This event was hosted by Portland State University's Research and Strategic Partnerships. See the schedule for the monthly Research Rounds Speaker Series here.

REVISIT THE LECTURE: VIDEO AND SLIDES

 Miss the lecture or want a look back at the presentation? Watch the video, or view the presentation slides here.

"Naturally Occurring" or "Until Market Speculation Starts": Investigating the precarity of affordable rental housing and the potential for displacement along planned transit lines

New transit infrastructure is a double-edged sword for low-income renters: one the one hand, increased mobility supports access to jobs and critical services; but if transit-oriented development fails to include and preserve affordable housing, they may be pushed out by rising rents. The question of whether public investments spur gentrification and displacement have created intense controversy around planned transit extensions in our region. My research on precarious rental housing illuminates the specific mechanisms of housing displacement and challenges for housing affordability in the single-family/duplex and the large multifamily rental market. The loss of low-cost housing is occurring even without new infrastructure, but transit planning can be a venue for addressing the problem. By understanding pre-existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, we have opportunities for planning for housing preservation to ensure that the communities most in need of transit can access its benefits. 

This presentation is based on two reports conducted in partnership with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. The first, Planning for Livable Communities Along the Powell-Division BRT: Neighborhood Conditions and Change, was supported in part by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) under grant number RR-912 and is co-authored with Aaron Golub. The second, Preserving Housing Choice and Opportunity: A Study of Apartment Building Sales and Rents, is co-authored with Seyoung Sung.

Learn more about Lisa's research on this topic here.

Portland State University students share the work they presented at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 2018:

SEMINAR VIDEO

TRAVIS GLICK

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Travis Glick is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University. He was born and raised in Chico, California. During high school, he worked for his county government in the prevention unit, planning and leading after-school programs and regional conferences for at-risk youth. Following high school graduation in 2010, he moved to Portland, OR to attend the Portland State University Honors College. Travis's primary research interest is in transportation systems. His current research focuses on utilizing high-resolution archived transit data from Portland’s public transportation provider, TriMet, to create and analyze performance metrics for downtown streets and urban arterials.

Evaluation of Route Changes Utilizing High-Resolution GPS Bus Transit Data

Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence operating costs and service attractiveness. This research uses high resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; this allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and urban streets. By using buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots can be used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots can be utilized to discover trends and travel patterns with only a few days’ worth of data. Congestion and speed variation can be viewed by time of day and plots can help indicate delays caused by intersections, crosswalks, or bus stops. This type of information is important to transit authorities looking to improve bus running times and reliability. Congested areas can be detected and ranked. Speed plots can be utilized to reevaluate bus stop locations, e.g. near-side vs. far-side, and to identify locations where improvement are needed, e.g. queue jump lanes. Transportation agencies can also benefit from this type of information because arterial performance measures are difficult to estimate.

WEI SHI

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Wei Shi is a PhD student in Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. She received her masters degree in Human Geography in China, and worked at AECOM as an economist for one year before joining PSU. Wei is strongly interested in research about travel behavior, transportation and economic impacts of transportation infrastructures, particularly focusing on bicycle. She is also interested in transportation data and modeling, and exploring multiple data sources and methodologies to answer questions of why and how people get around, and what are the impacts on communities.

Valuing Bicycle Infrastructure in Portland, Oregon

Investments into active transportation infrastructure are often promoted as a strategy for sustainable transportation, better public health, environmental quality, and economic development. Although empirical evidence generally points toward positive property value impacts of off-street greenways and trails, few focus on whether households might have different willingness-to-pay for different types and levels of bicycle infrastructure. This paper aims to fill research gaps in understanding consumer preferences for different types of bicycle facilities by examining property value impacts of four bicycle facility types: on-street advanced bike facilities and bike lanes; and off-street regional multi-use paths and local multi-use paths. Using Portland, Oregon as a case study, this paper applies spatial hedonic pricing models, and characterizes each facility type by both ease of access (distance) and extensiveness of bike network (density) within a range of buffer zones.

We find strong evidence that households prefer to be located close to advanced bike facilities and enjoy a denser network. However, these impacts are not consistent across all types of bicycle facilities. Bike lanes tend to contribute negatively to property values. Model estimations also indicate some positive consumer preference for proximity to local multi-use paths, generally located within urban greenspaces. In addition, extensiveness of on-street bicycle facilities show positive and statistically significant impacts on property values, with diminishing effects as the buffer zone radius is increased. The results of this study should provide practical evidence for planners and policy makers in understanding the range of consumer preferences for various types of bicycle infrastructure investments.

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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Portland State University students will share the work they presented at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 2018:

SEMINAR VIDEO

KELLY RODGERS

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Kelly Rodgers is a PhD student in urban studies at Portland State University. She is currently conducting research on the role, nature, and quality of evidence in transportation decision-making and evaluating place typologies for their ability to capture variation in travel behavior. Kelly is also the Executive Director of Streetsmart, a research synthesis, resource clearinghouse, and communication platform for transportation planning.

Defining Place: A Review of How Place Type Is Measured and Constructed
Researchers have been parsing which components of the built environment contribute to outcomes of interest and to what degree, particularly the effects on vehicle use and walking. Increasingly, researchers and practitioners recognize that the type of neighborhood may affect individual travel behaviors. These bundle of various land use and transportation system characteristics can be constructed as different neighborhood or place types. But not all place types are constructed with the same use, purpose, or methods. This presentation will review three classifications of place typologies to better understand their purpose and appropriate application as well as introduce an online transportation platform that will incorporate aspects of place type.

JAIME ORREGO

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Density Differences: Exploring Built Environment Relationships with Walking Between and Within Metropolitan Areas
To explore the relationships between measures of density and walking within and between urban areas, we present an analysis of the travel survey data from six different cities from the US and Santiago, Chile. The analysis of aggregate and disaggregate pedestrian trips presented here examine the potential consistency of relationships between walking and density within and across different regions, with a specific focus on population density. Our findings illustrate a relationship between population density and walk mode shares that is roughly linear and of nearly equal magnitude across US regions in densities below 20 persons/acre. As work in this area matures, fine-grained built environment measures should be complemented with constructs that describe the metropolitan structure, including density distributions and gradients, poly-centricity, and spatial extent of the urban area.

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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EDUCATION LIBRARY ARCHIVE

Missed the webinar or want a look back? 

• Watch the recorded video
• View the presentation slides

OVERVIEW

In October 2017 the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) unveiled a groundbreaking new resource on planning and designing shared streets to accommodate people with vision disabilities. The first report of its kind, Accessible Shared Streets: Notable Practices and Considerations for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities (learn more and download the report) / (access the 508 version here) introduces accessible design principles for shared streets based on detailed research and extensive outreach, equipping communities to pursue new designs that are accessible for people with vision disabilities. Drawing from notable practices, public outreach, and field analysis from multiple US cities, this resource pushes the practice of shared street design towards accessibility for all users.

Toole Design Group and Accessible Design for the Blind were part of the team that helped FHWA bring this innovative resource to the public. Join us in hearing from these organizations on how to implement this new resource on your streets.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Learn how pedestrians with vision disabilities navigate shared streets, and understand the significant challenges they face.
• Develop a toolbox of strategies for planning and designing shared streets that are accessible.
• Understand the design concepts behind Tactile Walking Surface Indicators (TWSIs) and Detectable Edges
• Lessons learned from Shared Street implementation in the U.S.
• Identify additional needs for U.S. research and guidance regarding the appropriate physicality and use of directional indicators, Shared Street signs, and ongoing operations.

We need to involve pedestrians with range vision disabilities and their advocates at every stage in the planning and design of a shared street - let's get the conversation started!
 

SPEAKERS

Jim Elliott, AICP, Senior Planner, Toole Design Group

Jim Elliott is a Senior Planner with over eight years of experience working to promote and support active transportation for people of all ages and abilities. As a person with a visual impairment that prevents him from driving, Jim is acutely aware of the challenges people with visual impairments face in the built environment. He has played a key role in several national-level pedestrian and bicycle research projects, including a scoping study for the AASHTO Guide for the Planning, Design, and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities, where he was responsible for summarizing existing guidance on accessible pedestrian design, and NCHRP 803 Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation Along Existing Roads, where he helped lead stakeholder engagement and played a key role in developing and piloting the ActiveTrans Priority Tool for prioritizing pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Jim’s experience also includes coordinating trainings and workshops for AASHTO, the National Center for Safe Routes to School, and other clients, an ADA compliance study for the City of Takoma Park, MD, a transit access study for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, pedestrian and bicycle master plans, and Safe Routes to School.

Janet Barlow, Accessible Design for the Blind

Janet M. Barlow is a certified orientation and mobility specialist with over 30 years of experience teaching independent travel skills to individuals who are blind or who have low vision. In addition, she has been involved in numerous research projects evaluating the ability of individuals who are blind to use navigational aids, signals, and equipment effectively and safely, in accessibility, research and intersection design. Her research has included use of accessible pedestrian signals, crossing treatments at roundabouts including RRFBs, PHBs, and raised crosswalks, detecting streets at curb ramps, alignment cues and strategies, and development and testing of an intersection characteristics database with pedestrians with vision loss. Janet is chair of the Environmental Access Committee of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) and is in contact with orientation and mobility specialists and individuals who are blind or visually impaired through the U.S. She has provided numerous training sessions and presentations for transportation professionals at ITE, TRB, and APBP conferences to share and implement research results.

Dan Goodman, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of Human Environment (Livability Team)

Dan Goodman is a Transportation Specialist in the Office of Human Environment at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). He leads FHWA’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Program and its Pedestrian and Bicycle Work Group and oversees the work of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. He serves as one of FHWA’s representatives on the U.S.DOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Coordinating Committee and is FHWA’s representative to the AASHTO Joint Technical Committee on Non-Motorized Transportation. He received the 2016 Professional of the Year – Public Sector award from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.

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.

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SEMINAR VIDEO

PRESENTATION SLIDES

Miss the presentation or want a look back at the slides? You can view them here.

THE SPEAKER

Dr. Fumihiko Nakamura is Executive Director of International Office and Public Relations at Yokohama National University in Japan. He has conducted research in the fields of civil engineering and urban transportation planning. He has great interest in urban public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian travel, and the relationships between planning for these transportation modes and urban planning. He also has great interest in urban transportation problems in developing countries. He has conducted several investigations into the actual circumstances and analysis of political issues about bus and motorcycle travel in Asian countries. 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This event has not been pre-approved for AICP, but attendees may self-submit their attendance to their accrediting bodies.

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PRESENTATION SLIDES

Miss the presentation or want a look back at the slides? You can view them here.

WEBINAR VIDEO

This webinar will explain how app-based technologies can improve upon traditional pen-and-paper-based daily transportation diaries in terms of quantity and quality of data collected, particularly for environmental justice populations. The researchers will describe their own efforts, working on an inter-disciplinary team, to develop a custom-designed app, MyAmble, that measures the impact of transportation disadvantage more broadly across access to basic resources, opportunity to participate in wider society, and quality of life. MyAmble includes several innovations – daily digital trip planning, a text-messaging-based qualitative interview tool, and a challenge logger enabling participants to document real-time transportation barriers through videos and photos. Viewers will learn pragmatic strategies for implementing similar app-based ecological momentary assessment transportation data collection tools. In addition, researchers will share lessons learned from working on a technology-based interdisciplinary team.

SPEAKERS

Courtney Cronley, PhD, MSSW, The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work
Dr. Cronley's research focuses on the context of care for women and children experiencing homelessness. She has published over 20 manuscripts and presented at premier national conferences in social work and public health. Currently, she is completing two grant-funded, mixed-method studies. One examines the intersection of the homeless and child welfare service sectors among mothers experiencing homelessness, and the second explores housing insecurity as an antecedent and correlate of engaging in sex work among high-risk women. She also teaches advanced research methods for social work master's students and intermediate statistics for doctoral students.

Noelle Fields, PhD, LCSW, The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work
Noelle Fields is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work. Her primary research interests are in gerontology, with a particular focus on family caregiving and dementia, home and community-based services for older adults, and technology and aging. Dr. Fields is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and has practice experience working with both families and elders in a variety of settings. Dr. Fields has co-authored several publications related to assisted living, adult day services, aging well, and dementia caregiving. She has also presented at numerous national conferences on her research in gerontology and social work. Dr. Fields teaches courses such as Family Caregiving and Aging, Direct Practice with Aging, and Human Behavior in the Social Environment II.

Stephen Mattingly, PhD, The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Civil Engineering
Dr. Mattingly joined the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in September 2002. Prior to joining UTA he served on the faculty at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) for two and a half years, and also served as a lecturer at the University of Southern California. While at UAF, Dr. Mattingly helped found the FAA Air Transportation Centers of Excellence Program: Center for General Aviation Research. He teaches undergraduate courses in transportation engineering and transportation planning as well as graduate courses in analytical models in transportation, system evaluation and decision making, transportation network analysis, transportation planning and bicycle and pedestrian facility planning and design. In 2013, he joined in a consortium that formed the Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities through the USDOT University Transportation Centers Program. In 2016, he led UTAs participation in the National Institue for Transportation and Communities a national center funded through the USDOT University Transportation Centers Program. Dr. Mattingly’s areas of research include a wide variety of projects. The state funded research projects include work on evaluating existing highway right-of-way for accommodating high speed passenger rail, evaluating overheight detection devices, managed lane pricing and weaving, institutional approaches for interjurisdictional system management and detection and mitigation of roadway hazards for bicyclists. The federally-funded projects include: developing public health performance measures for transportation infrastructure, engineering sustainable engineers, evaluation of the Anaheim advanced traffic control system field operational test (SCOOT performance and assessment of institutional issues), documenting the institutional issues associated with the Irvine integrated corridor freeway ramp metering and arterial adaptive control field operational test, impacts of the Northridge Earthquake on traffic network performance, and determining the safety impact an end-around taxiway.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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

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Through our program the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), we've kickstarted the latest round of our Pooled Fund Grant 2018 (Problem Statements due May 15, 2018) – an opportunity for agencies and other partners to join forces in addressing a pressing transportation issue.

WEBINAR VIDEO

SLIDES

Miss the presentation or want a look back at the slides? You can view them here.

One champion identifies a problem that is common to other agencies, cities, or MPOs and then recruits other partners who are willing to collaborate and contribute financially to the project. At this point, NITC steps in and matches the funds that the partners pooled – making it possible to pursue a question that is greater in scope than any one agency or city could pursue on its own. Simple process, right? Maybe not! Yet, this process can be exciting, empowering and, most importantly, lead to the implementation of a project that produces immediate and impactful outcomes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Understand the process behind the grant,
• Receive guidance on how to identify and package a transportation issue into a compelling problem statement,
• Learn how to entice potential partners to collaborate and contribute,
• Learn how to construct a competitive pooled fund grant application.

Along the way, we will offer insights from two NITC projects that are the result of a Pooled Fund Grant, as well as provide additional guidance and resources. Join us!

SPEAKER

Eva-Maria Muecke

Research Program Administrator, Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC)

Eva-Maria administers NITC's research program at TREC, which involves a range of responsibilities including guiding projects through their life cycle, managing RFPs and peer reviews, compiling performance data for projects and NITC, and generating reports for NITC’s funder, U.S. DOT. She learned about the power of data, interdisciplinary research, and pursuing multiple lines of inquiry in solving problems through her graduate work in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior, research, and more than 10 years of teaching experience. She holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University and is passionate about all that supports a sustainable future, including transportation research. She has been riding a bike since she was a midget, and is happy to get to ride a bike to work again (at least part of the way) after several years of hiatus.

A recording of this webinar will be posted to the Pooled Fund Grant page.

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This presentation will review research regarding the economic impact of bicycle infrastructure on local businesses. Three case study corridors in San Francisco, CA are examined, and a robust discussion of the shortcomings of the research will be included. A question and open discussion period will follow, with a focus on constructive criticism of past research and methods to improve future work.

SEMINAR VIDEO

PRESENTATION SLIDES

Miss the presentation or want a look back at the slides? You can view them here.

SPEAKER

Joseph Poirier believes improving transportation is the most important part of fighting climate change. Joe has more than four years of experience in the transportation planning advocacy and academic worlds, and years more working freight logistics in the lumber industry. Joe specializes in active transportation and transit station area planning. His approach is to create efficient, equitable, and welcoming transportation systems to produce cleaner, happier, healthier communities.

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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SEMINAR VIDEO

PRESENTATION SLIDES

Miss the presentation or want a look back at the slides? You can view them here.

How can we go one step, or one lane, further than the standard road diet? Roundabouts allow a road diet to reduce the final number of lanes from three to two. 

Questions arise when roundabouts are used with a road diet. What traffic volumes are supportable? Will the roundabouts fit within existing intersections? What does current guidance tell us about this approach? 

Michael Williams will present his work on creating a sequel to FHWA’s Road Diet Informational Guide. This work is intended to provide a feasibility determination tool for the application of this approach to existing corridors. Data from Bird Rock Boulevard in La Jolla, CA is presented as an example from which important lessons are drawn.

FHWA's "Road Diet Informational Guide: Download the report (PDF) / Access the 508 version here

Michael Williams' Road Diet V2.0 Informational Guide: Download the report

THE SPEAKER

Michael Williams has worked on active transportation issues since 2000 as an advocate, planner, and designer. He has published and presented on advisory bicycle lanes and the use of roundabouts with road diets. Michael Williams holds a BS in Computer Engineering, an MS in Electrical Engineering, an MS in Civil Engineering and holds 11 patents. More information available at @bikepedx or www.advisorybikelanes.com.

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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Sign up for our newsletter and check the box for "Events" to receive monthly updates.

This one-day summit is co-hosted in partnership with Portland State University’s Graduate School of Education (GSE)

Learn about the latest approaches and technologies to access transportation systems for diverse members of our community, especially people with visual impairments. With effective wayfinding technologies and community partnerships, innovations support all people in accessing transportation and connecting with the community. Learn more from our experts on travel planning, wayfinding, and designing systems that support access for all people.

After this workshop you will be able to:

• Describe recent innovations that support wayfinding and travel for individuals with visual impairments
• Identify important considerations in community design that include individuals with visual impairments and other disabilities
• Identify innovations in universal transportation design
• Share conversations that lead to solutions for wayfinding and access
• Contribute to a shared blueprint for community-based solutions to transportation

Registration Costs

Includes light breakfast, breaks, and lunch
General Admission (Early Bird - ends Feb 1): $75
General Admission (Regular - Feb 2 - March 3): $100
Discounted Admission for PSU Students: $25

See the program and register here (closes March 3rd)!

Ramp-Up Event

Want to learn more before the summit? Join us January 25th for a free webinar on "An Accessible Approach to Shared Streets" to hear from the teams who produced the recently published FHWA guide to "Accessible Shared Streets: Notable Practices and Considerations for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities".

Summit Partners

Portland State University Graduate School of Education (GSE) is the largest and most comprehensive school of education in Oregon, offering more than 50 programs in education and counseling. GSE’s hybrid online O&M is the regional program for the Pacific and Northwest Consortium for Vision Education, comprised of six states: Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska and Montana. The O&M program is closely affiliated with the GSE’s nationally accredited Visually Impaired Learner (VIL) program.

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 young professionals through education.