PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Watch the video
• View the presentation slides

OVERVIEW

Re-allocating space on streets to accommodate new uses – particularly for walking, biking, and being – is not new. However, COVID-era needs have accelerated the process that many communities use to make such street transitions. Many communities quickly understood that the street is actually a public place and a public good that serves broader public needs more urgent than the free flow or the storage of private vehicles. This seminar describes a new case study book that captures some of these quick changes to city streets in response to societal needs during COVID, with two open questions:

1. what changes will endure post-COVID?; and
2. will communities be more open to street reconfigurations, including quick and inexpensive trials, going forward?

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• To understand the range of street reconfigurations different cities have undertaken during COVID;
• To reflect on why the changes happened, happened quickly, and what that means for future local decisions about streets;
• To think through the role of the street and how to make this vast public resource more responsive and more flexible to short and long-term societal needs.

THE RESEARCH

This webinar is based on a study funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) and conducted at the University of Oregon. Read more about the research: Rethinking Streets for Physical Distancing.

SPEAKER

Clare Haley, University of Oregon

Clare Haley will graduate from the University of Oregon’s Community and Regional Planning program in June 2021. Clare is a 2020-21 Eisenhower Transportation Fellow and is interested in micromobility and mobility justice. Clare serves as co-president of LiveMove, a project-driven active transportation student organization.

John Larson-Friend, University of Oregon

John Larson-Friend is a Graduate Student in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Oregon. He is interested in issues of equity, justice, and technological advancement surrounding transportation. In the Spring of 2020, John created the first national database of U.S. transit agencies’ responses to COVID-19 as part of a NITC scholarship. He is currently the Planning Intern for the City of Cottage Grove, is researching Equity in Shared Mobility with Dr. Anne Brown, and will graduate in June 2021.

Marc Schlossberg, University of Oregon

Marc Schlossberg is a Professor of city and regional planning and co-Director of the Sustainable Cities Institute at the University of Oregon. The focus of his work is on re-designing cities so that more people can use low or no carbon, space efficient transport more of the time.  He is a two time Fulbright Scholar. 

Aliza Whalen, University of Oregon

Aliza Whalen is a Graduate Student in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Oregon. She is a 2020-21 Eisenhower Transportation Fellow and National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) Master’s Student of the Year who is interested in transportation equity and improving mobility outcomes. Aliza will graduate in June 2021. 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute webinar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

Photo by RoamingPanda/iStock

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

We are committed to making decisions that promote the success and well-being of our campus community. Until further notice, all live events hosted by TREC will be online only.

Friday Transportation Seminars at Portland State University have been a tradition since 2000. You can join us online at 11:30 AM.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Presentation slides
• TREC Twitter thread

THE TOPIC

Perhaps you’ve seen a public meeting about pedestrian safety (or infrastructure projects) deteriorate into speculation about texting pedestrians or drunk drivers. What do the data say?

The Oregon Walks Pedestrian Crash Report reviews police reports and available information for all 48 fatal pedestrian crashes in Portland from 2017-2019. The authors will summarize their most notable findings relating to infrastructure, other systemic factors, equity and the information that the public receives about crashes. Participants may wish to review the report or articles describing it to prepare for a robust discussion:

• You’re Driving Too Damn Fast, Willamette Week, March 17, 2021
• Oregon Walks releases landmark report on fatal pedestrian crashes, BikePortland, March 17, 2021

The authors will welcome participants’ questions and suggestions about how to improve the report, which is in its first release. The complete dataset is available upon request (please email scott[at]forumlawgroup.com).

KEY LEARNING TAKEAWAYS

• Most fatal pedestrian crashes in Portland cannot be attributed to traditional crash factors, such as intoxication or distraction.
• Operation of streets as fast, wide, poorly-lit, multi-lane roads through neighborhoods predictably results in deaths of people walking and using mobility devices.
• Fatal pedestrian crashes occur disproportionately in East Portland, and disproportionately kill Black Portlanders, elders, people experiencing houselessness, and people with ADA disabilities, among others.
• Media and police reports focus on which participant was at fault, and generally ignore the infrastructure and systemic failures that are common to many fatal pedestrian crashes in Portland.

SPEAKERS 

Ashton Simpson, Executive Director, Oregon Walks

Ashton is a community organizer, former U.S. Air Force Civil Engineering Technician, and a graduate of PSU’s Community Development undergraduate program. In his most recent role at The Rosewood Initiative, he served as Community Asset Director, providing planning expertise for under-resourced neighborhoods. As a progressive Black man growing up in Houston, and now living in Portland, he has seen firsthand the unequal development present in our pedestrian infrastructure, and the dangers this presents for vulnerable communities.

Scott Kocher, Board Liaison, Oregon Walks Legislative and Policy Advisory Committee

Scott Kocher was born and raised in Corvallis, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College. He worked as an attorney at Oregon's largest law firm from 2001 to 2006. Since 2006 Scott’s law practice has focused on representing people and families after serious and fatal traffic crashes.  Scott has served on policy advisory committees for the Oregon Transportation Safety Action Plan as well as Oregon’s state-wide bicycle advisory committee, and Portland’s pedestrian advisory committee, among others. Scott has volunteered with and served on the board of Oregon Walks since September 2014.

Brandon Summers, Project Staff, Forum Law Group

Brandon Summers spent over 20 years as a professional musician, recording and performing internationally. He recently joined the project staff at Forum Law Group and collaborated on the research and drafting of the Oregon Walks Fatal Pedestrian Crash Report. As a native Portlander who experienced the first two decades of his adult life without owning a car, Brandon is passionate about creating a city where walking, bicycling and public transportation thrive. As the son of an immigrant Indonesian mother, he is dedicated to equitable solutions. And as the father of two daughters, he is focused on ensuring that we do more to make Portland’s streets safe for generations to come.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute seminar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

Photo courtesy of Oregon Metro

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The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University is home to the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), and other transportation programs. TREC produces research and tools for transportation decision makers, develops K-12 curriculum to expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engages students and professionals through education.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Presentation slides

OVERVIEW

Many transit agencies plan to automate their fare collection and limit the use of cash, with the goals of improving boarding and data collection while lowering operating costs. Yet about 10% of adults in the United States lack a bank account or credit card, and many either rely on restrictive cell-phone data plans or don’t have access to internet or a smartphone. 

This webinar will present part of a larger research project exploring these issues in the cities of Denver, Colorado, and Eugene and Portland–Gresham, Oregon. In this part, we explore the tradeoffs between reducing cash acceptance, ridership and the costs of fare collection systems. How much does it save to reduce cash acceptance, verses ridership and equity impacts?

We will also present a cost-effectiveness framework that combines a qualitative and quantitative analysis and use this model to explore case scenarios in our three cities. The model shows that adding a retail network to facilitate fare payment as well as preserving cash acceptance on board buses through the farebox are highly effective solutions. The model is customizable for any agency and similar analyses can be run for different configurations of fare collection systems.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• The extent and dimensions of digital and banking divide in the US and among transit riders;
• How emerging cash-less fare payment will exclude certain transit riders;
• Equity mitigations available to include transit riders challenged by cash elimination;
• The costs and benefits of such equity mitigations

THE RESEARCH

This webinar is based on a study supported by a pooled-fund grant through the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) and conducted at three universities: Portland State University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to NITC, the funding partners were City of Eugene, OR, City of Gresham, OR, Lane Transit District, Clevor Consulting Group, and RTD Denver. Read more about the research: An Equity Lens on Automated Fare Payments.

SPEAKER

Aaron Golub, Associate Professor and Director of the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University

Dr. Golub is an associate professor and director of the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. His work focuses on the social equity impacts of current transportation planning practices – how people participate in planning, and who wins and loses from transportation plans and investments. Dr. Golub teaches courses on urban transportation policy, planning research methods, transportation finance and public transportation.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute webinar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

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Photo courtesy of TriMet

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

We are committed to making decisions that promote the success and well-being of our campus community. Until further notice, all live events hosted by TREC will be online only.

Friday Transportation Seminars at Portland State University have been a tradition since 2000. You can join us online at 11:30 AM.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Presentation slides
• TREC Twitter thread

THE TOPIC

Portland’s Black population has been heavily impacted by gentrification in the historic Albina community. Nearly half of Portland’s Black population lives in the area east of 82nd Ave, known as East Portland. This has had substantial impacts on both Black households that can continue living in Albina and those living in East Portland. The suburban-esque built environment of East Portland makes it difficult to get around and reach basic necessities. Those living in Albina have taken on exorbitant rents. Both groups suffer from a geographic divide that has made it difficult to rely on family and friends for basic needs like childcare and fulfilling social needs.

This seminar will walk through those difficulties as found through a qualitative study of 27 low-income Black households in Portland. It also highlights the difficulties those households faced using various modes of transportation, why they chose the modes they did, and how they coped with their mode choices. See BikePortland's coverage of the research project: Interviews reveal transportation impacts of Albina displacement.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Learn about the need to consider all a household’s needs when planning transportation;
• Learn about the experiences of low-income Black households on various modes of transport;
• Learn about how even a 5-10 mile geographic divide can impact low-income Black household’s ability to make ends meet and how transportation is a large part of that.

THE RESEARCH

Supported by a fellowship from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Steven Howland of Portland State University focused his doctoral research on examining the impacts of gentrification on transportation and social support for black working-poor families in Portland. Read more about the project: Suburban Black Poverty in East Portland: The Role of Transportation in Making Ends Meet.

SPEAKER 

Steven Howland has a Ph.D. in Urban Studies from Portland State University where he focused on economic development, housing, and their intersection with transportation. Currently, Steven is an Assistant Economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. At the Federal Reserve, he conducts research for the community development team with a focusing on housing, jobs, digital divide, entrepreneurship, and access to credit.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute seminar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

Photo by Cait McCusker

Sign up for our newsletter to receive monthly updates.

The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University is home to the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), and other transportation programs. TREC produces research and tools for transportation decision makers, develops K-12 curriculum to expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engages students and professionals through education.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Presentation slides

OVERVIEW

This presentation introduces an innovative spatiotemporal analytical framework and web-based visualization platform developed by researchers at the University of Utah to assist transit agencies in identifying optimal deployment strategies for a battery-electric bus (BEB) system by using a combination of mathematical programming methods, GIS-based analysis, and multi-objective optimization techniques. The framework allows transit agencies to optimally phase in BEB infrastructure and deploy the BEB system in a way that can minimize the capital and operational cost of the BEB system while maximizing its environmental benefits (i.e., emission reduction).

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Introduction to a bi-objective spatiotemporal optimization model for the strategic deployment of BEBs to minimize the cost of purchasing BEBs, on-route and in-depot charging stations, and to maximize environmental equity for disadvantaged populations.
• The optimization considers the unique constraints imposed by BEB operations in a spatiotemporal fashion.
• We used empirical data to offer a potential framework that can be adopted or expanded by transit agencies to optimally deploy BEBs by accommodating multiple goals and objectives that the transit agencies set forth.
• The research could help transit agencies develop optimal deployment strategies for battery-electric bus systems, allowing planners and decision makers to create transportation systems that better serve livable and sustainable communities.

THE RESEARCH

This webinar is based on a study funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) and conducted at the University of Utah, Portland State University, and the University of California, Riverside. Read more about the research: Deploying Electric Buses to Improve Air Quality in Low-Income Areas.

SPEAKER

Cathy Liu, Associate Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah

Dr. Cathy Liu is an Associate Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah. Her background is in data-driven application in transportation, and multimodal transportation network modeling. Dr. Liu has conducted sponsored research funded by FTA, NSF, FWHA, and USDOT to assess the efficiency of transportation network and the impact of emerging technologies, such as shared mobility, vehicle electrification and automation. Dr. Liu serves as a member on the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Highway Capacity Quality of Service (HCQS) Committee and Chair of the Technology Transfer subcommittee, served as member of Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Committee (TCQS) (2016-2019) and Managed Lane Committee (2013-2019). 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute webinar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

Photo by Oleksandr Filon/iStock

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

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Watch the video
• Access the training slides and post-event materials

OVERVIEW

The world is awash in data, and the data available to transportation analysts and planners is growing by the minute. With this rapid growth, traditional data analysis tools may no longer be effective. Relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and Oracle are one tool that can be used to manage and query large data sets. In this webinar, we give a brief introduction to relational databases and SQL — the language that is used to communicate with relational databases. Participants will learn the key structures of relational databases (relations, keys and types), and will learn how to write simple SQL queries. We will practice writing SQL queries during the training. Additional resources will be provided for participants who wish to continue practicing their new SQL skills after the training. Join us to learn a bit more about how to manage those large data sets!

KEY LEARNING TAKEAWAYS

• Understand relational database schema: relations, keys and types
• Write single and multiple table SQL queries (e.g. SELECT, JOIN, WHERE)
• Write SQL aggregate queries (e.g. COUNT, SUM)
• Understand the range of queries possible to write with SQL

SPEAKER

Kristin Tufte, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science, Portland State University

Dr. Kristin Tufte has over 25 years experience in data architecture and data management system design and performance and 15 years experience in transportation data management. Dr. Tufte directs PORTAL — a 17TB archive of freeway, transit and traffic signal data which provides visualizations of performance measures for transportation professionals. Dr. Tufte was on teams that implemented two groundbreaking data management systems — a parallel geo-spatial data management system sold to NCR corporation and a data stream management system — technologies from both systems are now commonplace in the data management industry. In addition to her research work, Dr. Tufte teaches data management courses at Portland State University, including an Introduction to Databases course on which this training is based.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 90-minute seminar is eligible for 1.5 hours of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

THE TRANSPORTATION DATA WEBINAR SERIES

In Summer 2021 we launched a new quarterly webinar series focused on the issues and topics important to multimodal transportation data, led by the the TREC Transportation Data Manager Tammy Lee with support from our PORTAL partners. This series is integrated with the PORTAL User Group monthly meetings.

Sign up for our newsletter to receive monthly updates.

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Metro

The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University is home to the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), and other transportation programs. TREC produces research and tools for transportation decision makers, develops K-12 curriculum to expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engages students and professionals through education.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Presentation Slides
• PDH Certificate

OVERVIEW

Multimodal transportation systems (e.g., walking, cycling, automobile, public transit, etc.) are effective in increasing people’s travel flexibility, reducing congestion, and improving safety.  Therefore, it is critical to understand what factors would affect people’s mode choices. With advanced technology, such as connected and automated vehicles, cities are now facing a transition from traditional urban planning to developing smart cities. To support multimodal transportation management, this study serves as a bridge to connect speed management strategies of conventional corridors to connected vehicle corridors.

The study consists of three main components. In the first component, the impact of speed management strategies along traditional corridors was evaluated. In the second component, the impacts of the specific speed management strategies, signal retiming and coordination, on transit signal priority (TSP) was studied. Finally, in the third component, the feasibility of using controller event-based traffic data for estimating multimodal signal performance measures was investigated. The research outcomes of this study will help decision-makers understand the data and infrastructure needs in supporting future multimodal planning, operation, and safety tasks.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Understand the impacts of speed feedback sign along traditional corridors
• Understand the impacts of signal retiming and coordination, on transit signal priority
• Feasibility of using controller event-based traffic data for estimating multimodal signal performance

THE RESEARCH

This webinar is based on a study funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) and conducted at the University of Arizona, University of Utah, and Portland State University. Read more about the research: Data-Driven Mobility Strategies for Multimodal Transportation.

SPEAKER

Abolfazl Karimpour, University of Arizona

Dr. Abolfazl Karimpour is an adjunct professor and post-doctorate researcher at the University of Arizona. His research interests are Traffic Operation and Safety, Traffic signal Optimization, Data Analytics, and Freight Transportation. He has published over 10 peer-reviewed research articles in journals and conferences. He has presented his research findings more than 15 times at national and international conferences. Dr. Karimpour is the CO-PI and primary researcher on several national, regional, and local transportation projects. Dr. Karimpour is also a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and is the associate member of American Society of Civil Engineers.  Currently, he serves a NCHRP panelist.

Yao-Jan Wu, University of Arizona

Dr. Yao-Jan Wu is an associate professor of transportation engineering and the Director of Smart Transportation Lab in the Civil and Architectural Engineering and Mechanics Department at the University of Arizona (UA). Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2010. Currently, Dr. Wu is the faculty advisor of the UA Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) student chapter. He has served as the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI of over 30 national/international projects.  Dr. Wu has more than 100 refereed publications, including more than 50 journal publications. He has presented his research findings more than 100 times at national and international conferences, and invited speaker events. Dr. Wu’s research interests highlight a strong connection between information technology (IT) and traditional transportation research.

Xianfeng (Terry) Yang, University of Utah

Dr. Yang is an Assistant Professor (Transportation Engineering) in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah. Dr. Yang received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University. Dr. Yang's current research areas include machine learning for transportation modeling, traffic operations with connected automated vehicles, traffic safety, transportation equity, transportation planning, etc. He is the recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER award in 2021. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles in journals and conferences. He is currently the editorial board member of Transportation Research, Part C,  the Associate Editor of ASCE Journal of Urban Planning and Development and IEEE OJ- Intelligent Transportation Systems, and the Handling Editor of TRB Transportation Research Record. He is also the Vice-Chair of INFORMS JST ITS committee and the Secretary of the ASCE Artificial Intelligence committee. He is the appointed member of two TRB standing committees (ACP25-Traffic Signal Systems and AMR20-Disaster  Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity). He serves as the panelist of NSF, NCHRP, and multiple USDOT University Transportation Centers.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute webinar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

Sign up for our newsletter to get updates on our events.

Photo by csfotoimages/iStock

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

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Opening Keynote: Dr. Susan Handy
• Closing Keynote: Dr. Juan Pablo Bocarejo
• Panel: Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary

The World Society for Transport and Land Use Research (WSTLUR) promotes the understanding and analysis of the interdisciplinary interactions of transport and land use, offers a forum for debate, and provides a mechanism for the dissemination of information. The Society organizes the World Symposium on Transport and Land Use Research. The first symposium was held in Whistler, Canada 2011, the second was held at Delft, The Netherlands in 2014, and the third took place in Brisbane, Australia in 2017. 

TREC is co-sponsoring the 2021 World Symposium on Transport and Land Use Research (WSTLUR) to be held virtually August 9-11, 2021. The conference will feature over 100 papers, with authors from 30 different countries around the globe, networking opportunities, a dissertation competition, and some fun, interactive sessions. Keynote events include talks from Dr. Susan Handy, Distinguished Professor at University of California Davis and Dr. Juan Pablo Bocarejo Suescun, Associate Professor at the Universidad de los Andes, along with a panel discussion on Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary: Coordinating Transportation and Land Use at the Regional Scale.

REGISTRATION

Learn more about the WSTLUR program

Early Bird registration (ends June 30, 2021)

• Full - $350
• Student - $150

Registration (after July 1, 2021)

• Full - $400
• Student - $200

Conference Co-Chairs

Kelly Clifton, Portland State University

Kelly Clifton serves as the interim Associate Vice President for Research and as a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University. She holds an affiliate appointment in the Urban Studies and Planning Program and is a fellow in the Institute for Sustainable Solutions. Her research, teaching and service activities are focused on transportation and how human mobility is shaped by their needs, the built environment, and technology. She is an internationally recognized expert on transport and land use interactions, travel behavior, pedestrian modeling, and equity in transportation policy. She bridges the fields of transportation engineering and planning and is known for qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches.

Jennifer Dill, Portland State University

Director of TREC and the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Jennifer is also a professor of urban studies and planning. She is an internationally cited researcher on sustainable transportation. Among her research projects are Lessons from the Green Lanes: Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S., Understanding Types of Cyclists Nationally, Pedestrian Observation and Data Collection Curriculum and more. Her research aims to understand people’s everyday travel decisions, with a focus on bicycling, walking, and transit.

Yingling Fan, University of Minnesota

Yingling Fan is a professor in the regional planning and policy area who works interdisciplinarily in the fields of land use, transportation, social equity, and public health. Her overarching research goal is to investigate the impacts of spatial planning (e.g., land use, growth management, and transit improvements) on human activities and movements as well as to understand the health and social aspects of such impacts. To this end, her research combines ecological and behavioral analyses, most quantitatively, as a means of addressing urban sustainability challenges.

THE HOSTS

This event is hosted by the World Society for Transport and Land Use Research, in partnership with the Transportation Research and Education Center at Portland State University.

The World Society for Transport and Land Use Research is the group that organizes the symposia and fulfills other aims of the Society. Its purpose as a society is to promote the interdisciplinary understanding of interactions between transport and land use and to provide a forum for debate and a mechanism for dissemination of research, while encouraging diverse viewpoints and backgrounds in our membership and activities.

The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University is home to the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), and other transportation programs. TREC produces research and tools for transportation decision makers, develops K-12 curriculum to expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engages students and professionals through education.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Slides
• PDH Certificate

THE TOPIC

Wide residential streets in US cities are both a contributor to homelessness and a potential strategy to provide more affordable housing. In residential neighborhoods, subdivision ordinances typically set binding standards for street width, far in excess of what is economically optimal or what private developers and residents would likely prefer. These street width standards are one contributor to high housing costs and supply restrictions, which exacerbate the housing affordability crisis in high-cost cities.

Cities can certainly reduce street widths in new development. But what about existing neighborhoods? Dr. Adam Millard-Ball proposes two strategies through which excess street space can accommodate housing in a formalized way. First, cities could cede part of the street right-of-way to adjacent property owners, either as part of new development or as a means to create space for front-yard accessory dwelling units. Second, cities could permit camper van parking or tiny houses on the right-of-way, analogous to liveaboard canal boats that provide housing options in some UK cities. Many people already live on the streets; and rather than evicting unhoused people from that land, cities might think about how municipal reforms can turn streets into safe and affordable housing.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• How wide are street rights-of-way in the US, and what is the value of the land under the street?
• How to conceptualize the tradeoffs between land for streets and land for housing and other urban uses
• How to turn streets into housing

SPEAKERS

Adam Millard-Ball, Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles

Adam Millard-Ball is an associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA, focusing on transportation and climate change. Before joining UCLA, he taught environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, and was a Principal with transportation planning firm Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates. He holds a PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford University.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute seminar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We can provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

LEARN MORE

Photo by Inhabitat/Flickr

Sign up for our newsletter to receive monthly updates.

The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University is home to the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), and other transportation programs. TREC produces research and tools for transportation decision makers, develops K-12 curriculum to expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engages students and professionals through education.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Video
• Slides
• PDH Certificate
• TREC Twitter thread

THE TOPIC

For a person on a bicycle at intersections, trail crossings, or midblock locations that are signalized, knowing that they have been detected and how long they must wait to receive a green indication is valuable information. This presentation will summarize the findings from the online survey (1,048 responses), observed behaviors (2,428 persons on bicycle), and an intercept survey ( 234 persons) to understand blue light feedback devices and countdown timers at signalized intersections. 

Findings suggest that the design where the blue light was embedded in the sign was more visible to cyclists and observed by higher proportions of cyclists in the field. Results show that a bicycle signal countdown timer elicited high comprehension rates. At all locations, cyclists indicated that the devices improved their waiting experience.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Results of comprehension surveys on detection feedback devices
• Insights on improving bicycle infrastructure

THE RESEARCH

This seminar is based on a study funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Read more about the project: Bicycle Detection and Feedback Assessment.

SPEAKERS

Christopher Monsere, Portland State University

Dr. Christopher M. Monsere is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science at Portland State University. Dr. Monsere's primary research interests are in design and operation of multimodal transportation facilities including user behavior, comprehension, preferences, and the overall safety effectiveness of transportation improvements. Dr Monsere is a member of ANF20, the Bicycle Transportation Committee, the past co-chair of the Transportation Research Board's Safety Data, Analysis, and Evaluation committee (ANB20) and a past member of the TRB Task Force to develop the Highway Safety Manual (ANB25T).

Sirisha Kothuri, Portland State University

Sirisha Kothuri, Ph.D. is a senior research associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University. Dr. Kothuri’s primary research interests are in the areas of multimodal traffic operations, bicycle and pedestrian counting, and safety. Dr. Kothuri is the research co-chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Pedestrians Committee (ANF10) and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Data Subcommittee (ABJ 35(3)) and a member of Traffic Signal Systems committee. Dr. Kothuri received her BCE from Osmania University, India, MSCE from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge and Ph.D. from Portland State University.

David Hurwitz, Oregon State University

Dr. David S. Hurwitz is a Professor of transportation engineering and Director of the Driving and Bicycling Research Laboratory in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU). David also serves as the Associate Director at OSU for the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans). David conducts research in the areas of transportation human factors, traffic control, transportation safety, driving & bicycling simulation, and engineering education. In particular Dr. Hurwitz is interested in the consideration of user behavior in the design and innovation of transportation systems.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This 60-minute seminar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit for AICP (see our provider summary). We can provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

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The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University is home to the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), and other transportation programs. TREC produces research and tools for transportation decision makers, develops K-12 curriculum to expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engages students and professionals through education.