Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Piloting Portland's Multimodal Arterial Performance System, Shaun Quayle

PSU Transportation Seminars

Shaun will present on the recently completed pilot demonstration of multimodal arterial performance measures for the Portland metro region, as part of the larger regional concept of operations. Treatments include a permanent bike count station on the Springwater Trail, permanent truck classification stations, Bluetooth travel time stations, as well as leveraging existing transit and signal controller data to paint a picture of the collective modal transportation system.

Cyclist Compliance At Signalized Intersections, Sam R. Thompson

PSU Transportation Seminars

Although the running of red lights is perceived by motorists as a commonplace behavior for cyclists, little research has been done on the actual rates of cyclist compliance at signalized intersections. Furthermore, little is known about the factors that influence cyclist non-compliance. This research seeks to illuminate the rates of and reasons for infringement against red lights using video footage and survey data from cyclists in Oregon.

Why Doesn't That Traffic Signal Ever Turn Green? An Evaluation Of Roadway Markings For Cyclists, Stefan W. Bussey, Christopher Monsere, Peter Koonce

PSU Transportation Seminars

Signalized intersections often rely on vehicle detection to determine when to give a green light. The 2009 Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) includes an on-pavement marking and curbside sign that public agencies can use to indicate where cyclists should position themselves while waiting at an intersection. This presentation reviews the effectiveness of current markings, signs, and other methods used to help cyclists properly position themselves over detection.

Clouds, Crowds, And Traffic: What 10 Emerging Megatrends Mean For The Future Of Transportation, Ted Trepanier

PSU Transportation Seminars

Ten new megatrends will be presented with a discussion on the resulting shifts on the transportation industry. Details will include a look on broken trends and the new challenges introduced for transportation planning. Thoughts will also be presented introducing a pivot to the current model being pursued by the Connected Vehicle program. Finally, planners will be challenged to consider a new question for the future of our connected communities, you have to come to hear it.

From Transit Stop To Urbanity Node: Field Audit For Measuring Livability At The Transit Stop, Deni Ruggeri

TREC Final Reports

This research proposal addresses issues of livability at the transit stop. American transit systems have historically been “shoehorned” into existing street networks designed predominantly for cars and trucks. While much research exists on livability and walkability in the context of urban and suburban streets and blocks, bus stops are greatly understudied. This research focused on bus stops and aimed at analyzing their performance in terms of livability, with particular emphasis on perceptions. Our definition of livability was expanded to include considerations of safety and maintenance, cleanliness, imageability and vitality, which have been shown to affect people’s perceptions of livability and …

E-Bikes In The United States, John Macarthur

PSU Transportation Seminars

Electric bicycles (e-bikes) are well established in China and other Asian and European countries but have yet to realize their potential in the United States, although recently the number of e-bikes has been growing. Research on the economic, operational, and safety issues of e-bikes in the U.S. is limited. This research aims in part to understand if different bicycling technology, in this case electric assist bicycles or e-bikes, can reduce barriers to bicycling and encourage more bike trips and longer bike trips, and increase the diversity of people bicycling, including people with a disability or chronic injury to bicycle. Some …

Transportation Analysis Informing Transportation Planning And Policy At Odot, Alexander Bettinardi

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Transportation Planning Analysis Unit (TPAU) at ODOT helps to provide information to a large variety of transportation plans, projects, and policy questions. This allows customers to make better informed decisions and to maximize limited resources. In order to fill this role TPAU and the Oregon modeling community have a fairly large "toolbox" of models and analysis tools and procedures. This transportation seminar will give an overview of the role and services that TPAU provides and the different tools and processes used to fulfill that role.

Using Empirical (Real-World) Transportation Data To Extend Travel Demand Model Capabilities, Michael Mauch

PSU Transportation Seminars

Real-world traffic trends observed in PORTAL and INRIX traffic data are used to expand the performance measures that can be obtained from Portland Metro's travel demand model to include the number of hours of congestion that can be expected during a typical weekday and travel time reliability measures for congested freeway corridors.

Durability Assessment Of Recycled Concrete Aggregates For Use In New Concrete: Phase I - Revised, Jason H. Ideker, Matthew P. Adams, Jennifer Tanner, Angela Jones

TREC Final Reports

The primary goal of this research project was to investigate the long-term durability of concrete incorporating recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) through accelerated laboratory testing. Overall it was found that modifications to standard aggregate testing and characterization standards were necessary for testing RCA. This included modifications to standard tests including ASTM C 128, C 305 and C 1260. It was found that the potential for alkalisilica reactivity did exist for new concrete containing RCA. The characteristics of the RCA also had a profound effect on ASR related expansion. RCA with a higher content of reactive coarse or fine aggregate (compared to …

Influence Of Road Cross Section On Access Spacing, Karen K. Dixon, Yanfen Zhou, J. L. Gattis

TREC Final Reports

This report presents a study on the influences of select cross-sectional-related design elements (specifically median configurations and bicycle lanes) and their impact on crash severity and type, as well as the associated driver gap acceptance for turning maneuvers at midblock driveway locations on urban arterials. The primary goal of this proposed research is to better understand how the median and bicycle lane configurations can influence safety and operations at driveway locations. The research team utilized crash data, traffic data, and roadway information from driveway locations in the U.S. states of Oregon, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The project team supplemented the data …

Making Streets Into Complete Streets: An Evidence-Based Design Manual, Marc Schlossberg, John Rowell

TREC Final Reports

The predominant approach toward street function on major roads in the United States is to emphasize mobility and throughput of vehicles. The “Complete Streets” movement challenges some of this paradigm, emphasizing that streets should accommodate multiple modes of travel and should often be considered destinations themselves. Often, efforts to transform streets into Complete Streets face resistance from both professional communities of traffic engineers and from the public that their design will reduce throughput and vehicle flow..Complete Streets advocates, in some cases, counter that while their designs often create pedestrian and cycling space from areas that were previously occupied by automobiles, …

Data-Driven Illustrations For Climate Smart Communities Scenarios, Nancy Yen-Wen Cheng, Kim Ellis, Molly Vogt, Clint Chiavarini, Justin Houk, Brian Lockyear, Boyce Postma, Peggy Morell

TREC Final Reports

Public investment in transit and streetscape improvements can encourage private development, and subsequently increase transit ridership and reduce pollution. Portland, OR’s Metro regional government has developed investment scenarios designed to reduce light vehicle carbon emissions. Adopting a regional scenario requires public review and consultation with local governments who will implement the comprehensive plans and land-use regulations. Decision makers and residents need to understand potential benefits: ways in which targeted investment could generate more livable urban spaces while reducing greenhouse gases. Illustrations can show how the investments could shape the pedestrian experience through trees, street furniture, buildings, open spaces, etc.

This …

Modeling Of Dc Link Capacitor Current Ripple For Electric Vehicle Traction Converter, Lei Jin, Julia Zhang

TREC Final Reports

Contemporary Full Hybrid Electric Vehicle/Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle/Battery Electric Vehicle (FHEV/PHEV/BEV) products use one or more DC/AC power converters, also known as traction inverters, to convert the DC voltage/current provided by the traction battery to the AC voltage/current to drive the traction motor(s). Large and bulky DC link capacitors are used at the input of the traction inverter to provide a smooth DC input voltage. Those DC link capacitors, occupying almost 50% of the space in the whole package, can contribute to more than 20% of the total cost of the traction inverter. They are generally over designed to assure …

Multimodal Data At Signalized Intersections: Strategies For Archiving Existing And New Data Streams To Support Operations And Planning & Fusion And Integration Of Arterial Performance Data, Kristin A. Tufte, Christopher M. Monsere, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri, Carl Scott Olson

TREC Final Reports

There is a growing interest in arterial system management due to the increasing amount of travel on arterials and a growing emphasis on multimodal transportation. The benefits of archiving arterial-related data are numerous. This research report describes our efforts to assemble and develop a multimodal archive for the Portland-Vancouver region. There is coverage of data sources from all modes in the metropolitan region; however, the preliminary nature of the archiving process means that some of the data are incomplete and samples. The arterial data sources available in the Portland-Vancouver region and that are covered in this report include data for …

An Activity-Based Learning Module For Human Factors In The Introductory Transportation Engineering Course, David Hurwitz

TREC Final Reports

This project summary report describes the execution of OTREC Project #517 (An ActivityBased Learning Module for Human Factors in the Introductory Transportation Engineering Course)

Improving The Representation Of The Pedestrian Environment In Travel Demand Models, Phase I, Kelly J. Clifton, Patrick Allen Singleton, Christopher Devlin Muhs, Robert J. Schneider, Peter Lagerwey

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are improving regional travel demand forecasting models to better represent walking and bicycling and to expand the evaluative capacity of models to address policy-relevant issues like air quality, public health, and the smart allocation of infrastructure and other resources. This report describes an innovative, spatially disaggregate method to integrate walking activity into trip-based travel models. Using data for the Portland, OR, metropolitan area, the method applies trip generation at a new micro-scale spatial unit: a 264-foot-by-264-foot …

Overlooked Destinations: Suburban Nodes, Centers, And Trips To Strips, Nico Larco, Robert Parker

TREC Final Reports

This study looks at travel to typical suburban commercial strips by residents living within one-third of a mile of the strip by focusing on six sites – four in the Portland, OR., metro area and two in the Atlanta, GA., metro area. The study mapped pedsheds around the commercial strips in these sites and found significant increases in network extents when formal and informal pedestrian paths were added to street centerline data. Informal networks such as goat paths through vacant land and cuts in fences were widespread and suggest a pent-up demand for route directness. Travel surveys of residents found …

The Application Of Smart Phone, Weight-Mile Truck Data To Support Freight-Modeling, Performance Measures And Planning, Katherine E. Bell, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon is one of the few states that currently charge a commercial truck weight-mile tax (WMT). The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has developed a data-collection system – Truck Road Use Electronics (TRUE) – to simplify WMT collection. The TRUE system includes a smart phone application that collects and records Global Positioning System (GPS) data. The TRUE data has enormous advantages over GPS data used in previous research due to its level of geographic detail and the potential to also integrate trip origin and destination, vehicle class, and commodity-type data. This research evaluates the accuracy of the TRUE data and …

Route Segment Level Analysis Of Bus Safety Incidents, James G. Strathman, Sung Moon Kwon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper analyzes collision and non-collision incidents that occurred on TriMet’s bus system over a near two-year period. The bus route network was decomposed into stop and line haul segments, and a typology of models was estimated from segment level incident, risk exposure, and roadway feature data. The frequency of non-collision incidents – mainly slips, trips and falls – was estimated to be primarily related to associated risk exposure variables. The frequency of collision incidents was also estimated to be related to risk exposure variables, as well as a number of roadway design variables. The findings serve as an initial …

Relocation Of Homeless People From Odot Rights-Of-Way, Ellen M. Bassett, Andrée Tremoulet, Allison Moe

TREC Final Reports

This research project consists of an investigation of responses to homeless encampments on rights-of-way owned by Departments of Transportation (DOTs). While DOTs are not housing or social service agencies, their role as major public landowners involves them in dealing with the consequences of homelessness. The research goals included analyzing the prevalence of the problem, documenting how DOTs are responding, and culling from this data information that could be used as a basis for creating a best practices guide. The research included a single mixed-methods, in-depth case study, electronic surveys of practitioners and follow-up interviews. Products consist of two reports (included …

Omsi - Clinton: A Corridor For Invention And Innovation, Todd Borkowitz, Katherine Dahlin, Gena Gastaldi, Kyle Goodman, Lisa Harrison, Szilvia Hosser-Cox, Irene Kim, Shihui Liu, Qi Liu, Lindsey Menard, Julia Metz, Corrie Minor, Eve Nilenders, John Tomasini, John Verssue, Kate Washington

Urban Design Workshop

This project focuses on developing a vision for the corridor between two new MAX light rail transit stations at OMSI and Clinton Street, which are part of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail (PMLR) project, connecting downtown Portland with north Clackamas County via southeast Portland.

This vision must be created with respect to the industrial sanctuary that flanks this stretch of light rail corridor to the west and the residential and light industry to the east.

This document is the product of a 2013 urban design workshop at Portland State University. The project builds upon three previous urban design workshops that focused …

Peak Of The Day Or The Daily Grind: Commuting And Subjective Well-Being, Oliver Blair Smith

Dissertations and Theses

To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and societal well-being, researchers are developing measurement techniques that go beyond satisfaction-based measures of travel. Metrics related Subjective Well-Being (SWB), defined as an evaluation of one's happiness or life satisfaction, are increasingly important for evaluating transportation and land-use policies. This dissertation examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and how it is shaped. Data are from a web-based survey of workers (n=828) in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., with three roughly equally sized groups based on mode: bike, transit and car users. Descriptive analysis shows …

Evaluation Of Smart Phone Weight-Mile Tax Truck Data For Supporting Freight Modeling, Performance Measures And Planning, Katherine E. Bell, Miguel Andres Figliozzi

Student Research Symposium

Oregon is one of the few states that currently charge a commercial truck weight-mile tax (WMT). This research serves to evaluate ancillary applications for a system developed by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to simplify WMT collection. The data collection system developed by ODOT – Truck Road Use Electronics (TRUE) - includes a smart phone application with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device and microprocessor. The TRUE data has enormous advantages over commercial truck GPS data used in previous research due to its level of disaggregation and its potential to differentiate between vehicle and commodity types. This research evaluates …

Research And Development Of A Land Use Scenario Modeling Tool, John Gliebe, Hongwei Dong, Josh Frank Roll

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Planning and Analysis Unit (TPAU) developed a land use modeling tool called the “Land Use Scenario Developer in R” (LUSDR). LUSDR is a modeling tool, written in the “R” language, that may be used to predict and analyze regional land use changes probabilistically, creating a distribution of possible outcomes. It is designed to be integrated with travel demand modeling programs, making it potentially valuable for analyzing the interaction between transportation and land use when assessing various growth-policy and socioeconomic assumptions. This project is Phase 2 for Research and Development of a Land Use Scenario …

Traffic Safety Data: Expanding The Archive, Christopher Monsere, Myenwoo Lim, Chengxin Dai, Xiaowei Wu

TREC Project Briefs

A project expands the capabilities of the Oregon Traffic Safety Data Archive, a tool for helping traffic safety engineers and planners reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents.

Measuring The Performance Of Transit Relative To Livability, Marc Schlossberg, Jennifer Dill, Liang Ma, Cody Meyer

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project sought to understand the relationship between urban form, transit service characteristics, and ridership measured at the stop level. Most previous work in this area has looked at these issues separately, by either linking system performance (e.g. on-time performance, cost, etc.) to ridership or exploring the connection between urban form (e.g. density) and transit use. This project synthesized these disparate approaches. While transit service characteristics (e.g. frequency, travel time, etc.) are important to help individuals reach their desired destinations, most transit users are pedestrians at the beginning and end of any transit trip. Therefore, focusing on the walkable zone …

Developing An Oregon Access Management Best Practices Manual, Karen Dixon, Xiang Yi, Lacy Brown, Robert Layton

TREC Final Reports

This report reviews an Oregon research effort to develop an Oregon Access Management Best Practices Manual. In particular, this research effort develops a resource to help transportation professionals quantify safety and operational effects of various access management strategies, provide measurable criteria to evaluate these access management techniques, and identify data collection practices necessary to successfully perform these assessments. It is the expectation that this manual can be used by engineers, decision makers, and educators to help the transportation community better understand the appropriate application of access management strategies and how to quantify benefits of the various access management options. This …

Development Of Mobile Mapping Technology To Facilitate Dialogue Between Transportation Agencies And The Public, Ken Kato, Marc Schlossberg, James Meacham

TREC Final Reports

The goal of this grant was to take the technological innovations for deploying survey instruments to mobile phones, developed under a previous OTREC grant, and publish them as globally accessible mobile applications (apps) for use in a variety of transportation planning settings. Under this grant, three applications have been developed for three distinctly different user groups. The first, JLA Involve, was developed and deployed for JLA, a Portland, OR.-based public involvement firm, to support their work with the City of Tualatin, OR., in updating their Transportation System Plan (TSP). The second was developed and deployed for the City of Eugene, …

Closing The Gap: Developing A Transportation Curriculum For The Oregon Young Scholars Program: Project Summary Report, Carla Gary, Bethany Steiner, Chuck Kalnbach

TREC Project Briefs

This OTREC educational proposal links experiential and transportation education from the University of Oregon with minority youth during the Summer ‘08 two-week session of the Oregon Young Scholar’s Program (OYSP). The grant provides OYSP an opportunity to create a transportation based curriculum during the Summer ‘08 program with the ultimate purpose of increasing minority interest and hopefully eventual employment in transportation related fields. OYSP was developed in 2005 to nurture the potential of marginalized minority students, to prepare these students for higher education, and to increase the awareness of their parents or caregivers about what it will take for these …

Making Accessibility Analyses Accessible: A Tool To Facilitate The Public Review Of The Effects Of Regional Transportation Plans On Accessibility, Aaron Golub, Glenn Robinson, Brendan Nee

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The regional transportation planning process in the United States has not been easily opened to public oversight even after strengthened requirements for public participation and civil rights considerations. In the effort to improve the public review of regional transportation plans, this paper describes the construction of a proof-of concept web-based tool designed to analyze the effects of regional transportation plans on accessibility to jobs and other essential destinations. The tool allows the user to analyze disparities in accessibility outcomes by demographic group, specifically income and race, as required by civil rights-related planning directives. The tool makes cumulative-opportunity measures of the …