Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

An Evaluation Of The Federal Transition Incentives Program On Land Access For Next-Generation Farmers, Megan Horst, Julia Valliant, Julia Freedgood

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Next-generation farmers face immense challenges in securing land. In recent years, some state- and federal-level land access policy incentives (LAPIs) have been implemented to address these chal­lenges. In this paper, we assess the Transition Incentives Program (TIP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program that is funded by Congressional farm bills. TIP offers landowners two years of financial incen­tives for leasing or selling to a beginning or socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher (categories of farmers defined by the U.S. Department of Agri­culture). In our study, we characterize TIP partici­pants to understand where and how TIP assists …

Using Disaster Surveys To Model Business Interruption, Maria Watson, Yu Xiao, Jennifer Helgeson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Business interruption after disasters is an important metric for community resilience planning because has both economic and social consequences. Each additional day that a business is nonoperational further compounds lost revenue, wages, and lack of access to goods and services needed for recovery. Therefore, the use of surveys has grown in the literature as a way to capture the diverse information needed for modeling business disaster outcomes. However, variable inclusion and measurement can vary widely across studies, and there is a lack of guidance on how to structure surveys most effectively to facilitate this effort. This study fills these gaps …

What Drives Housing Choices Of Refugees And Immigrants?, Diane Mitschke, Anne Nordberg, Stephen Mattingly, Katherine Kitchens, Yasmin Al-Zubi, Farah Naz

TREC Project Briefs

When newcomers to the US initially settle, if their chosen location does not meet their expectations or needs, that often propels them to relocate. To determine what helps drive those transition decisions, the researchers interviewed people if they fulfilled one of these requirements:

• They were members of the Dallas County community who were planning to move in the next five years.

• They had recently (within the past five years) moved from their initial residence following their arrival in Dallas County.
• They also had to be immigrants to or refugees in the US who were at least eighteen years old. Out …

Housing Choice, Transportation Equity, And Access To Opportunities In Refugee And Immigrant Communities, Diane Mitschke, Anne Nordberg, Stephen Mattingly, Katherine Kitchens

TREC Final Reports

Mobility directly impacts access to opportunities for all protected classes; however, transportation planning and public transit agencies and housing authorities rarely coordinate affordable housing and the transportation system planning decisions. This lack of coordination often leads to mismatches between access to opportunities and affordable housing. Safe access to employment, quality schools, and healthcare represent a few of the many factors that may influence housing choice. For most households with budget constraints, all of these factors may not be achievable. While existing research documents the mismatch between affordable housing and access to opportunities, the role that mobility plays in residential selection …

App-Based Data Collection To Characterize Latent Transportation Demand Within Marginalized And Underserved Populations, Noelle L. Fields, Courtney Cronley, Stephen Mattingly, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, David Levine, Nithisha Gudipati, Cristine Highfill, Mary Kris Stringfelllow, Anna O'Dell, Rebecca Cole, Melody Huslage

TREC Final Reports

Our interdisciplinary team refined an app prototype, MyAmble, to gather data related to quantity of transportation disadvantage and latent demand, and to identify psycho-social-economic corollaries. MyAmble utilizes a traditional travel diary format but expands the type of trips measured to include 1) completed trips, 2) missed trips, and 3) latent travel demand. The app also measures the real-time perceived impact of transportation behaviors (realized and latent) on participants’ physical health, mental health, social engagement, and employment/academics. Finally, the app has a text-messaging feature, Travel Buddy, that is used to increase participant engagement and retention over longitudinal data collection. The project …

Fight, Flight, Freeze: How Access To Support Shapes Tenant Responses To Eviction In Multnomah County, Natalie J. Cholula, Lisa Bates, Alex Farrington, Marisa Zapata, Colleen Carroll, Jacen Greene, Hadley Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Facing eviction is a traumatic event that forces tenants into a fight, flight or freeze response. Our focus groups with Multnomah County tenants reveal that their responses to eviction are directly shaped by their access to support. Many tenants are unable to access formal support and therefore respond to eviction by freezing up or fleeing their home. Conversely, tenants who can access formal support—including rental assistance or legal assistance—exhibit a fight response, leveraging external support to challenge or avoid their eviction.

Alternative Shelter Evaluation Report, Jacen Greene, Todd Ferry, Emily Leickly, Franklin Holcomb Spurbeck

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes research by Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative for the Joint Office of Homeless Services on the cost, participant experiences, and client outcomes in village-style and motel shelters as compared to each other and to traditional, congregate shelters.

Key Points In Preparation For Oregon Legislative Session (2024): Examining The Multifaceted Impacts Of Drug Decriminalization On Public Safety, Law Enforcement, And Prosecutorial Discretion, Kelsey S. Henderson, Christopher Campbell, Brian Renauer

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

These findings are part of a 3-year study to examine the impacts of possession of PCS law changes on: (1) law enforcement discretion, (2) prosecutorial decision-making, (3) courts/sentencing, and (4) public safety. The key findings, unless noted, represent statewide trends and impacts. Prior to M110, other statewide changes in policy, law, and historical events such as the COVID-19 lockdown/court backlog and public defense crisis also had important impacts on enforcement, prosecution/sentencing, and public safety outcomes. As such, data collected during the early implementation of M110 is not likely a reliable predictor of its ultimate impact. The data reported on below …

… And I Feel Fine, Lisa Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

I had a little bit of a meltdown at a coffee break during the recent meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning – North America’s gathering of university planning faculty. It’s not typically a high-key emotional atmosphere, but I was truly thrown for a loop by a photo display of past meetings. There I was, among colleagues, as we hosted the 2016 meeting in Portland. In the picture, taken about two weeks before the U.S. election, we are all grinning widely. I had passed out lapel pins with Michelle Obama making a side-eye face to all the members …

Perspectives On E-Scooters Use: A Multi-Year Cross-Sectional Approach To Understanding E-Scooter Travel Behavior In Portland, Oregon, Minju Kim, Nicholas M. Puczkowskyj, John Macarthur, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Unique travel behavior patterns are observed as shared electric scooters (e-scooters) provided by private operators expand into U.S. cities. Three separate years of e-scooter ridership survey data from the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s E-scooter Pilot Programs were analyzed to ascertain the multi-year cross-sectional and demographic characteristics of e-scooter riders. A binary logistic regression model, descriptive statistics, and multiple regression model are used to analyze e-scooter mode substitution, trip purposes, and travel distance from 2018 to 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Since the introduction of e-scooter in 2018, respondents have been less likely to use their previous transportation, and especially vehicle …

Transportation Academies As Catalysts For Civic Engagement In Transportation Decision-Making, Nathan W. Mcneil, Keith Bartholomew, Matthew Ryan

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Citizen planning academies, which became popular in the 1990s, are increasingly being used in transportation planning and decision-making contexts. By making use of a longer-term, multiweek educational format, transportation academies have the potential to reduce barriers and enhance community capital leading to more meaningful and sustained government community interaction. This paper tracks the rise of transportation academies in North America, and provides a detailed look at two academies: one in Portland, Oregon with a 30-year history, and another recently launched in the Salt Lake City, Utah region. Postacademy surveys of participants provided data that illuminated whether the transportation academy model …

Evaluation Of Driver Comprehension And Compliance Of Red Colored Pavement Markings For Transit Lanes In Portland, Oregon, Nathan Mcneil, Christopher Monsere, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many U.S. agencies have experimented with red colored pavement markings in transit lanes to enhance the message that they are restricted to transit vehicles. This study evaluates non-transit drivers’ comprehension of and compliance with red colored lane markings in transit priority lanes intended to communicate lane restrictions and appropriate turning and merging locations. Two complementary research methods were used: 1) an online survey of drivers’ comprehension of red colored pavement markings; and, 2) evaluation of video collected at locations pre and post installation of red colored pavement markings. In the survey, most drivers recognize the red pavement color as a …

Understanding Connections Between Mobility, Transportation, And Quality Of Life In Refugee Communities In Tucson, Arizona, Orhon Myadar, Arlie Adkins, Maia Ingram, Nicole Iroz-Elardo

TREC Final Reports

In this multidisciplinary research project we aimed to study mobility challenges that refugees in Tucson, AZ, experience after their resettlement. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected from interviews and survey data, we argue that mobility shapes the ways refugees foster social connections, attain employment and access educational opportunities. Accordingly, barriers to mobility negatively impact refugees’ perception of well-being in post resettlement. However, these challenges are not experienced evenly. Nor are refugees passive subjects who lack agency in overcoming various barriers they experience. The study reveals the resilience of the refugee community in navigating the intersectional challenges they confront related to …

Extreme Heat Vulnerability Among Older Adults: A Multi-Level Risk Index For Portland, Oregon, Jacklyn N. Kohon, Katsuya Tanaka, Dani Himes, Paula Carder, Eiji Toda, Bryant Carlson

Institute on Aging Publications

Background and Objectives

Extreme heat is an environmental health equity concern disproportionately impacting low-income older adults and people of color. Exposure factors, such as living in rental housing and lack of air conditioning, and sensitivity factors, such as chronic disease and social isolation, increase mortality risk among older adults. Older persons face multiple barriers to adaptive heat mitigation, particularly for those living in historically temperate climates. This study measures two heat vulnerability indices to identify areas and individuals most vulnerable to extreme heat and discusses opportunities to mitigate vulnerability among older adults.

Research Design and Methods

We constructed two heat …

Psu Student Housing Insecurity Interim Report, Jacen Greene, Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, Portland State University

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Project Background

This study on student housing insecurity and homelessness was funded as part of a HUD FY2023 Community Project Funding Opportunity awarded to Portland State University. Phase 1 of the study, which led to this report by PSU’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC), includes a literature review; a summary of PSU student survey results; a description of PSU programs based on interviews with staff and administrators; an analysis of programs at other institutions; and a set of recommendations for better addressing student housing needs. Phase 2 of the study will include the results of a comprehensive …

Gorge And Mt. Hood Regional Park And Ride Assessment, Aidan Simpson, Beth Whitener, Emily D'Antonio, Harrison Husting, Jessa Miller, Kadin Mangalik

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

To help combat congestion and promote environmental stewardship and safety, the Gorge & Mt. Hood Regional Park and Ride project hopes to create a vision for a new park and ride system. The project will focus on the I-84, US 26, and OR 35 corridors, with a particular focus on underserved communities with limited access to the area. Through engagement with key project partners, the team has developed a site inventory for new potential locations as well as recommendations for optima implementation. The intention of these park and rides is to help be one of the many strategies to improve …

Fremont Bridgehead Reclamation Project, Ananda Gordon-Peabody, Meg Grzybowski, Ian Meisner, Grace Dudley, Paul Ahrns

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Fremont Bridgehead Reclamation Project aims to promote the redesign of Kerby Avenue I-405 Freeway ramps and the return of ODOT land to community-oriented uses with the hopes of providing economic restitution to displaced community members. It intends to offer an action roadmap to advance the case for ramp redesign and potential alternatives for reclaimed land uses. Collaborating with the Eliot Neighborhood Association, the student team formulated recommendations, actionable steps, and future visions for the site based on stakeholder interviews and engagement feedback. This project intends to address historical and current inequities with the goal of advancing justice, restitution, and …

82nd Avenue Tree Canopy Development, Amber Shackelford, Alvin Dimalanta, Caleb Susuras, Darby O'Brien, Eiji Toda

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The 82nd Avenue Tree Canopy Development project envisions a climate resilient corridor with abundant tree canopy on 82nd Avenue that contributes to a more sustainable Portland. It aims to develop a community-centered tree canopy plan to mitigate negative impacts caused by the current treeless streetscape. An evidence-based analysis will guide a tree planting framework along 82nd Avenue from I-84 to Foster-Powell. The final report will include policies supporting tree canopy development, strengthening the coalition's Portland Clean Energy Fund application, fostering collaboration between landowners and government agencies, and promoting tree preservation strategies.

NixyáAwii Watikš, Owen Christofferson, Sara Goldstein, Nick Hadfield, Zhuoheng (Brian) Liu, Jenny Mazzella, Victoria Young

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Nixyáawii Watikš is a proposed multi-use path connecting the City of Pendleton, Oregon, to Mission, a community hub containing tribal institutions and new mixed-use developments in the heart of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. In collaboration with the Tribal Planning Office of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), the student team conducted research and explored possible trail route options based on physical constraints, stakeholder interests, community priorities, and travel needs. This project aims to propose one recommended trail solution that improves accessibility, connectivity, transportation options, and safety for all trail users.

Repurposing Retail To Bring Downtown Back: A Recovery Plan For Portland's South Downtown, Jamie Arnau, Luis Caro, Matthew Flodin, Amy Ly, Thiery Nanetangar, Valeria Tapia

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Revive Collaborative team is creating a plan to revitalize the South Downtown neighborhood and promote economic opportunity for local business owners. PSU’s vacant retail spaces present the opportunity to restructure and reimagine how these spaces might be used to uplift the neighborhood, capitalize on its existing strengths, and increase the district’s livability. Public engagement with business owners, stakeholders, students, and residents combined with current best practices have informed Revive Collaborative’s suite of recommendations for how PSU can help revitalize South Downtown from both a broad policy and granular program perspective.

Prioritizing Land For Housing In Warrenton, Anis Boughanmi, James Dingwell, Maddy Knickerbocker, Jovan Merceron, Miranda Seekins, Amanda Ufheil-Sommers

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

To address future housing needs, this project offers the City of Warrenton’s planning department tools to guide future housing planning and infrastructure investments. The team developed suitability analysis models to identify priority locations for future development based on environmental constraints, current infrastructure, community amenities, and emergency resilience. This process identified a more nuanced picture of developable land than the adopted analyses. The report provides recommendations to guide changes to comprehensive planning policies.

Transportation Behavior Among Older Vietnamese Immigrants In The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Well-Being, Geospatial Mobility, And Potential Indicators For Ride Providers’ Geospatial Burden, Rebecca L. Mauldin, Stephen Mattingly, Mahshid Haque, John P. Connolly, Latisha Thomas, Zachary Tarbet, Farzana Chowdhury, Rupal Parekh

TREC Final Reports

Nearly 4.6 million immigrants aged 65 and older live in the United States. This population is expected to more than triple in size by 2050. A lack of culturally appropriate transportation solutions for older immigrants creates disparities in access to services for older immigrant populations, increasing their risk of social isolation and reduced physical and mental health. A growing number of older immigrants live in low-density urban environments, which are characterized by high automobile dependency and limited public transportation. In these environments, older immigrants are likely to depend on others to provide private transportation. Negative aspects of this reliance on …

Sustaining Multimodal Choices: Examining Travel Behavior For Non-Work Trips Beyond Covid-19, Yizhao Yang, Rebecca Lewis

TREC Final Reports

Increasing the usage of sustainable travel modes requires changes in both environmental and psychological dimensions. A knowledge gap exists concerning the mechanism via which various factors interact to shape travel decision. Gaining such knowledge requires our ability to examine people’s behavioral adjustment in reaction to environmental and psychological changes or interventions.

This project uses COVID-19 as a natural experiment, treating the significant disruption induced by the pandemic as an intervention to study changes in travel behaviors and adoption of different travel choices following the COVID pandemic. This project builds upon a 2020 study conducted by the PI’s. It adopts a …

Climate Change Policies And Older Adults: An Analysis Of States’ Climate Adaptation Plans, Bryant Carlson, Jacklyn N. Kohon, Paula Carder, Dani Himes, Eiji Toda, Katsuya Tanaka

Institute on Aging Publications

Background and Objectives

As climate change drives more frequent and intense weather events, older adults face disproportionate impacts, including having the highest mortality rates from storms, wildfires, flooding, and heat waves. State governments are critical in deploying local resources to help address climate change impacts. This policy study analyzes states’ climate adaptation plans to assess the methods through which they address the impact of climate change on older adults.

Research Design and Methods

This study uses content analysis to analyze available climate change adaptation plans for all U.S. states for strategies designed to increase resilience of older adults to impacts …

Emerging Transformations In Material Use And Waste Practices In The Global South: Plastic-Free And Zerowaste In India, Katie Conlon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study uses a qualitative approach to address limitations and blockages to current plastics reduction via semi-structured interviews with zero waste business practitioners in India. Although they are nascent, India is home to a budding zero waste community that is grappling with how to reduce plastics—via trial and error—and these stakeholders hold insights from lived experience on how plastic reduction can actualize in the Indian subcontinent. This research involved interviewing zero waste businesses and consultants and makers of plastic alternatives in India to understand their experiences with plastic reduction strategies. The key stakeholder interviews reveal key insights for moving forward …

Pedestrian Behavior Study To Advance Pedestrian Safety In Smart Transportation Systems Using Innovative Lidar Sensors, Taylor Li, Sirisha M. Kothuri, Katherine L. Keeling, Xianfeng Terry Yang, Farzana R. Chowdhury

TREC Final Reports

Pedestrian safety is critical to improving walkability in cities. Although walking trips have increased in the last decade, pedestrian safety remains a top concern. In 2020, 6,516 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes, representing the most deaths since 1990 (NHTSA, 2020). Approximately 15% of these occurred at signalized intersections where a variety of modes converge, leading to the increased propensity of conflicts. Current signal timing and detection technologies are heavily biased towards vehicular traffic, often leading to higher delays and insufficient walk times for pedestrians, which could result in risky behaviors such as noncompliance. Current detection systems for pedestrians at …

Rural Gentrification And The Spillover Effect: Integrated Transportation, Housing, And Land Use Challenges And Strategies In Gateway Communities, Danya Rumore, Philip Stoker

TREC Final Reports

Small towns and cities near national parks, public lands, and other natural amenities throughout the West are experiencing rapid growth and increased visitation. These “gateway communities” comprise a significant portion of the rural West, constituting about 31% of all communities and more than 60% of those under 25,000 people. Our prior NITC-funded research shows that growth and increased tourism create a range of “big city challenges” for gateway communities, particularly a significant increase in housing prices, which pushes the local workforce to outlying areas and other rural communities. As a result, despite being small towns, many developed gateway communities have …

Evaluating Differences Between Ground-Based And Satellite-Derived Measurements Of Urban Heat: The Role Of Land Cover Classes In Portland, Oregon And Washington, D.C., Vivek Shandas, Yasuyo Makido, Aakash Nath Upraity

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The distinction between satellite-based land surface temperature (LST) and air temperature has become an increasingly important part of managing urban heat islands. While the preponderance of urban heat research relies on LST, the emergence of a growing infrastructure of publicly available consumer oriented, ground-based sensor networks has offered an alternative for characterizing microscale differences in temperatures. Recent evidence suggests large differences between LST and air temperatures, yet discerning the reason for these differences between satellite-derived measurements of urban heat islands (UHI) and ground-based measurements of air temperature remains largely unresolved. In this study, we draw on an unusually robust and …

Food For All In Clackamas County, Jean Dahlquist, Katie Stringer, Alexander Scott Morgan, Marwa Zidi, Kim Hack-Davidson

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In partnership with OSU Extension Service and Clackamas County Public Health Division, this project used data and narrative research for planning community-based strategies to improve availability and access to culturally relevant, healthy food resources in Clackamas County. The student team updated demographic and health data from the past Blueprints for a Healthy Clackamas County and visualized the information through maps. Through community engagement in the Molalla area, the project helped determine food preferences, assess gaps, and provide recommendations for healthy, culturally preferred food resource availability specific to Molalla.

Network Effects Of Disruptive Traffic Events, Juan Medina, Xiaoyue Cathy Liu

TREC Final Reports

Current traffic management strategies are based on expected conditions caused by recurring congestion (e.g., by time of day, day of week), and can be very effective when provisions are also given for reasonable variations from such expectations. However, traffic variations due to non-recurrent events (e.g., crashes) can be much larger and difficult to predict, making also challenging efforts to identify, measure, and forecast their disruptive effects. This project explores a proactive approach to deploy a tool for managing non-recurrent congestion by identifying and quantifying the effects of disruptive traffic events at a microscopic level using a comprehensive set of data …