Last month, Portland State University announced the 2021 awards for faculty and staff excellence for research, graduate mentoring and research administration. The awards are among the university's highest honors. The 2021 Presidential Career Research Award recipient is Jennifer Dill. Dill is a professor in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Director of the Transportation Research & Education Center at PSU, and Director of the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, a national university transportation center funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

TREC Communications Director Cait McCusker interviewed Dr. Dill last week to learn more about the origin and trajectory of her career in transportation research at PSU.

What led you to choose transportation research as your career?

Growing up in the 1970’s, I was surrounded by environmental issues. It was the time of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the EPA, Earth Day, pollution, the oil crisis...all of that shaping my view on the world. When I went to undergraduate at UC Davis I knew I wanted to do something related to environmental policy and cities. Cities held a certain fascination for me, and in college I started putting all the pieces together and recognizing the huge impact that transportation has on urban areas and the environment. Transportation appealed to both the quantitative, analytical side of me, and also the people-oriented side of me that wanted to see the tangible impacts first hand.

I got a master's degree in planning at UCLA and I started working for the US Environmental Protection Agency doing air quality work with a focus on transportation. That's what I did until I decided to get a PhD and dig in deeper. The field of transportation just offered me so many good job opportunities.

Do you have a particular teacher or mentor that made an impact on you?

There’s definitely two people in my life that stand out: Dan Sperling and Marty Wachs.

Dan Sperling was my professor as an undergrad student at UC Davis, and he hired me to do research alongside him. We wrote my first TRB paper together! As an undergraduate, that was a big deal. He even invited me to the grad seminars where I got the opportunity to connect with PhD students. The confidence that he had in me was very supportive.

At UCLA Marty Wachs was my advisor as a graduate student, and again at UC Berkeley when I pursued my PhD. I’ve been thinking about Marty a lot lately. He passed away just a few weeks ago [read a memoriam for Marty Wachs from U.C. Berkeley]. He gave me so many opportunities, and in addition to being a leading scholar who did interesting work - he was a role model for how I serve as a professor today. He was a very caring person who spent a lot of time with his students. He had so many of them, but he managed to make each of his students feel special. He was an engineer, but also such a people person. He placed a big importance on ethics and serving underrepresented people in his transportation work.

There have certainly been others instrumental to my growth, particularly later on in my career I’ve developed peer networks of women that I lean on for insight and connection.

How has your 20 year tenure at Portland State University influenced you or your work? 

Teaching at an institution that values engaged learning and research is important to me. Portland State’s motto, “Let knowledge serve the city”, is the sentiment that motivated me to get a PhD in the first place. It’s allowed me to do the type of applied research that’s going to have a direct impact on practice and policies in cities. It’s not purely academic or just about citations. Portland more broadly has a lot of public institutions that are willing to engage with the university, which is so great.

Do you have any memories at PSU that you are particularly fond of?

I’ve been pretty happy here at PSU. When I think of some of the most fun I’ve had, it’s been in one-on-one conversations with students. Working together on a research project, in advising sessions, and just seeing where they go after graduation. I’m lucky to have had so many of my past students stay in the Portland area.

A funny, but not fond, memory I have was September 2001 – my first week as a PSU faculty member at CUPA [College of Urban and Public Affairs]. I was running to catch a bus, and there was this lip of the curb where the street car tracks descended and I just landed funny. I had broken my foot and spent the rest of my first term teaching in a boot. I was the new transportation professor at PSU and here I am, brand new to my role, with a broken foot from public transportation. I’m glad I can laugh about it now.

One memory that really stands out to me is getting the news in December 2016 that we won the UTC competition for the FAST Act and continuing on with our NITC program. And for that matter, also the memory of getting the news that we won the UTC competition for MAP-21 in 2013. The shared excitement with my team, and just having that recognition of our expertise was really wonderful.

What has Directing TREC and the NITC program meant to you?

Having an impact on practice and the partnerships we’ve built from TREC, the Transportation Research and Education Center here at PSU, along with our collaborative research program, NITC. One of the biggest challenges of collaboration is finding the people that you just honestly enjoy working with, that are also smart and do great work. NITC is not just a contractual grant where we divy up money. It’s a real collaboration and we work so well together.

We've been able to build on this partnership and our body of work on multimodal transportation. We focus on work that matters, and not just counting the number of citations or journal articles.

What research contribution have you made to the transportation profession that is most meaningful to you? 

What stands out to me the most is bikeway research I’ve done around bike boxes, green lanes, and bike boulevards. And, I have to give credit to my colleague Joe Broach for the analysis work, but the data collected demonstrate that bike boulevards support closing the gender gap in cycling. This larger body of work, often in collaboration with Chris Monsere and Nathan McNeil, provided clear evidence that infrastructure matters, and changes to it can influence behavior in a positive and safer way. These projects started out with a local focus, but expanded nationally.

A lot of people link me to the Four Types of Cyclists, and while I did the empirical research to look at it nationally - the concept was originally created by the City of Portland’s Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller.

More recently, the work that I’m excited about is around equity in bike share programs which is now being carried further by my colleagues John MacArthur, Nathan McNeil, and Joe Broach.

Is there anything you’re working on right now that you’re really excited about?

Definitely the Research Roadmap for the AASHTO Council on Active Transportation that we’re finishing up right now. The draft is under review by the Council and the panel, and I’m excited about it. This opportunity has really given me the time to focus on the broad spectrum of active transportation research, and see just how much is going on right now. The field is constantly evolving though, and I already have some changes I want to make right up until the last minute to make it as current as possible. Call me dedicated! I really feel that this roadmap is going to be useful to a lot of people.

Is there a research question that you would love to explore if given the opportunity?

I’ve been working in this field, that is - getting people out of their cars - since 1989. In the beginning, we did not have good evidence for the things we knew instinctively around multimodal  infrastructure and policy. In this world of regulation and planning you have to have that evidence and numbers. So much of my career has centered around gathering that evidence.

It’s 2021, and now we’re in a place where we usually know what works, and we have the proof. Sure, we could replicate studies and quantify it in more ways, but how many more details are necessary to take action and invest in change? We know what needs to be done to make our streets safer for people to bike and walk and take transit.

The biggest barriers right now are political implementation and institutional infrastructure. How do we change decision-making in the transportation industry, at all levels? How can we influence and motivate practitioners and the middle managers to implement changes? How do we remove barriers like changing the MUTCD? That’s the holdup. I do think there is a field of research for this. It may not seem as obvious or in line with traditional research practices, and it’s definitely more challenging and time consuming work. But it’s what I want to spend more time exploring.

I would also love to spend more time on how to close the gender gap in cycling, in particular how to encourage tween and teen girls to get interested in bicycling.

Do you have any advice for transportation researchers just starting out in the industry?

When I published my first paper on bicycling research in 2003, written during my 1st year at PSU, I did hesitate. Bicycling? Is that really the research stream of work that is going to get me tenured at PSU and funded? But it’s what I was passionate about. There wasn’t much out there when I started, but research on bikes has exploded.

Focus on your passion, on what you’re really concerned about even if you don’t think others will consider it “serious” enough, valid or trendy. Stick with it. If you’re committed to the work, your peers will notice. For example, recently there has (thankfully) been an increasing focus on equity, race and racism in transportation, and even just a few years ago you would have senior people discouraging young scholars from pursuing that research. Now there is a huge demand for better understanding this intersection.

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.

See the full, original article "PSU Announces Recipients of Prestigious University Research and Mentoring Awards", authored by Shaun McGillis, Research and Graduate Studies, PSU. Below is an excerpt:

Portland State University announces the 2021 awards for excellence for research, graduate mentoring and research administration. The awards are among the university's highest honors. They recognize and incentivize PSU faculty and staff excellence in research, scholarship, artistry and dedication to PSU students.

Recipients of the awards are some of the most dynamic faculty and staff members at PSU. Colleagues submit nominations; a jury of peers selects awardees based on the significance and quality of their research or creative achievements and extraordinary commitment to creating an environment supportive of research and student success. Join us as we celebrate this year’s awardees at the Research Awards Ceremony (online Friday, 3:30 - 5 PM Pacific) during Research Week (May 3-7).

Presidential Career Research Award: Dr. Jennifer Dill

The 2021 Presidential Career Research Award recipient is Jennifer Dill. Dill is a professor in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning and Director of the Transportation Research & Education Center at PSU. TREC houses the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, a national university transportation center funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

TREC Researcher Profile | Jennifer Dill website and blog | Jennifer Dill Twitter

Professor Dill is an internationally known scholar researching the relationships between transportation, land use, health and the environment, focusing on active transportation. Before entering academia, Professor Dill worked as an environmental and transportation planner in California. That experience motivates her teaching and research, which aims to inform practice and policy. She has published extensively in peer-review journals and has served as principal investigator or co-PI on over $4.3M in research projects and over $28M in federal center funding. Her research has been covered by Wired, Governing, USA Today, the PBS NewsHour, Here and Now, Marketplace and the Atlantic. She has served on and chaired Transportation Research Board committees and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Transportation and Health, Transportation Research Record and the Journal of Transportation and Land Use. Professor Dill also serves on the Board of Trustees for the TransitCenter, a foundation that works to improve public transit across the U.S.

"Dr. Dill is a very accomplished and prominent researcher and is well-respected in her field," said Chris Monsere, professor and chair of Civil & Environmental Engineering. "Her research aims to understand people's everyday travel decisions, focusing on bicycling, walking and transit. Her scholarship informs our understanding of travel decisions, how the built environment influences travel decisions and how those decisions impact our health."

Since 2013, local transportation activist group Better Block PDX has developed partnerships with organizations across the Portland Metro area. Most notable were the connections that emerged between the communities’ needs for creative transportation solutions and the expertise of Portland State University (PSU) transportation students.

That collaboration evolved into Better Block PSU, a pathway program led by PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Center that integrates tactical urbanism and placemaking into the engineering and planning curriculum at PSU. Most recently we shared an update on Re-Imagining a Safer Route to the César Chávez School, which advanced to the Spring 2021 engineering capstone.

We’re excited to announce the latest projects to have been accepted into the Better Block PSU pathway program:

• City of Independence Neighborhood Greenways: This project will help create a low-stress biking and walking network through Independence connecting local schools, businesses, and parks.
• Community Green Space for Parkrose: This project plans to create a pathway from the Parkrose neighborhood to the Columbia Slough to increase access to green space and community knowledge of the Slough.
• Arleta Triangle Transformation: This project will transform a dangerous slipway into community space including a skate park, basketball court, and electric mobility hub, which have been identified as needs from the community.

Below we share summaries and excerpts from the proposals of the chosen projects for the PSU transportation classes. What aspects of the proposals are developed will evolve and change over time, depending upon the goals and constraints of the class. Later this year we’ll share an update on the progress and accomplishments of each project team.

City of Independence Neighborhood Greenways

THE OPPORTUNITY

The City of Independence, located in Polk County near Salem, Oregon, is updating its Transportation System Plan (June 2021). The City has articulated the need to improve pedestrian and bicycle routes, and identified a series of low-volume streets to serve as the basis for a new low-stress alternative transportation network. This project would be a logical next step following the update and would act as a pilot project to help the City think about how best to design and implement a small portion of the network.

This project would focus on three streets near historic downtown, offering the City the opportunity to connect four City-owned parks (including one facility that is currently undeveloped), three distinct neighborhoods, the area’s elementary school, two local head start facilities and the City of Independence’s downtown and riverfront. This historic neighborhood is served by a somewhat disconnected, gridded-street network. This disconnected network means that many of the through streets are primarily designed for cars, and the ability for individuals to walk or roll through the area is limited (especially for younger travelers).

The concept of these low-stress streets is broadly supported by the community, but design strategies to improve the routes are less well understood.

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD

Methods on how to make the low-stress streets inviting for all is exactly the question that this project would address. Routes such as Ash Street are straight and often have limited on-street parking (which encourages motorists to travel at higher speeds). Additionally, the road makes two 90-degree turns onto 4th near Independence Elementary, which when combined with the higher traffic volumes associated with school pick up and drop off, can contribute to an uncomfortable bike route. Traffic associated with Independence Elementary also makes the best connection from the school to downtown and Riverside Park unclear. The City has wrestled with whether the City should use B Street or C Street for the low-stress connection.

Students from Portland State University would help the City to think about the benefits and drawbacks of each idea.

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?

Is the project implementable? Have community residents, including those typically underrepresented had the opportunity to actively shape their community? Have relationships and opportunities for collaboration improved between the City and partner organizations because of work together on the project? Have the PSU students benefited from the experience? The project team has identified a multitude of success measures, and Fred Evander, City Planner for the City of Independence shares:

“The ultimate measure of the success is whether the project will promote walking, bicycling, and rolling. The City believes that the low-stress alternative transportation network pilot project will be transformative for Independence, Oregon.”

Community Green Space for Parkrose

THE OPPORTUNITY

Outer Sandy Blvd (between 99th and 121st avenues) is a narrow auto dominated strip often used as a bypass for Washington State residents seeking to avoid the I-205 freeway traffic. Located within the Historic Parkrose Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative district (HPR) and the Parkrose School District, it has few crossings and unimproved cross streets, and even fewer green elements to ease these harsh conditions. Trees have often been removed, citing a concern that they impeded car traffic visibility. Moreover, there is no community space or green space for the youth in this district.

HPR is developing a community plan, with the support of the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, that will document the needs and aspirations of Black and Brown local businesses, students, and families in the area. This planning work is funded through a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation which includes a series of activities to engage and involve youth, residents, and Black, Indgenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) professionals working in the area.

This initiative will provide a Parkrose action plan: including transportation, access to green space, housing and anti-displacement, job navigation and home-based business technical assistance, and emergency preparedness.

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD

Better Block PSU can help bring several ideas to life, providing critical guidance for temporary transformation of an arterial road and/or collector streets as part of developing a conceptual route to the Columbia Slough. There are select sites directly on Sandy Blvd (an ODOT facility) and off this main road that are strong candidates for the project to:

• Create community gathering spaces, as there are no defined public spaces where people can rest, meet, showcase art, and put their own neighborhood landmark along their path to the Columbia Slough.
• Design safer pedestrian infrastructure for marked mid-block crossings on Sandy Blvd where there are lengthy walking distances between signalized intersections.
• Design pop-up parks and seating areas to provide much needed relief from a concrete landscape dominated by vehicular traffic. Invite businesses to collaborate and visualize the possibilities for growing entrepreneurship, connectedness, and safety. Much of the available land on Sandy Blvd is privately owned and vacant or underutilized.
• Develop a concept of a route from the Sandy district to the Columbia Slough for a direct, walkable and accessible connection to nature for the City of Portland and other partners to invest in.

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?

“Success for this project means developing a process and guide to repeating the project demonstrations,” shares Seile Tekle, Executive Director of HPR, “This could mean multi-agency permitting, fundraising, and community participation that documents community strengths and ideas.” The hope is that through demonstrations, these improvements could eventually become permanent.

Parkrose is among Portland’s most diverse and low-income districts, with 47.7% of residents identifying as persons of color (Venture Portland 2017) and a household median income of $34,906, compared to the Portland city average of $61,532. (American Community Survey 2017)

“The project is for underserved BIPOC communities, particularly the youth,” emphasized Tekle. The project team will measure success in terms of the quality of BIPOC community engagement and deliverables for the community plan (in progress) such as locating outdoor spaces preferably with green elements in Parkrose for our diverse community members to find respite.

Arleta Triangle Transformation

THE OPPORTUNITY

SE 72nd & Woodstock is the current home of the Arleta Triangle Project (ATP) in Mt Scott-Arleta Neighborhood of Outer Southeast Portland. The slip lane here - a remnant of the Lents streetcar line that once ran through this part of town, is wider than the main thoroughfare and its design incentivizes careless driving, esp from high-speed motorists across two arterials.

This poses a significant safety hazard to bicyclists and pedestrians, cutting off access to a valuable neighborhood amenity, Mt Scott Park and Community Center and creates dangerous gaps in the sidewalk and bike lane network. There have been numerous automobile crashes at or adjacent to this site. The slip lane is fully paved with asphalt, curbs, no painted parking, and ineffective stop signs at either end.

In addition the safety hazards, the project team has heard from a strong need from their diverse community for more inclusive planning. Their Black neighbors have shared that they feel marginalized from public space by the removal of basketball hoops in parks. They have heard from transit-dependent neighbors that the lack of a TriMet bus on either SE 72nd or Woodstock through this part of town is a burden on them. The teen program at Mt Scott Community Center has endured through recent budget cycles, and the youth in the community are struggling with mental health and other issues due to the state of the world.

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD

In addition to safety improvements, the project team wants to create an inclusive skate park with a basketball hoop, as well as an electric mobility hub (scooter parking, bike share, etc.). The Arleta Triangle Transformation project could use this Better Block PSU phase as grounds for building relationships with younger neighbors and their families across languages, cultures, and abilities; including site signage in multiple languages; and centering the principle of inclusivity in all stakeholder processes and design. This also might entail creating set aside times for specific parts of the community (trans, femme/NB identifying, people with disabilities) to use the space exclusively, as well, to be determined by those community members.

• Continue fostering equitable neighborhoods and demonstrate that creating inviting, inclusive community spaces can help foster community connections, intercultural learning, and tolerance across differences.
• Support the youth, especially from non-dominant cultures, and help them feel more valued, confident, and connected.
• Improve traffic safety in the neighborhood, especially the arterials.
• Activate the Arleta Triangle and encourage neighbors to be involved in the creation, management, and ownership of the space.

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?

“Inclusion is a tool, process, and outcome, so at each step of the project we would want to focus on it,” shared project lead Sarah Ianorrone, Executive Director of the Street Trust. “It can be hard, because inclusion is both qualitative (demographic) and subjective (user experience).” The project team may want to consider starting from PBOT's existing Equity Matrix (GIS) as a framework and getting some benchmark data about participants in the Teen Program at the nearby Mt Scott Community Center. The proof will be in the process and use.

Ultimately, they know it’s been a success if people from all backgrounds and experiences love using the space and feel committed to its success. By engaging in this process, the team hopes to gain methodological support for project evaluation.

How Do I Get Involved?

Although the 2021 RFP is now closed, you can read the Better Block PDX Guide to Pop-Up Projects, join our mailing list, and learn more about Better Block PSU here.

We're also seeking three transportation professionals to volunteer as Better Block Technical Advisors. Although classes began April 1, 2021, we're still accepting inquiries on a rolling basis.

We've just published a brand new set of four "How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?" education modules for high school students (download here)!

The modules, which can be taught in sequence or as standalone lessons, provide students with creative ways of observing transportation systems in their neighborhoods through collecting pedestrian data, critically evaluating accessibility, and learning about livable communities. Students will gain a deeper understanding of how people move through their community, and whether the transportation in their community is designed with the needs of all people in mind. 

This curriculum was originally developed for the National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) - a STEM-focused transportation summer camp for high school students. In 2020, when the camps were converted to a virtual format for the first time, new tools had to be developed for student engagement and learning. These walkability modules were completed during the virtual camps, but are not dependent on a virtual format. They are provided as in-person activities with notes throughout on how to adapt them to a virtual learning experience:

• Module 1: Observations by Foot
• Module 2: Collecting the Data
• Module 3: Crossing at the Intersection
• Module 4: Final Project
• Bonus Optional Activities: Transit Budgeting; Transportation Bingo

This curriculum was developed by Nora Stoelting, our Transportation Education Program Coordinator and current PSU student who is pursuing a dual master's degree in Leadership for Sustainability Education and Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. It was also supported by TREC Associate Director Hau Hagedorn, and with input from the many transportation professionals who have volunteered as guest camp instructors.

TREC TRANSPORTATION SUMMER CAMPS THIS JULY 2021

We have received funding for another year of the transportation summer camps in 2021 (July summer dates to be announced) and we will know more about the format of the camps as we monitor state and campus guidance on in-person events. In the meantime, add your name here to be notified about the camps.

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.

In June 2019, the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) launched a new incentive package aimed at making transportation more accessible for low-income households. In the "Transportation Wallet for Residents of Affordable Housing" pilot program, people living in affordable housing developments received access to free transportation options like transit passes, bike or scooter share memberships, rideshare and carshare credits.

Portland State University researchers evaluated the pilot program to find out how participants used the Transportation Wallet and how it helped them use different transport modes to get around.

A February 2021 paper in Transportation Research Record by Huijun Tan, Nathan McNeil, John MacArthur and Kelly Rodgers presents insights into the implementation and effectiveness of a transportation financial incentive program for low-income populations. Access the paper: "Evaluation of a Transportation Incentive Program for Affordable Housing Residents."

Main findings include:

1. The financial support of this program encouraged some participants to use new mobility services (including Uber/Lyft, bike share, and e-scooter) that they had never used before.
2. The program increased access for participants, helping them make more trips and, for some, get to places they otherwise could not have gone.
3. Transportation fairs, where participants could learn about services and talk to providers, promoted both mode sign-up and mode usage, particularly for new mobility services and a reduced fare transit program.

The article is part of a larger research effort underway, funded by the National Institute for Transportation & Communities, Metro, and PBOT: "New Mobility For All: Can Targeted Information And Incentives Help Underserved Communities Realize The Potential Of Emerging Mobility Options?" This project explores underserved communities' access to new mobility programs such as ride-hailing, car-sharing, and micromobility. Researchers surveyed participants of PBOT's Transportation Wallet pilot, as well as a program of Oregon Metro designed to provide personalized transportation planning services (trip planning, education, outreach) in combination with free ride or drive credits from ride-hail and car share services to help connect residents to travel opportunities. An update on the project will be given in an upcoming Friday Transportation Seminar:

Friday, April 16, 2021: Friday Transportation Seminar: Evaluation of a Transportation Incentive Program for Affordable Housing Residents. 

In the seminar, Huiun Tan, Nathan McNeil and John MacArthur of PSU along with Roshin Kurian of PBOT will share findings from their survey of participants in PBOT's pilot program, and draw connections to how a transportation demand management program like the Wallet could be implemented to provide incentives and financial benefits to low-income populations.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

New Mobility For All: Can Targeted Information And Incentives Help Underserved Communities Realize The Potential Of Emerging Mobility Options?

Nathan McNeil and John MacArthur, Portland State University

• Read the Transportation Research Record journal article
• Register for the April 16 Seminar

Photo by Cait McCusker

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.

Citing two TREC studies, Congressman Jimmy Panetta of the 20th District of California and Congressional Bike Caucus Chairman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon have introduced the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE) Act to encourage the use of electric bicycles, or e-bikes.

The E-BIKE Act creates a consumer tax credit that:

• Covers 30% of the cost of the electric bicycle, up to a $1,500 credit
• Applies to new electric bicycles that cost less than $8,000
• Is fully refundable, allowing lower-income workers to claim the credit

The first TREC study referenced, The E-Bike Potential: How E-Bikes Can Improve Sustainable Transportation, found that if 15% of car trips were made by e-bike, carbon emissions would drop by 12%. This finding was based on a Portland, Oregon case study. The researchers also created an Electric Vehicle Incentive Cost and Impact Tool which enables policymakers, public stakeholders, and advocates to quickly visualize the potential outcomes of an electric vehicle incentive program in their own region.

The second TREC study cited, A North American Survey of Electric Bicycle Owners, surveyed people who owned e-bikes and found that 46% percent of e-bike commute trips replaced automobile commute trips.

The proposed legislation would make it easier for people to own e-bikes and contribute to cutting the nation's carbon output. By incentivizing the use of electric bicycles to replace car trips through a consumer tax credit, more Americans will be empowered to help fight the climate crisis by transitioning to more sustainable transportation modes.

Read more about our e-bike research studies from Portland State University.

Photo by Halfpoint/iStock

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.

The Portland State University Bike Hub has received funding to purchase 25 electric bikes via a new grant from Portland General Electric.

The Bike Hub is a full-service retail bike shop on campus, opened in 2010. The shop offers long-term bike rental through its VikeBike program, a fleet of over 140 bikes offered at low cost (or no cost, based on need). The program’s existing fleet was assembled by collecting and refurbishing abandoned bikes on campus and made available to students for long-term rentals.

PSU will use this funding to purchase 25 Batch Bicycles e-bikes, to supplement the rental fleet and provide greater access to those living further from campus or those with physical barriers to cycling, and serve as a pilot program toward the eventual full replacement of the rental fleet with e-bikes.

Read more about the PGE program on BikePortland, or read about TREC research focusing on e-bikes.

Photo by Edis Jurcys

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.

Photo by Page Light Studios/iStock

Two national research centers at Portland State University have been awarded a new contract from the National Academies of Science (NAS): TCRP J-11/Task 40: Homelessness: A Guide for Public Transportation. We interviewed the two principal investigators to learn more about this new collaboration:

Could you share with us the background and objectives of this new project?

JOHN MACARTHUR, Sustainable Transportation Manager, Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University

Five years ago the NAS completed TCRP Synthesis 121 report– a synthesis of transit agency practices in interacting with people who are experiencing homelessness. They want to take another look to find out what has changed. Originally, the work was focused on the operational side of things. We’re expanding that scope to look at, not only how are people who are experiencing homelessness impacting the transit system, but also, how can the transit system help that community. 

Transit agencies are looking for best practices– ways to address the issue, both in internal operations but also through partnerships. The project is a combination of a literature review, survey scan, and case study development to elevate some of those lessons learned to a national dialogue.

DR. MARISA ZAPATA, Associate Professor of Land-Use Planning at Portland State University and Director of PSU's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC)

Homelessness is a reflection of dramatic societal failure from multiple systems. And it is both the failure of those systems, but now also the responsibility of those and other systems, to respond and address what homelessness produces. And obviously, the people who are experiencing homelessness are the people who are most impacted by the existence of homelessness. But by continuing to allow homelessness in our society, we also have to recognize that there are additional impacts being felt across other systems - particularly in our public assets around land, transit, public infrastructure. 

What we're really trying to do here is to highlight places that have found innovative ways to engage in supporting people experiencing homelessness. And also to identify solutions such as fare-free transit. 

Why do you think it is so critical to be looking at transit when discussing barriers and opportunities that people experiencing homelessness face?

MARISA

There are a couple of ways in which transit agencies are both impacted by and implicated in homelessness. They also have opportunities to help resolve it. We have seen increases in unsheltered homelessness, particularly on the West Coast. We've got people who are looking for any kind of shelter: living in subway tunnels, sleeping at bus stops, riding rail lines just to stay warm. So you've got people who are experiencing homelessness, which is a critical issue in itself, and it can also be distressing to other passengers.

Looking at the prevention side, how can we ensure that people who are low-wage earners are able to access transportation to jobs and opportunities? If we can keep people at least making minimum wage, then we can often keep people housed by augmenting that minimum wage salary with housing assistance. 

People experiencing homelessness need to be able to access work, health care systems, benefit offices...and the best way to do that is on transit. And so we need to think about how people who are in low-income situations or experiencing homelessness use transit systems to better their lives, but then also understand the impacts of homelessness on our transit systems. 

JOHN

I think transit agencies can no longer look at themselves as just providing transit. Their role in the way a community functions is so much bigger than that. Transit is the connection that gets a lot of people to essential services that will improve their lives. Transit agencies need to rethink how they are serving all riders, including people experiencing homelessness, and how they can - more humanely and with attention - make the system more usable for all riders. Both for the people who are homeless, but also for riders who are interacting with people using the system.

What unique strengths do PSU researchers bring to the table that will deepen our understanding of transit and houselessness?

JOHN

At PSU we have two national research centers that focus on both sides of this coin, and it's exciting that this is the first project for us to work on collaboratively on such an important and timely topic. 

MARISA

Yes, it's the first project of what, we hope, will become a portfolio of work. We've got John, who has an incredible research history with transit agencies and understanding how they function, and is part of TREC, which is one of our national leaders in transportation research. And you've got me. I lead the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative – one of the few national research centers that is looking specifically at homelessness as an issue. 

There is a history of people who study homelessness avoiding research about unsheltered homelessness. And there's a reason for that. Historically, people will use focusing on sheltered homelessness to avoid talking about the actual solution to homelessness, which is housing and support services to maintain housing. So there is a concern that when you look at other things, you're allowing society to ignore what the real solution is. As a research center, we have been willing to engage in a way that other scholars are hesitant to do so. 

One of the things that meant a lot to me in this study was the inclusion of the prevention side. So it's understanding and accepting responsibility for where you, as a system, might not have been working as the best actor in helping to prevent homelessness, while also asking for assistance to figure out how to be a part of the solution.

What aspect of this project are you most excited about? What do you expect to be most challenging?

MARISA

The two things I am most excited about, one is to build the continued partnership and relationship with TREC. And then secondly, I think, to bring a unique perspective and sensitivity to this work. To avoid this idea of, 'Get rid of the people, or do the minimum so they don't bother the other people.' There is also a security component of transportation. This is an opportunity, particularly at this moment in history, to think about policing in relationship to people of color, many of whom are experiencing homelessness in these communities.

Working on issues in homlessness is some of the most challenging public policy work you can do right now. It is our responsibility to give as much context as possible to understand what the findings really mean. It’s easy for someone to pull a stat from a survey and make a headline in the paper or use it for arguments that were not at all intended. 

JOHN

That attention is both exciting and challenging. But that demonstrates how important the topic is, and how there are widely varying beliefs on how we approach it. This is really that initial step to doing a longer-range research portfolio on this topic area.

This is also an opportunity to not frame this as a situation where you're pitting riders against other riders who are homeless. A big issue for transit agencies is that if some of their riders are complaining and if it’s negatively impacting how often they ride, it hits the agencies’ bottom line. It’s important for those agencies to publicly address safety concerns, while also dismantling negative perceptions of their other riders. That's a tricky path to walk on both sides, but I think that's one of the things we'll be looking at. 

Have you noticed promising approaches in the first six case studies that you hope to revisit?

MARISA

It's really promising to see people bringing in social service organizations to do outreach. That is something we're seeing across a number of public agencies, recognizing that not everyone needs to build out their own social service wing. There are lots of different ways in which people are experiencing homelessness, and reasons why. There is also the stigma around it. If you have a sign up saying "If you are homeless, stop here for help," a lot of people might walk past this. If Instead you're setting up coffee chats, and you've got experienced nonprofits involved and you're asking, are you experiencing stress in your life? That can reach people. 

The other thing that people really don't fully understand about homelessness is that some people experiencing homelessness are really ill and they need intensive health care support. Those tend to be the people who get the most attention, in terms of people reacting and being afraid of them. And so those folks need a very specific kind of outreach. Having people who are there to build the relationships and to really establish trust – which is what one of the cases talked about, that trust development – is so essential to being able to help someone move into housing and be willing to trust service providers again. The agencies that are looking for those partnerships, and are able to effectively implement them, are what I'm most excited to follow up on. 

JOHN

In addition to these promising approaches – like providing crisis support with trained staff and acknowledging how to deal with this in humane and appropriate ways – I think it will be really interesting coming back to these agencies after five years and saying, this is what was written up about you; how have things changed? What worked, what didn't work? The case studies cover different sized cities and geographic areas, so this really is a national approach. Our ultimate goal is to create a guidebook for agencies who are looking to build these types of programs, as well as understand where the network is. What other agencies can they talk to that are already doing that work? So the outcome is a very practical, practitioner-oriented guide.

ABOUT THE RESEARCHERS

John MacArthur is the Sustainable Transportation Program Manager for TREC and the Principal Investigator for TREC's electric bicycle research initiatives. His research includes low-/no-emission vehicle infrastructure in Portland metro, as well as a climate change impact assessment for surface transportation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He currently manages a complex Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant to develop and test an emergency transportation recovery plan for the Portland, Oregon Region. Before joining the TREC staff, John was the Context Sensitive and Sustainable Solutions Program Manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program.

Marisa Zapata is an associate professor of land-use planning at Portland State University and the director of PSU's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative. She received her Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, her M.U.P. in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and B.A. in Anthropology from Rice University. As an educator, scholar, and planner, Dr. Zapata is committed to achieving spatially - based social justice by preparing planners to act in the face of the uncertain and inequitable futures we face. She believes how we use land reflects our social and cultural values.

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.

The Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) at Portland State University brings together researchers from across the PSU community to work alongside people experiencing homelessness, advocates, service providers, city and county policymakers and other stakeholders to address issues that lead to and perpetuate homelessness.

Photo by Sam Balto

Since 2013, local transportation activist group Better Block PDX has developed partnerships with organizations across the Portland Metro area. Most notable were the connections that emerged between the communities’ needs for tactical urbanism solutions and the expertise of Portland State University (PSU) transportation students.

Over the last few years, that collaboration evolved and formalized into Better Block PSU, a pathway program that integrates tactical urbanism into the engineering and planning curriculum at PSU. Now led by PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Center, the latest project to advance through the program is Re-imagining a Safer Route to the César Chávez School: N. Willis Blvd. & N. Portsmouth Ave.

A number of teams worked with PSU Urban Planning students in the Fall of 2020, and this project from the César Chávez K-8 School community and the Community Cycling Center was chosen to move onto the second phase with the Spring 2021 PSU Civil Engineering course.

César Chávez PE teacher and project lead Sam Balto shared more about the motivation behind the project, “Not only is this intersection incredibly uninviting for the students and families walking to school, it’s just plain dangerous. A César Chávez student was recently hit by a driver in this intersection. The lighting is poor at night, and drivers on N. Portsmouth are regularly speeding and ignoring pedestrians. This is a key route to our school and something has to change.”

Sam, a self proclaimed "tactical urbanist," is most excited for his students to see firsthand how they can effect change. "Tactical urbanism is incredibly empowering and addictive. Having my students be the ones changing the built environment for themselves will be a learning experience in community action and civic engagement they will never forget."

Two community members give feedback on safety improvements they would like to see at the N. Willis Blvd and N. Portsmouth Ave intersection.

This isn’t Sam’s first time engaging with the parents and students on improving the safety and connectedness of the school’s walking routes. Over the past three years he’s been working closely with Community Cycling Center’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator William Francis who organizes Walk n’ Roll to School Days, bike clubs, and youth bike camps with César Chávez. “The North Portland neighborhood around the school is incredibly walkable, with the exception of a few problematic intersections," shared Francis. "The cumulative impact of these small hurdles creates the perception that walking to school is dangerous.”

The project team submitted their proposal to the Better Block PSU program looking for a tactical urbanism solution in the short-term, as well as to be better equipped with the technical know-how to advocate for larger, permanent changes through the city and solicit grant funding.

“In the summer of 2019 we worked with the City Repair Project and our César Chávez students and their families to paint the school’s parking lot using the students’ designs. Sam and I didn’t touch the paint. The community did it all,” shared Francis. “The parents are coming up with great ideas to improve walkability to the school, and we hope we can keep that momentum and enthusiasm going despite the impacts from COVID-19 closures.”

The school’s interest in transportation did not come to a complete standstill this summer, as Balto worked with volunteers to create an interactive “traffic garden” in an unused corner of the playground at the César Chávez School.

“We're always striving to center and empower our parents and students to support the changes they want to see. We’re their partners,” emphasized Francis. “By joining this Better Block PSU program, we want to facilitate the families’ connection to the university.”

Balto and Francis have gathered a lot of ideas from the students, parents and surrounding community on how this intersection could be improved. Many people liked the idea of a traffic circle, raised crosswalks, or curb bump-outs as potential traffic calming ideas. The community has the solutions, but the next step is removing the barriers to achieving them. 

2021 - 2022 Better Block PSU: Call for Proposals

Calling all visionaries, community groups, advocates, and city agencies! Our Better Block PSU program is ramping up for the next round of proposals. Pitch your idea for a transportation-related pop-up project that promotes bike and pedestrian safety, equity and inclusion, community building, and/or creative use of public space. If selected, you will be paired with a team of PSU Urban Planning students from April-June 2021 who will collaborate with you to develop plans to set the foundation. Successful plans may then be chosen for the PSU Civil Engineering course (Jan-Jun 2022) to develop traffic control and design documents for a meaningful pop-up event by Summer 2022. The RFP is open now: Download it here.

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.

Subcontract: NCHRP 15-73 Design Options to Reduce Turning Motor Vehicle – Bicycle Conflicts at Controlled Intersections

Sponsor: National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)

Research Team Lead: Christina Fink, Toole Design Group

Portland State Investigators: Christopher Monsere, Nathan McNeil and Sirisha Kothuri

One of the most common locations for motor vehicle-bicyclist crashes is at controlled intersections. Particularly dangerous is the conflict between through bicyclists and turning drivers (either left or right). Despite widespread acknowledgement of this problem, transportation engineers and planners still lack definitive guidance on how to safely and effectively design for bicyclists at intersections in the United States.

In a newly contracted project, awarded to Toole Design Group by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), a team of researchers will identify design best practices to reduce conflicts at intersections. In addition to Toole, the team includes researchers from Portland State University, Oregon State University (David Hurwitz), and Safe Streets Research & Consulting (Rebecca Sanders). Christopher Monsere, Nathan McNeil and Sirisha Kothuri are the PSU team members.

Check out a related research project led by Monsere: Contextual Guidance at Intersections for Protected Bicycle Lanes.

Relatedly, this same team of PSU researchers has joined a second contract lead by TTI: NCHRP 15-74 Safety Evaluation of On-Street Bicycle Facility Design Features.

THE ISSUE

Design practices that simply drop bicycle pavement markings and signs at intersections, providing no positioning guidance for motorists or bicyclists, can lead to confusion over who has the right-of-way. Some jurisdictions continue bicycle lane markings all the way through intersections; in others, the lanes are dashed. Moreover, a variety of innovative treatments including bike boxes, the use of color, bicycle signals, and separated crossings are being used in different combinations and applications across the country. The variability of intersection design has resulted in design guidance which does not provide specific thresholds for selecting bikeway treatments. 

This project seeks to remedy that by coming up with specific design guidance for transportation practitioners to use in reducing turning conflicts between motor vehicles and bicycles at controlled intersections.

THE RESEARCH PLAN

After reviewing existing literature to synthesize the current state of the practice, the research team will interview practitioners to gain additional insight into current practices, and the criteria used to select design treatments for bicycle facilities at intersections. The team will then select a set of intersections to analyze more closely in terms of safety and operations. 

The researchers plan to use three methods—crash analysis, conflict analysis, and human factors analysis (using a driving simulator)— in a tiered approach to examine bicycle safety. This will help clarify the relationship between key risk factors and various bicycle facility designs in varying intersection contexts, and ultimately disentangle these relationships in order to provide substantive guidance to practitioners.

The team will use their findings to develop a decision tool and design guidance, and will also create training materials to help practitioners make informed decisions.

TIMELINE

The research is just getting off the ground as of October 2020, and is expected to conclude in October 2023. To stay updated about its progress and learn findings from other PSU transportation research, subscribe to our monthly TREC newsletter.

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.