Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Webinar: The Impact Of Decentralizing Homeless Services On Transportation And Mobility, Sarah Canham, Ivis Garcia, Shannon Jones, Jeff Rose

TREC Webinar Series

With findings from a mixed methods research study, this interdisciplinary webinar will present results from a historical public document analysis, a GIS spatial analyses, client surveys and interviews, and interviews with professionals and service providers. In 2019, the delivery of homeless sheltering services in Salt Lake County transitioned from a centralized emergency shelter to a scattered site model with multiple resource center locations, operated by multiple service providers. To understand the degree to which “proximity” to public transportation and other needed services was achieved, this study examined: how the decentralization of homeless services influenced transportation demand and mobility patterns for …

Understanding The Impact Of Decentralizing Homeless Services On Transportation And Mobility In Salt Lake County, Sarah L. Canham, Jeff Rose, Ivis Garcia Zambrana, Shannon O. Jones

TREC Final Reports

In 2019, the delivery of homeless sheltering services in Salt Lake County transitioned from a centralized emergency shelter—The Road Home Salt Lake Community Shelter and Resource Center (TRHSLC)—operated by The Road Home to a decentralized, scattered site model with multiple “Homeless Resource Center” (HRC) locations operated by multiple service providers. To understand to what degree and to which “proximity” to public transportation and other needed services was achieved, this study examined: 1) how the decentralization of homeless services influenced transportation demand and mobility patterns for persons experiencing homelessness (PEH); and 2) how transportation and mobility changes affected access to services …

Evaluation Of A Transportation Incentive Program For Affordable Housing Residents, Roshin Kurian, Huijun Tan, Nathan Mcneil, John Macarthur

PSU Transportation Seminars

This seminar presents the results from the Transportation Wallet for Residents of Affordable Housing (TWRAH) pilot program launched by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). The program provided a set of transportation incentives for low-income participants including a $308 pre-paid visa card which could be applied to public transit or other transportation services, a free bike share membership, and access to discounted rates on several services. The researchers conducted a survey with the program’s participants to understand how they used the Transportation Wallet and how the program helped them use different modes to get around. The main findings …

Forging Equity In Cities: Using Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (Etod) As A Blueprint For Policy And Practice, Roberto Requejo

PSU Transportation Seminars

Racial equity, wealth building, public health and climate resilience goals are only possible through cross sectional engagement that includes city, state, and regional governments, community-based organizations, and private sector partners. Please join us for this jointly sponsored seminar and workshop to learn about models of community engagement for equitable transportation and housing development. In this seminar, Roberto Requejo, Program Director at Elevated Chicago, will discuss their community organizing and empowerment work to create equitable transit oriented development (eTOD) in Chicago. Their efforts to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into planning and infrastructure investments center on community-focused benefits such as access …

Winning The Fight For Better Bus Service, Steven Higashide

PSU Transportation Seminars

The "right to the city" depends on the right to access the city, and U.S. regions are marked by profoundly unequal access. One of the clearest manifestations of this is the state of U.S. bus transit. Bus service is simple to improve and has vast potential to better people's lives, but has been constrained by the racist planning and politics that shape every American city.

How can we fulfill the promise of better buses and create abundant transit networks that expand access to opportunity? In this seminar, Higashide unpacks the elements of effective bus service – and cites examples from …

Curating Equitable Transportation, Nikotris Perkins

PSU Transportation Seminars

Getting people and goods from here to there is central to the ways we live, work, and play in the United States. The transportation networks we create as planners, engineers, geologists, contractors, consultants, advocates, and citizens involve a multitude of decisions. These decisions have great impact on who can get where, when and how; often connected to our structures of social power. This seminar connects those dots, questions our ability to make change, and calls participants to be actively involved in a transportation system that is curated for those it targets: everyone.

Webinar: Bus Stops: Access And Equity, Keith Bartholomew

TREC Webinar Series

Improving bus stops by providing shelters, seating, signage, and sidewalks is relatively inexpensive and popular among riders and local officials. Making such improvements, however, is not often a priority for U.S. transit providers because of competing demands for capital funds and a perception that amenities are not tied to measurable increases in system effectiveness or efficiency. This webinar focuses on the role that bus stops play as the point of first contact between transit agencies and their potential riders, and how the quality of that contact can influence both ridership and accessibility for riders with mobility-related disabilities. The webinar will …

Matching The Speed Of Technology With The Speed Of Local Government: Developing Codes And Policies Related To The Possible Impacts Of New Mobility On Cities, Marc Schlossberg, Heather Brinton

TREC Final Reports

Advances in transportation technology such as the advent of scooter and bikeshare systems (micromobility), ridehailing, and autonomous vehicles (AV’s) are beginning to have profound effects not only on how we live, move, and spend our time in cities, but also on urban form and development itself. These new technologies are changing the systems of transport, the layout of cities, and the places we spend our time. In turn, these changes will likely have additional and profound effects on land use, street design, parking, housing, equity, municipal finance, and fundamental issues related to urban density, sprawl, vitality and the economic viability …

The Datafication Of Cycling – Effects And Opportunities At The Intersection Of Industry And Transport Policy, Shaun Williams

PSU Transportation Seminars

This seminar will provide a brief overview to Shaun Williams’ "Datafication of Cycling" PhD project. The main aim is to understand how volunteered app data, provided by cyclists, are used to inform transportation planning practice and policy. There is an emerging body of academic work calling for digital aspects of cycling – such as app data - to be considered by transportation authorities. This project builds upon these contributions and asks: Are new forms of cycling data contributing to increased cycling provision and infrastructure? The Datafication of Cycling Project runs from 2017 – 2021 and includes visits to Portland (Oregon) …

Improving Transportation Access Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Noelle Fields, Courtney Cronley, Kate Hyun, Stephen Mattingly, Multiple Additional Authors

TREC Project Briefs

This study explored how engineers, planners, and social workers interact around issues of transportation and transportation equity, and identified opportunities for enhanced collaboration and training in anticipation of emerging transportation needs for environmental justice (EJ) populations. This study provided the foundation for future educational research, identify strategies for using two Android apps (Safe Activity and My Amble) developed at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and identified opportunities for collaborative solutions within the state of the practice. The study assessed the current level of knowledge amongst professionals (engineers, planners, and social workers) about the training needs of the other …

How Can Interdisciplinary Teams Leverage Emerging Technologies To Respond To Transportation Infrastructure Needs? A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Of Civil Engineers, Urban Planners, And Social Workers’ Perspectives, Noelle Fields, Courtney Cronley, Kate Hyun, Stephen Mattingly, Vivian J. Miller, Saeed Reza Ramezanpour Nargesi, Sheida Khademi, Shamsun Nahar, Jessica Williams, Erin Roark Murphy, Melinda Kitchens, Vanessa Wattron

TREC Final Reports

This study explored how engineers, planners, and social workers interact around issues of transportation and transportation equity, and identified opportunities for enhanced collaboration and training in anticipation of emerging transportation needs for environmental justice (EJ) populations. This study provided the foundation for future educational research, identify strategies for using two Android apps (Safe Activity and My Amble) developed at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and identified opportunities for collaborative solutions within the state of the practice. The study assessed the current level of knowledge amongst professionals (engineers, planners, and social workers) about the training needs of the other …

Public Transportation And New Mobility, Chris Pangilinan

PSU Transportation Seminars

New mobility options such as bike share, scooters, and transportation network companies (e.g. Uber) are proliferating across the United States and beyond. Early research has shown that while the private automobile continues to be the main competition for transit, new mobility options may also be siphoning off some riders. In this seminar, we will explore what the role of public transportation should be in this era of rapidly expanding private transportation options. We will also examine how private transportation could be harnessed to help public transportation succeed and allow for cities to meet their mobility goals.

The Success Of An Integrated Mobility Strategy: Lessons From The Netherlands For The Pacific West Coast, Lucas Van Der Linde

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Netherlands sets the standard for their multimodal connectivity. It has world's highest use of cycling and an integrated mobility network with an efficient transport system. During this seminar, Lucas will tell more about the Dutch Approach and how this could be applied to the American transportation context.

Lucas will use the case of the Bay area to show this. The Bay Area in California currently faces massive challenges in transportation because of the enormous growth of the region. With the use of a new innovative modelling tool, the Move Meter (http://www.movemeter.com/), Lucas will show the potential of …

Social Equity In Transit Service: Toward Social And Environmental Justice In Transportation, Torrey Lyons

TREC Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores social equity as it applies to public transportation. Transit has long been considered a tool to alleviate inequity by limiting the effects of spatial mismatch and providing access to opportunity to disadvantaged populations. This theory, however, has not been adequately proven empirically. The first chapter of this dissertation tests the theory that spatial mismatch is moderated by quality transit service. We do this by taking a cross section of the largest urban areas in the United States and applying structural equation modeling to identify relationships between exogenous and endogenous factors. We find that higher quality transit service …

Exploring The Determinants Of Vulnerable Road Users’ Crash Severity In State Roads, Álvaro Caviedes

PSU Transportation Seminars

Part of the Student Presentations from TRB

Pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable road users and suffer the most severe consequences when crashes take place. An extensive literature is available for crash severity in terms of driver safety, but fewer studies have explored non-motorized users’ crash severity. Furthermore, most research efforts have examined pedestrian and bicyclist crash severity in urban areas. This study focuses on state roads (mostly outside major urban areas) and aims to identify contributing risk factors of fatal and severe crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists in state roads. The results seem to suggest that besides improvements …

Measuring Stress Levels For Real-World On-Road Cyclists: Do Bicycle Facilities, Intersections And Traffic Levels Affect Cyclists' Stress?, Álvaro Caviedes

PSU Transportation Seminars

This research effort presents a novel approach to measure cyclists’ stress: real-world, on-road measurements of physiological stress as cyclists travel across different types of bicycle facilities in various traffic volumes. This study addresses the question of how the characteristics of a bicycle trip affect stress levels using physiological data, specifically GSR. As detailed in the next section, GSR-based studies have been successfully employed for many years in the psychological field to recognize and associate emotions and behaviors to physiological responses. The three research questions examined in this study are: i) Does peak traffic impact cyclists’ stress levels? ii) Do intersections …

Measuring And Modeling Cyclists’ Comfort And Stress Levels, Miguel Figliozzi

PSU Transportation Seminars

Some researchers have tried to categorize cyclists’ levels of traffic stress utilizing facility or traffic data that can be readily measured in the field, such as motorized travel lanes, travel speeds, and type of bicycle infrastructure.

This seminar will present data and modeling results utilizing two novel data sources:

(a) real-world, on-road measurements of physiological stress as cyclists travel across different types of facilities and

(b) data collected utilizing a smartphone app called ORcycle (http://www.pdx.edu/transportation-lab/orcycle).

This presentation will discuss key findings and potential policy implications.

Transforming A Historic Highway In Small Town Mosier Into A Vibrant Main Street, Amanda Davidowitz, Kaleidoscope Student Planners

PSU Transportation Seminars

Kaleidoscope Student Planners, a group of six students in the Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning program at Portland State University, are working with Mosier, Oregon’s City Council to develop the Slow Mo’ Main Street Concept Plan. The goal for the project is to develop conceptual designs and programmatic recommendations for historic Highway 30 (which runs through the town), to help ensure that Mosier’s Main Street reflects community priorities, supports a thriving downtown, and creates a safe and inviting corridor for people traveling on foot, by bike and by motor vehicle. During this seminar we will reflect on our process …

Travel Decisions & Their Implications For Urban Transportation: From Campus Transportation To Statewide Modeling, Gulsah Akar

PSU Transportation Seminars

The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels.

Although several researchers have explored the links between the built environment, socio-demographics and travel behavior, a consensus is not reached.

This talk highlights two recent projects. The first project focuses on individuals’ attitudes towards transportation, neighborhood characteristics and their effects on campus commuters’ transit use, and addresses the question whether attitudes, the built environment or a combination of both explains the resulting transit use better.

The second part presents the Regional Land Use …

Inclusive Planning To Evaluate Improved Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services For Patients With End Stage Renal Disease, Jenny Liu, August Benzow

TREC Final Reports

The objective of this project is to design a framework that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of non-emergency transportation services (NEMT) for better livability. In addition to the development of the framework, this project aimed to establish connections between Portland State University (PSU) researchers with regional connections involved in public health research, non-emergency medical transportation, medical services, and medical insurance provision. With the rising costs of transportation and medical costs generally in the United States, it is increasingly important to develop new tools and strategies to reduce these costs while maintaining and improving upon the level …

Evaluating The Level-Of-Service Of Protected Bike Lanes, Nick Foster

PSU Transportation Seminars

Summary: The most recent edition of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) contains analysis procedures for measuring the level-of-service (LOS), also referred to as quality of service, provided by an urban roadway to bicyclists. The method uses different design and operating features of the roadway segment (e.g. width, motor vehicle volumes and speeds) to assess an LOS grade of A (best) to F (worst). These procedures are used by planners and engineers to recommend how existing streets could be retrofitted or new streets designed to better serve people on bicycles (and other modes). However, the current HCM does not include methods …

Nevada Surface Transportation, The Lincy Institute And Brookings Mountain West

Brookings Mountain West Publications

This fact sheet examines how Federal funding is allocated between Nevada counties, while also comparing to other Mountain West states. Elements of major bridge, freeway, and bypass projects in northern and southern Nevada are also compared to show the discrepancies between major infrastructure project funding within the state.

Impact Of Public Transit Investment On Travel Pattern And Land Use, Jaturapat Bhiromkaew

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Transportation and land use are believed to be highly correlated and therefore indivisible from each other. Transportation improvement shapes pattern of land use. In tum, land use pattern causes changes in ways of how people travel. Because of relative lower transportation cost with easy access to automobiles, many firms and households have relocated in low-density areas. The number of automobile and the demand to travel have also increasingly dominated transportation system. This fact results in traffic congestion and environmental concerns. Due to the increasing congestion level and environmental concerns, many public transportation agencies have paid a considerable attention on the …

Community Building Sourcebook: Land Use And Transportation Initiatives In Portland, Oregon, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District Of Oregon

TriMet Collection

No abstract provided.

Kennedy, 60 Minutes, And Roger Rabbit: Understanding Conspiracy-Theory Explanations Of The Decline Of Urban Mass Transit, Martha J. Bianco

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper will review the history of the GM Conspiracy Myth, as well as what legal theorists refer to as "the facts in the case." The legal explanation of what really happened goes only so far, though. The whole story about the decline of mass transit in the U.S. is a story about the failure of public policy and about conflict among competing constituencies in the transportation policy process. This paper will very briefly discuss this failure and this conflict and will then conclude with a consideration of - or at least a hypothesis for - the endurance of the …

The Politics Of Implementation: Oregon's Statewide Transportation Planning Rule - What's Been Accomplished, Martha J. Bianco, Sy Adler

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper is a case study of the evolution of Oregon’s groundbreaking Transportation Planning Rule, from its adoption in 1991, up through present amendments. Our analysis is an assessment of how private- and public-sector investors grapple with the coproduction of the built environment under the constraints of a value system that emanates from the state, shepherded by litigious public interest groups. In this case, this value system is articulated in the Oregon administrative rule known as the Transportation Planning Rule. This Rule emphasizes a reduction in the reliance on automobiles and, among other things, requires a decrease in vehicle miles …

The Impact Of Congestion Pricing And Parking Taxes On Spatial Competition, Anthony M. Rufolo, Martha J. Bianco

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Policymakers seeking to reduce reliance on single-occupant automobiles are giving serious consideration to methods to price roads during periods of congest ion and to increase the cost of parking. Such policies are intended to induce increases in carpooling and in the use of mass transit; however, they may have unintended consequences that counteract these goals in the long run. In particular, actual implementation of such policies may create differential price increases that affect the spatial competition for markets between firms located in the central city and those in the suburbs. Analyzing such policies using the spatial competition models of location …

Exurban Development, Transportation Infrastructure And Access Management, Philip J. Wuest

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper explores the changing role of state highway corridors in an era of continued urban growth and decentralization. Its primary focus is on the impact of exurban development on state highway corridors and on the policy of access management to control or limit those impacts. The role of access management in distributing the benefits and costs of access to public facilities is outlined. As urban areas expand at the fringe, it is important to clarify to what extent the public good of roadways is diminished by direct corridor access by the private sector. This work is timely and relevant …

The Economics Of Free Parking: Transportation Policy At The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Richard A. Nielsen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper culminates a natural progression of studies done over the past two years examining parking and transportation policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The purpose of these studies has been to evaluate the adequacy of these policies and to estimate the potential impact a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) program could produce on parking and traffic conditions and air quality improvement. Included in the report are results from a commuter survey conducted in April 1993, a simple rollback model developed to produce an estimation of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) at the University and any subsequent reduction of VMT …

Challenges Confronting Metropolitan Portland's Transportation Decision-Making Regime, Sheldon Edner, Sy Adler, Peter B. Morris

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In this paper we discuss the structure and dynamics of this consensus process through an exploration of a series of challenges to the regime. These challenges include: (1) cultivating new sources of project finance, as the federal government reduces its contribution; and (2) integrating transport projects with regional and local land use plans designed to manage urban growth; in the context of (3) intensifying competition between -business centers within the region, as rapidly growing suburban areas seek transport projects that will facilitate locally-oriented economic growth. We first discuss the institutional and normative elements of the regional consensus process in historical …