as a whole probably won't get adopted," D'Antonio said, but "there are pieces of it that, if it gets into the right hands of the right stakeholders, that it does give them a framework and some ideas to get inspired to reuse the spaces they already have."

As PSU alumni move into the professional community, their influence can continue to build on itself. Even the course instructors are both PSU graduates: Abe earned a master's of urban and regional planning from the Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning before going on to work as a planning associate at Alta Planning + Design, and Paulsen earned his master's of science in civil engineering from the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science before working as an engineer at Alta and now as a senior engineer at Parametrix. The instructors bring their own experience as students and knowledge of the local professional community to their efforts at teaching the next generation.

Photo by Dongho Chang

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research.

Students at Hood River Middle School in Hood River, Oregon, will get some hands-on transportation experience next spring as they participate in the redesign of bike and pedestrian infrastructure around their school. Members of the (tentatively named) "Better Blocks Club," a new after-school extracurricular club, will get the chance to observe infrastructure, go on field trips by bike, learn urban planning best practices, and be involved in implementing a pilot safety project.

They'll be helping to plan and install new pop-up pedestrian and bike facilities at the intersection of May Street and 17th/18th Streets, a dogleg intersection adjacent to their school. The intersection design, which will include a protected intersection near the school and pop-up mobility lanes on the approaching streets, was created by PSU civil engineering students as part of the Better Block PSU program.

After the 6-month pilot demonstration is complete, the project will undergo community feedback and design modifications before infrastructure is permanently installed by the City of Hood River.

Left: Intersection of 17th/May St (Google Street View, 2022). Right: Map of the project location.

HOW DID THIS PROJECT COME ABOUT?

The project is led by Megan Ramey, Hood River County School District's Safe Routes to School Manager and founder of a bike tourism site, Bikabout, which encourages families and new riders to wander by bike in North America. In 2020 Ramey, then a parent of a 4th grader at May Street Elementary, organized a Bike Parade for National Walk & Roll to School Day. Inspired by the pandemic, an everyday Bike Train (a variation of the Walking School Bus) began as a permanent feature in March 2021 when the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) granted funding to support the bike train and add a walking bus.

• Related: A similar bike bus made headlines this year in Portland, led by Alameda Elementary School PE teacher Sam Balto. Balto has been involved with Better Block PSU before too, heading up a Safer Route to the César Chávez School project in 2021. Ramey said of Balto: "We're rousers, partners in crime, and it's so wonderful because we're showing what can be done, both in a rural setting and a city setting, for bike train and bike bus; and hopefully inspiring a bunch of people around the country to do it."

The Bike Train was a catalyst for this project. Aware of the need for safety improvements at the intersection in front of the middle school, where her daughter is now a student, Ramey submitted a proposal to Better Block PSU, a partnership program between the volunteer-led group Better Block PDX and Portland State University. The project was selected to move forward, with PSU transportation students working to provide design and consulting services for the safety improvements.

"There's a couple of things that this project is doing. One is engaging the actual users of the design before it goes in the ground – So, the students. And second, it's engaging young people from the very beginning of a project, which is rarely ever done," Ramey said.

In the spring of 2022, PSU students Ashley Arries, Atiporn Huayhongtong, Ahmad Alateeqi, Ali AlQaatri, and Reem Almoumen prepared five design alternatives for Hood River Middle School Gateway bike/ped improvements at the May/17th/18th street intersection. The project analysis and creation of alternative facility designs were part of their coursework for Project Management and Design, a Civil & Environmental Engineering capstone course. May Street currently has no stop sign on the eastbound approach to the school, and the existing bike lane ends right before reaching the school. In front of the middle school is a high-use crosswalk with low visibility and no curb ramp. In fact, many pedestrian approaches to the middle school are lacking curb ramps. The design options provided by the students aim to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety and accessibility in what is currently a high-risk area for students.

The six-month pilot demonstration is supported by an ODOT Safety Grant. With the relatively inexpensive popup project, "we're bridging the gap between no infrastructure and one million dollar infrastructure," Ramey said.

STUDENT-LED DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS BRING SAFE ROUTES TO LIFE

The momentum and enthusiasm for active transportation safety in Hood River continues to build. Ramey gave a presentation about this project to a meeting of the Transportation Options Group of Oregon (TOGO) on Friday, September 30. Watch a recording of that presentation (starts at 59:30, passcode is w!m^B#&1 to access the Zoom), or view the presentation slides.

In addition to funding the bike train and walking bus, ODOT is also supporting a "safety rodeo" to add walking and biking curriculum to physical education classes, and a "Free Bikes 4 Kids" program, a partnership with Anson’s Bike Buddies where people can donate used bikes to be refurbished and provided to underserved children and their parents (around 100 bikes have been donated so far). In March and May of 2022, Ramey led safety rodeos at May Street and Mid Valley Elementary Schools, where "about sixty kids learned how to ride bikes from scratch."

The new pop-up project will be built in June or July of 2023, and the Better Blocks Club will be on the scene. Members of Hood River Middle School's new Better Blocks Club will be actively involved in the planning process for the intersection redesign, helping to brainstorm creative, low-cost materials and ways to implement the design. 

"Students will be installing it alongside the fire department, the police department, and the city public works department all together, and then it will be in the ground for five or six months. The students will take before-and-after travel counts and observe the behavior of both their peers and the local residents that are using it," Ramey said.

At the end of the year, members of the Better Blocks Club (or whatever the students end up naming it – Ramey wants them to have ownership of the club and their mission) will have the opportunity to become certified in responsible bicycling behavior. Tentatively called the bike ethics & safety certification, this certificate will be the first of its kind in the U.S., modeled after bike safety education programs in the Netherlands for 11 to 12 year olds.

Future goals, for Ramey, include launching an "E-biker’s Ed" class for high school students in Hood River. (Read "Dawn of the 'Throttle Kids'", a BikePortland article written by Megan Ramey in July 2022.)

In a 2018 Safe Routes to School survey, just 14% of middle school parents said they would let their kids walk or bike to school, despite saying they strongly support safe walking or biking access to school.

In May 2022, the Hood River City Council officially adopted a Safe Routes to School Plan.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research.