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.

How can emerging data sources most effectively be integrated with traditional sources? A new article in the July 2023 issue of Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board reports that rather than replacing conventional bike data sources and count programs, old “small” data sources will likely be very important for big data sources like Strava and StreetLight to achieve their potential for predicting annual average daily bicycle traffic (AADBT).

The article, "Evaluating the Potential of Crowdsourced Data to Estimate Network-Wide Bicycle Volumes," was authored by TREC researchers Joe Broach, Sirisha Kothuri and Nathan McNeil of Portland State University along with Md Mintu Miah, Kate Hyun and Stephen Mattingly of the University of Texas at Arlington, Krista Nordback of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Frank Proulx of Frank Proulx Consulting, LLC.

Transportation agencies have invested heavily in count infrastructure and models to estimate motor vehicle volumes through networks. Efforts to develop network wide bicycle volume estimates have been hampered by lack of bicycle counters and limited other data sources from which to draw volume estimates. Until recently, most data on bicycle activity came from national or regional household travel surveys, along with observed counts of cyclists—either short-duration manual or longer-term automated counts—at a limited set of locations.

In recent years, emerging new sources of bicycling activity data have offered new opportunities to understand bicycle activity. Top among these sources are smartphone app-based GPS trackers (e.g., Strava Metro), GPS-enabled devices which provide location data (e.g., StreetLight), and bike share systems with user trip route information.

Based on a pooled-fund study from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the research integrated and evaluated emerging user data sources (Strava Metro, StreetLight, and hybrid docked/dockless bike share) of bicycle activity data with conventional “static” demand determinants (land use, built environment, sociodemographics) and measures (permanent and short-duration counts) to estimate annual average daily bicycle traffic (AADBT). Read more about the original study.

Photo by lakshmiprasad S/iStock

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of seven U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers. NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. This PSU-led research partnership also includes the Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Utah. We pursue our theme — improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities — through research, education and technology transfer.

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.

As the 2023 Spring term wraps up at Portland State University (PSU), we're taking a moment to appreciate the work done by students finishing up their transportation engineering and planning programs. See below for a recap of some outstanding projects from graduating Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) students in PSU's Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning.

Master of Urban Planning (MURP) Workshop Projects

Nixyáawii Watikš

Team: Victoria Young, Jenny Mazzella, Nick Hadfield, Brian Liu, Sara Goldstein, Owen Christofferson

In this project, the student team partnered with the planning office of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to plan a multi-use trail to improve walkability and connectivity in the community. "We are consulting with the tribal government to build a multi-use path that would connect a neighborhood in the reservation called "Mission" where there is commercial activity as well as a government center, a health center, educational facilities and a neighborhood being planned. Our job is find the best alignment to connect it to the Pendleton Riverwalk to allow walking, biking, and equestrian use for the tribal community to be able to access, in a much more safe and comfortable manager, all the opportunities in the town of Pendleton as well as allow folks in Pendleton access to the reservation," team member Owen Christofferson said. Read East Oregonian coverage of the project: Portland State University students partner with tribes to plan trail.id=“gorge”

Gorge and Mount Hood Regional Park & Ride

Team: Emily D'Antonio, Aidan Simpson, Jessa Miller, Kadin Mangalik, Beth Whitener, and Harrison Husting

The purpose of this project is to develop a regional vision for park-and-ride facilities to increase and improve the park-and-ride system that serves the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood region. The project focuses on the I-84, US 26, and OR 35 corridors, with a particular focus on underserved communities with limited access to the area. The intention of these park-and-rides is to be one of many strategies to improve access for people who work and play in the region. "The project hopes to start the conversation amongst community partners in regards to the regional vision for the transportation system and how park and rides fit into that vision. Through our part of the project we helped to bring these members together to understand the various wants and needs for park and rides. The next part of the project will be finalizing specific sites and having the collaboration necessary for those to be successful in solving the transportation challenges that face the area," said team member Emily D'Antonio. Learn more by visiting the project website: Gorge and Mt Hood Park and Ride Assessment.

Tree Canopy Development in the 82nd Avenue Corridor

Team: Amber Shackelford, Alvin Dimalanta, Caleb Susuras, Darby O’Brien, Eiji Toda

Community advocates and data analysis have confirmed that East Portland has significantly less tree coverage compared to other parts of the city. This lack of tree canopy negatively affects East Portland communities and contributes to the disproportionate impacts of urban heat island effects. The recent jurisdictional transfer of 82nd Avenue from the Oregon Department of Transportation to the City of Portland presents a unique opportunity for initiating change. This team's' central focus is to provide support to the revitalization efforts on 82nd Avenue through a tree canopy development strategy. The major stakeholders include property owners, business owners, the City, and all users who live, work and play along 82nd Avenue. "82nd Avenue has a huge potential for improvement in many aspects. We look forward to seeing the Corridor evolve and thrive with tree canopy as well as other infrastructural projects that contribute to members of the community equitably and sustainably," team member Eiji Toda said.

Fremont Bridgehead Reclamation

Team: Megan Grzybowski, Ananda Gordon-Peabody, Ian Meisner

Over the last 50 years, major public projects have caused the decline of the thriving Eliot neighborhood in North and Northeast Portland, within the former city of Albina. This MURP team developed strategies advocating for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the City of Portland to redevelop 25 acres of land east of the Fremont Bridge. The project proposed shortening the offramp, creating a new roundabout, and reconnecting the grid of local streets. In consultation with community members, the team came up with options for land in the area owned by ODOT and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to be reconfigured to improve local access for residents. One of the project's goals is the limit through traffic inside the new neighborhood, ensuring a safe and welcoming environment for residents to use their local streets. The project also proposed new walking and biking routes and improved access to transit.

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.

Portland State University (PSU) has been awarded a new contract by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). To create a "Guide for Addressing Encampments on State Transportation Rights-of-Way," $350,000 in research funding will go toward developing a set of best practices to help state transportation agencies respond to temporary encampments on state transportation rights-of-way. These areas, including paved roads, bridges, and other transportation facilities managed by the state, are often some of the most accessible public land for people to occupy who have nowhere else to go.

A growing trend of encampments on state rights-of-way has presented unprecedented challenges for state departments of transportation (DOTs) in the design, construction, and maintenance of transportation facilities. As owners of some of the largest stretches of public land, DOTs must maintain the land for public use, and may lack resources to address the social welfare aspects of this stewardship. There are no widely accepted guidelines relating to this trend. By supporting this research, the NCHRP aims to help state DOTs respond to encampments in a way that assures rights-of-way remain open while remaining sensitive to considerations of social equity, environmental impacts, safety, legal issues, coordination with other agencies and other relevant considerations.

A multidisciplinary team will work to develop these guidelines. PSU's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) is a dedicated research center focused on addressing the challenges of homelessness by uncovering the conditions that lead to and perpetuate homelessness. Led by Dr. Marisa Zapata, an associate professor of land use planning, the center's mission is to help reduce homelessness and its negative impacts on individuals, families and communities, with an emphasis on communities of color. Joining Zapata on the PSU team are graduate student Maddy Poehlein, associate director Hau Hagedorn and sustainable transportation program manager John MacArthur of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC). TREC is a PSU center dedicated to creating more sustainable and equitable transportation systems through research, education, and technology transfer. TREC and HRAC are also collaborating on another national research effort, the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) project "Homelessness: A Guide for Public Transportation."

The project team also includes Jacob Wasserman and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris of UCLA, Damon Fordham of High Street Consulting Group, and Andrée Temoulet of Common Works Consulting, whose work on helping state DOTs address homelessness goes back more than a decade.

Zapata is the Principal Investigator on the new NCHRP contract and will lead the team in developing these guidelines. After reviewing what's already being done around the country and identifying new and existing best practices, the research team will prepare training materials to help DOTs respond with sensitivity to these challenging circumstances.

THE PROJECT TEAM

Portland State University

• Marisa Zapata, Director, PSU HRAC (Principal Investigator)
• Hau Hagedorn, Project Manager and Research Associate
• John MacArthur, Research Associate
• Maddy Poehlein, Graduate Research Assistant

University of California, Los Angeles

• Jacob Wasserman
• Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

High Street Consulting Group

• Damon Fordham

Common Works Consulting

• Andrée Temoulet

Photo by Ivan Zhaborovskiy/iStock

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.

Twenty-nine Portland State University students have been awarded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) scholarships for the 2022/23 academic year. We're very proud to acknowledge their hard work and dedication. The NITC Scholarship program recognizes outstanding students working on transportation projects. Financial support for students helps to develop the workforce by directing talented individuals toward research and practice, raising the number and caliber of graduates in transportation. 

Meet the NITC Scholars of PSU:

Mackenzie Aamodt, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Mackenzie Aamodt is a student in the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program at Portland State University. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest and having access to green spaces, trails, and bike paths heavily influenced her decision to pursue a planning career. What interests Mackenzie most is how forgotten pieces of land or infrastructure can be used to build trails and areas of recreation in our communities. The rails to trails projects across the country have inspired her to pursue ways to provide access to nature and promote economic growth in urban and rural communities. In her free time she enjoys camping with her husband, cycling, reading, or learning to cook new recipes. In addition, Mackenzie is an active volunteer for Clackamas County Search & Rescue.

Connect with Mackenzie on LinkedIn.

Phil Armand, Bachelors in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Phil Armand is a bachelor of science in civil engineering (BSCE) senior at Portland State University, with a focus in transportation. His transportation interests include mass transit, pedestrian and bike design and safety, signal timing, lighting analysis, transportation justice and outreach. Phil is an Engineering Associate with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Signals, Street Lighting and ITS Division, and is a member of the Bureau’s Transportation Justice Steering committee. Prior to working for the City, Phil served the Oregon Department of Transportation Traffic Data Division and the Florida Department of Transportation State Materials Office. Phil is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers STEP and was recently nominated as Portland State University's ITE-STEP Community service and outreach chair.

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn.

Jamie Arnau, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Jamie Arnau is a second-year MURP student studying urban design. She is passionate about public space design, equity, and improving walking and transit experiences for all. She is a Junior Transportation Planner at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, supporting the firm's nationally recognized work in multimodal planning, demand management, and active transportation. Before pursuing a career in urban planning, she worked in her hometown of Los Angeles as a marketing manager in the hospitality, entertainment, and non-profit sectors. Outside of work, she enjoys singing karaoke and daydreaming about train rides in France and Japan. She earned her Bachelor's in Global Studies from UCLA in 2013.

Connect with Jamie on LinkedIn.

Cameron Bennett, Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering

Cameron is a second-year master’s student in transportation engineering at PSU. His work as a graduate research assistant focuses on promoting and facilitating the uptake of active transportation modes. He serves as president of the PSU ITE-STEP (Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning) student group. He received Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships presented by the U.S. Department of Transportation at the Transportation Research Board 2022 and 2023 annual meetings. His passion lies in the promotion of cycling in all its forms through engineering design, planning, policy, advocacy, and community-driven engagement. In his free time, you can usually find him moving through the mountains on a bike, vertical rock, a pair of skis, or his own two feet.

Connect with Cameron on LinkedIn.

Minji Cho, PhD in Urban Studies

Minji Cho is a PhD student and research assistant in Urban Studies. She worked with Dr. Jennifer Dill and Dr. Jenny Liu on a research project for Portland Metro, investigating the economic impacts of active transportation investments. Metro funded the research to better understand the role of these investments in building stronger communities in the region, and in implementing the Metro 2040 Growth Concept. Prior to coming to PSU, Minji was a full-time researcher at the Gyeonggi Research Institute in Gyeonggi, South Korea, working on the 2030 Gyeonggi Housing Plan (Housing and Welfare Policy).

Connect with Minji on LinkedIn.

Summer Cook, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Summer is a graduate student at Portland State University pursuing a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on environmental planning, active transportation, and sustainable energy. She is an avid cyclist, zero-waste advocate, data nerd, reader, learner, and outdoorswoman.

Connect with Summer on LinkedIn.

Chris Corral, Dual Degree: Masters of Urban & Regional Planning + Masters of Public Health

Chris Corral is pursuing a dual degree in urban & regional planning and public health at Portland State University. He is passionate about ensuring all communities have access to safe, convenient, and healthy options for active transportation. Chris's most fulfilling work has been organizing adult and youth bike safety education programs in the Bay Area, including Safe Routes to School programming. This field combines his passion for biking and walking with his desire to improve the health of the communities he grew up in. Chris enters this program with a strong background in education, bike repair, and social theory.

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.

Owen Christofferson, Masters of Urban and Regional Planning

Owen Christofferson is a second-year MURP student at Portland State University. He is interested in bike and pedestrian planning, transportation policy, and emerging transportation technologies. He serves as Vice President of Finance & Conferences for ITE-STEP, the PSU transportation student group, and as Chair of the Transportation Network Company (TNC) Advisory Committee for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. He has also worked as a Transportation Options intern for the City of Wilsonville, Oregon.

Connect with Owen on LinkedIn.

Miguel Gelin Ferreira, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Miguel is a MURP student at Portland State University.

Connect with Miguel on LinkedIn.

Sam Gallagher, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Sam is a graduate student pursuing a Master Degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. Her career aspirations involve mainstreaming climate decisions and energy efficiency into economic development initiatives while making the cost of living more affordable. Sam previously worked on utility and affordable housing disputes for the Minnesota Attorney General's Office. She is from the Midwest but now call the Pacific Northwest her home.

Connect with Sam on LinkedIn.

Christian Galiza, Bachelors in Civil Engineering

Christian Galiza is a senior in civil engineering. He is the Vice President of Communications for STEP, and also works as a structural engineering intern for Eclipse Engineering. He is the recipient of an ITE Regional Travel Scholarship to attend the 2022 ITE Western District Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, CA. Christian enjoys transportation because it's fascinating to think about the relationship between building sustainable infrastructure and transportation planning and its impact on how people move every day.

Connect with Christian on LinkedIn.

Cole Grisham, PhD in Public Affairs and Policy

Cole Grisham is a Transportation Systems Planner with FHWA Western Federal Lands. His work focuses on long range transportation planning, particularly in the areas of regional and intergovernmental policy in the American Northwest. He is a certified planner through the American Planning Association and holds a B.A. in Political Science and M.U.P. in Regional Planning from the University of Michigan. Cole is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from Portland State University.

Connect with Cole on LinkedIn.

Kristina Henry Hall, B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Kristina Henry Hall is a Civil Engineering/Business Analytics Student pursuing strategic planning & program management. She is a US Army & Air Force Veteran. An entrepreneur at heart, Kristina loves transforming visions into reality. Her mantra is: Successful businesses serve people passionately with a purpose. Besides people, her passions include philosophy, real estate, and new ideas. 

Connect with Kristina on LinkedIn.

Meredith Herbst, Masters of Urban and Regional Planning

Meredith Herbst is a first-year MURP student at Portland State University. She currently interns as a Comprehensive Plan Project Assistant for the City of Vancouver, Washington, where she provides assistance and support to Long Range Planning Staff with general project management, research, and data analysis for the update process to the City’s Comprehensive Plan. She earned her BS in Geography from the University of Georgia (UGA), and serves as the Philanthropy Chair for the UGA Alumni Association's Portland Chapter. Originally from Dallas, Meredith is enjoying becoming immersed in the Pacific Northwest community.

Connect with Meredith on LinkedIn.

David Hoang, B.S. in Urban & Public Affairs

David Hoang is an undergraduate studying urban & public affairs at PSU. He grew up in different neighborhoods across Portland. As a young teen, he joined the Multnomah Youth Commission where his team advocated for policies in education and transportation justice, which included pushing the YouthPass bus fare program out into high schools like David Douglas and Parkrose. In 2021, he worked as a Safe Routes to School Program Assistant for the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). David is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineering, the Institute of Real Estate Management, and is currently on the leadership board for the STEP (Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning) student group.

Connect with David on LinkedIn.

Kyu Ri Kim, PhD in Urban Studies

Kyu Ri is a Ph.D. student in urban studies at the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning. She is a recipient of the Nohad and Dirce Toulan Endowed Scholarship and a Ph.D. student rep for this 2021-22 academic year. She is studying on pedestrian safety and active transportation with Dr. Jennifer Dill. She also worked for the Research Roadmap for the AASHTO Council on Active Transportation and Active Transportation Return on Invenstment Study at PSU. She achieved B.S. and M.S. degrees in Urban Planning and Engineering from Yonsei University in South Korea and worked as a researcher for Korea Environment Institute and The Seoul Institute. She is a 2022 recipient of the IBPI Excellence in Active Transportation Scholarship.

Connect with Kyu Ri on LinkedIn.

Minju Kim, PhD in Urban Studies

Minju Kim is a PhD student in Urban Studies in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning with a specialization in transportation and gerontology, and candidates graduate certificate program in the Institute of Aging. She received a Master's degree in Transportation Studies from Seoul National University and studied in Urban Planning for Bachelor from Chung-Ang University from South Korea. Her current research interest focuses on transportation for older people, and she would like to research the differences in preference and trends of older adults. She worked on a TREC project about the impacts of shared E-scooter operations during the 2019-2020 Portland Pilot Program with John MacArthur and Jennifer Dill. In order to improve the accessibility and sustainability of micromobility systems to the citizens of Portland, this research focuses on the impacts of scooter operations on VMT, including scooter deployment, rebalancing, and charging.

Connect with Minju on LinkedIn.

William McKenzie, Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering

A master of science in civil & environmental engineering student, Will has been preoccupied with people, planes, trains, and automobiles since as long as he can remember. He is keen on mobility and electric vehicles (EVs), equal access/opportunity for all, statistics, data, logistics, behavior, planning, and policy.

Connect with William on LinkedIn.

Megan Lee, Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering

Megan Lee is a civil engineering master's student at Portland State University. She serves as the Vice President of Events for ITE-STEP, the PSU transportation student group, and during her undergraduate study at Oregon State University, she also served as the Community Service Chair for their ITE student chapter. She worked as an engineering intern for the Washington State Department of Transportation in 2020, and is currently interning as a Student Design Trainee at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

Connect with Megan on LinkedIn.

Elias Peters, Dual Degree: Masters in Urban & Regional Planning + Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering

Elias is an adventurous, hard-working graduate student at Portland State University. They are a first year dual masters degree student in Urban and Regional Planning and Civil Engineering. Elias has a love for public transit and active transportation, and they are interested in learning how to improve transportation route planning and infrastructure so it is more community centered, safe, efficient, and accessible for all. Elias is the current Vice President of Communications for ITE-STEP, the PSU ITE student chapter. They graduated from Western Washington University in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Statistics and a minor in Environmental Science, and now work for Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).

Connect with Elias on LinkedIn.

Maddy Poehlein, Dual Degree: Masters of Urban and Regional Planning + Masters of Public Health

Maddy is a dual master's degree candidate in Public Health and Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. She is interested in studying how unequal access to services, such as public transportation, and how individuals are situated within the built physical environment impacts population health. Maddy earned a BA in Environmental Studies and Politics with Honors from Whitman College, taking classes in environmental policy, environmental justice, and environmental health. She views the intersection of planning and public health as a way to work towards environmental and climate justice. She also is an avid cyclist, outdoors person and a certified Wilderness First Responder.

Connect with Maddy on LinkedIn.

Gabriel Quiñones-Zambrana, PhD in Urban Studies

Gabriel Quiñones-Zambrana is a first-year Ph.D. student in urban studies at the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning. He studies transit & transportation planning, transit equity, land use planning, complete streets, and active modes of transportation. Before coming to study at PSU he worked in the private sector as a Transit and Transportation Planner, and in the public sector as the Director of a Planning Department in a municipality, for more than 8 years combined. Currently he works as a graduate research assistant (GRA) for PSU's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), supporting advisor Hau Hagedorn in tasks related to the Better Block PSU program and various research projects.

Connect with Gabriel on LinkedIn.

Aidan Simpson, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Aidan Simpson is a current Masters of Urban and Regional Planning student at Portland State University interested in transportation and transportation equity. In 2022, Aidan was part of a team (along with Cameron Bennett, Owen Christofferson and Emily D’Antonio) that 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.

Connect with Aidan on LinkedIn.

Caleb Susuras, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Caleb Susuras is a second-year MURP student who earned his BA from Ambrose University. He has experience as a voucher specialist with the Denver Regional Council of Governments, and has also worked for the Denver Regional Mobility and Access Council. He is committed to safe, equitable, and green streets.

Connect with Caleb on LinkedIn.

Isa Swain, B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Isa is a first-year undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in civil engineering at Portland State University. As someone who is passionate about sustainable urban design, she wants to continue learning about how transportation systems impact the environment and the health of communities. She currently serves as an officer for PSU'S ITE student chapter, Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (ITE-STEP).

Connect with Isa on LinkedIn.

Dawn Walter, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Dawn is a first-year Master of Urban and Regional Planning student at Portland State. She is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology. Her focus within the planning program is transportation with a special emphasis on improving mobility for older adults and persons with disabilities. She is also the Spring/Summer Transportation Intern at the Portland office of WSP and serves on the Fixing Our Streets Oversight Committee for the City of Portland. Before pursuing a career in urban planning, she worked in arts administration at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Connect with Dawn on LinkedIn. 

Ciara Williams, Masters of Urban & Regional Planning

Ciara is a graduate student of Portland State University studying Urban Design, Public Interest Design, and Active Transportation.

Connect with Ciara on LinkedIn.

Cassie Wilson, B.S. in Liberal Studies; minor in Community Development

Cassie Wilson is a current undergraduate student at Portland State University working on a degree in Liberal Studies with a minor in Community Development. Her interests are transportation, land use, housing, planning, local government and politics, climate action, and disability and social justice.

Connect with Cassie on LinkedIn.

Elizabeth Yates, Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Elizabeth Yates is a graduate student of transportation engineering at Portland State University.

Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. This PSU-led research partnership also includes the Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Utah. Faculty committees at each of our partner universities nominate students for the scholarship program. Learn more about the NITC scholarship program and see the NITC scholars from other member campuses.

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.

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 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the new software created by a multi-university research team is able to reliably observe pedestrian behavior and can help reduce conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles at signalized intersections. The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is already working on implementing this new system to improve data collection at intersections.

Learn more in a free webinar May 18. 

The LiDAR system can especially improve multimodal travel at intersections with permissive left turns, which are indicated by a flashing yellow arrow. Previous research has shown that where a flashing yellow arrow, or FYA, is present, cars searching for a gap in traffic may not look for pedestrians. To remove the risk to people walking, some signals are programmed to turn off the FYA when a walk button is pushed. But what if the walk button is pushed and the pedestrian isn't really crossing there, or crosses very quickly and then leaves the crosswalk clear? Left-turning vehicles would still have to wait out the rest of the cycle.

"When crossing an intersection on a diagonal, we find that many people choose to press both walk buttons, and take whichever one changes first. So our solution will check a pedestrian's true intent to cross by tracking this pedestrian’s behavior during yellow, all-red and the first few seconds of green," said the project's principal investigator, Dr. Pengfei (Taylor) Li of the University of Texas at Arlington.

If there is not a pedestrian present, then the FYA can resume so that left-turning vehicles are once again able to turn. It's a way of increasing efficiency and throughput while prioritizing safety. 

The research team, led by Li, included graduate students Peirong (Slade) Wang and Farzana Chowdhury of the University of Texas at Arlington; Dr. Sirisha Kothuri and graduate student Katherine Keeling of Portland State University; and Dr. Xianfeng (Terry) Yang of the University of Utah then (currently the University of Maryland). Wang, a PhD candidate, works as a graduate assistant in UTA's ACTION Lab; learn more about him in our March 2023 Student Spotlight. Chowdhury received her PhD from UTA in 2022 and now works as an associate consultant traffic engineer for WSP USA. Keeling received her master's in engineering from PSU in 2022 and is now an operations analyst at TriMet. 

TESTING THE SYSTEM

The researchers deployed their LiDAR system at two intersections in Texas:

• Cooper Street at UTA Boulevard, a major intersection connecting two urban campuses of the University of Texas at Arlington with very high pedestrian volumes during semesters.
• West Walnut Hill Lane at North Belt Line Road in Irving, Texas, close to a high school.

While field-testing the LiDAR devices (see a screenshot of the system at left), they conducted two separate studies. The first was a pedestrian behavior study, analyzing things like wait time before crossing, generalized perception-reaction time to the WALK sign, and walking speed. Results reveal that pedestrian behaviors do not always match with the recommendations found in pedestrian facility design guides such as AASHTO’s “Green Book." The study also found that ADA-compliant (audible) pedestrian push buttons can significantly reduce the time it takes for pedestrians to move in response to a WALK signal.

The second study was an exploration of how to separate permissive left-turning vehicles from concurrent crossing pedestrians, using the novel dynamic flashing yellow arrow (D-FYA) solution.  The D-FYA solution was also evaluated in a simulation platform, with promising results. It will be evaluated soon at the test intersection in Salt Lake City. The findings of this study will advance the body of knowledge on equitable traffic safety, especially pedestrian safety.

Kothuri, the PSU principal investigator who led the behavior analysis study, has conducted several research studies centered around multimodal data and pedestrian-focused signal timing. She helped to evaluate recorded pedestrian behaviors and to develop the custom software which captures performance measures such as pedestrian crossing time. Dr. Yang has also done extensive work in data-driven mobility strategies for multimodal transportation and connected vehicle systems.

Mark Taylor, a traffic signal operations engineer for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), is optimistic that the new sensor system can offer important functionality based on its improved bicycle and pedestrian detection.

"We have these goals and objectives to make our intersections and our roadways safe, and safer for all modes of travel. Not just vehicles, and not just buses and trucks, but the vulnerable road users as well; bikes as well as pedestrians, and with zero fatalities. The big thing about LiDAR is you're able to get a 3D image of everything around you and what is happening in real time. With this system, you're able to look at things like red light running and near misses for pedestrians and vehicles, and you're able to see a lot more information that the traditional detector is not able to provide you with," Taylor said.

The improved LiDAR sensors could enable UDOT to tailor traffic signals to travelers' needs, potentially adjusting signal timing in real time. The system could also integrate with vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) connected vehicle technology.

"We're looking at walking speeds, which means that we are able to provide additional crossing time for slower pedestrians if needed," Taylor said. "We are also looking at the feasibility of taking the location of the pedestrian and broadcasting that location to connected vehicle technology. Just being able to communicate to vehicles that, hey! There is a pedestrian on the corner of the intersection."

Based on this NITC project, UDOT funded another project, "Utilizing LIDAR sensors to detect pedestrian movements at signalized intersections," to deploy the pedestrian tracking system at a test intersection in Salt Lake City. This project is one of three parallel LiDAR-based projects that UDOT is working on, in order to better understand LiDAR sensors' potential to improve traffic operations.

Read more about this research in a new article, "Developing a Tracking-Based Dynamic Flash Yellow Arrow Strategy for Permissive Left-Turn Vehicles to Improve Pedestrian Safety at Intersections," published in the April 2023 issue of the Journal of Transportation Engineering.

This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, with additional support from the City of Arlington, Texas; the Oregon Department of Transportation, the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Utah.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

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

Taylor Li, University of Texas Arlington; Sirisha Kothuri, Portland State University; Xianfeng (Terry) Yang, University of Utah

• Download the Final Report (PDF)
• Download the Project Brief (PDF)
• Register for the May 2023 Webinar

RELATED RESEARCH

To learn more about this and other NITC research, sign up for our monthly research newsletter.

• Development of Intelligent Multimodal Traffic Monitoring using Radar Sensor at Intersections
• Data-Driven Mobility Strategies for Multimodal Transportation
• Connected Vehicle System Design for Signalized Arterials

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of seven U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers. NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. This PSU-led research partnership also includes the Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Utah. We pursue our theme — improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities — through research, education and technology transfer.