Urban Studies Commons^™

Data From: Statistical Inference For Multimodal Travel Time Reliability, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Miguel Figliozzi, Subhash C. Kochar

TREC Datasets and Databases

Travel time reliability is a key metric of interest to practitioners and researchers because it affects travel choice and the economic competitiveness of urban areas. This research focuses on three travel time reliability metrics – buffer index, modified buffer index, and the relative width of travel time distributions. The key novel contributions of this research include using the multivariate delta method to prove that the sampling distributions of the three travel time reliability metrics are asymptotically normal. The asymptotic standard error for the three reliability metrics is derived. The asymptotic normality and the standard error result are used to arrive …

Nature-Based Solutions In Environmental Planning: Ecosystem-Based Adaptations, Green Infrastructures, And Ecosystem Services To Promote Diversity In Urban Landscapes, Lorena Alves Carvalho Nascimento

Dissertations and Theses

Nature-based solutions encompass strategies that explore ecosystem-based adaptations, green infrastructures, and ecosystem services in environmental planning and landscape management. However, nature-based solutions do not always consider ecological values and perspectives from Black, Indigenous, and Global South population. This dissertation has three independent papers that explore the application of ecosystem-based adaptations, green infrastructures, and ecosystem services in communities unheard by environmental planning agencies. The first paper is a conceptual framework that used literature review and observations of current human-nature interactions to reflect how the criminalization, acculturation, and cultural appropriation of cultural ecosystem services have burdened Black and Indigenous identities. Recommendations for …

Vehicular Design And Resource Allocation Policies For Equitable Road Safety, Alyssa Ryan

PSU Transportation Seminars

The diversity of road users is not equitably accounted for in vehicular and infrastructure design and funding allocation policies, among other areas that impact mobility. This impedes the ability for all road users to experience the same level of safety while traveling. Moving towards equitable road safety for all road users is critical to improve the quality of life and save lives of those that are most underserved in the transportation sector.

Professor Alyssa Ryan discusses two strategies to increase safety for vulnerable road users. First, a study on road injury differences between drivers of different biological sex is presented. …

Webinar: Radar Point Cloud Segmentation Using Gmm In Traffic Monitoring, Siyang Cao

TREC Webinar Series

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) change our communities by improving the safety and convenience of people’s daily mobility. The system relies on multimodal traffic monitoring, that needs to provide reliable, efficient and detailed traffic information for traffic safety and planning. How to reliably and intelligently monitor intersection traffic with multimodal information is one of the most critical topics in intelligent transportation research. In multimodal traffic monitoring, we gather traffic statistics for distinct transportation modes, such as pedestrians, cars and bicycles, in order to analyze and improve people’s daily mobility in terms of safety and convenience. In this study, we use a …

New Radar Sensor Technology For Intelligent Multimodal Traffic Monitoring At Intersections, Siyang Cao, Yao-Jan Wu, Feng Jin

TREC Project Briefs

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) need traffic data to run smoothly. At intersections, where there is the greatest potential for conflicts between road users, being able to reliably and intelligently monitor the different modes of traffic is crucial.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that more than 50 percent of the combined total of fatal and injury crashes occur at or near intersections. For pedestrians the intersection is a particularly dangerous place: the City of Portland, OR identified that two-thirds of all crashes involving a pedestrian happen at intersections. And when darkness comes earlier in fall and winter, crashes increase dramatically. So …

New Mobility For All: Bringing Emerging Transportation Options To Underserved Communities, John Macarthur, Nathan Mcneil

TREC Project Briefs

Low-income residents, immigrants, seniors, and people with disabilities – these are people who stand to gain the most from new tools and services that reduce transportation costs and travel time. However, issues of affordability, technology adoption, banking access or other barriers can limit access to these new mobility opportunities. In the latest project funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), New Mobility For All, Portland State University researchers Nathan McNeil, John MacArthur and Huijun Tan worked with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to evaluate a local pilot program: the Transportation Wallet for Residents of …

Developing Strategies To Enhance Mobility And Accessibility For Community-Dwelling Older Adults, Kate Hyun, Kathy Lee, Caroline Krejci, Nilufer Oran Gibson, Troyee Saha

TREC Final Reports

Mobility disparities among older adults affect their ability to travel and access services. This project seeks to understand challenges, barriers, and gaps that older adults experience, and develop forms of assistance or educational strategies to fill the varying mobility gaps and meet mobility needs. This study characterizes older adults’ use of existing and potential transportation options, including conventional transit, paratransit, and ride-hailing systems, based on surveys collected from 146 low-income older adults in Dallas, TX. Using the survey data and interview data, we develop two mathematical modeling (a Latent Class Cluster Analysis and agent-based modeling (ABM)) and conduct content analysis …

Data From: “Developing Strategies To Enhance Mobility And Accessibility For Community-Dwelling Older Adults”, Kate Hyun, Kathy Lee, Caroline Krejci

TREC Datasets and Databases

This study administered a survey to 146 lower-income adults in Dallas, TX, aged 55 and older, between February and June 2020. As affordable public transportation options target senior citizens age 65 and older, this study focused on older adults as aged 65 and over. However, we also recruited adults aged 55 to 64 to distinguish how emerging seniors differently perceive or perform transportation activities compared to current older adults. In a partnership with a local organization providing resources and information for older adults and family caregivers located in Dallas, we used snowball sampling by recruiting participants from Foster Grandparent Program …

Improving Mobility And Quality Of Life For Older Adults, Kate Hyun, Caroline Krejci, Kathy Lee

TREC Project Briefs

As we get older, transportation provides a vital link between home and community. Without reliable and easy ways to get around, many older adults (especially those who live alone) have limited access to essentials like groceries and medicine, let alone social interaction. A new report from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Developing Strategies To Enhance Mobility And Accessibility For Community-Dwelling Older Adults, looked at the mobility challenges, barriers, and gaps that older adults experience, with an eye toward developing forms of assistance or educational strategies to fill those gaps.

Development Of Intelligent Multimodal Traffic Monitoring Using Radar Sensor At Intersections, Siyang Cao, Yao-Jan Wu, Feng Jin

TREC Final Reports

Multimodal traffic monitoring is critical for improving mobility and safety at intersections with potential conflicts among various modes of transportation. Traditional traffic monitoring approaches utilizing cameras cannot work reliably during the night and under hazardous weather conditions. We propose to build a new intelligent multimodal traffic monitoring device using the low-cost mmWave radar. The proposed device can reliably distinguish different modes (such as buses, pedestrians, bicyclists, trucks, motorcycles, etc.), and determine the counts, speed, and moving directions of every single target in an urban environment under various lighting and weather conditions. In the study, a low-cost prototype system will also …

Pedestrian Safety And Social Equity In Oregon, Josh Roll, Nathan Mcneil

PSU Transportation Seminars

Past research and planning has highlighted the existence of pedestrian injury disparities throughout the US and some local agencies have performed cursory analysis in Oregon. However, no statewide analysis of pedestrian injuries in Oregon has been completed to see how these injury outcomes differ by race and income.

This presentation aims to help better understand the factors that result in disparate pedestrian injury outcomes for different sociodemographic groups. This research uses data from a variety of sources to understand pedestrian injuries by social equity measures including income, poverty, race, ethnicity, disability and English proficiency. The authors conclude that Black, Indigenous …

Webinar: The Impact Of Transportation-Related Barriers On Self-Perceived Physical Health Among Adults In The Us, Philip Baiden, Godfred Boateng

TREC Webinar Series

Drawing from the framework of social determinants of health, the objective of this study is to investigate the cross-sectional association between transportation-related factors and self-perceived physical health among adults in the U.S.

Data for this study were derived from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey. An analytic sample of 71,235 respondents aged 18 and 64 years was analyzed using binary logistic regression. Of the 71,235 respondents examined, 8.9% perceived their physical health to be poor. About 36% of the respondents had fewer vehicles per individuals in the household.

Controlling for the effects of other factors, respondents who had fewer vehicles …

New Mobility For All: Evaluation Of A Transportation Incentive Program For Residents Of Affordable Housing In Portland, Or, Nathan Mcneil, John Macarthur, Huijun Tan

TREC Final Reports

Low-income residents, immigrants, seniors, and people with disabilities - people who are often the most transport disadvantaged and thus stand to gain the most from tools that could reduce transportation costs and time – are often poorly served by new transportation tools and services, whether due to issues of affordability, gaps in technology adoption, unbanked populations, social or knowledge gaps, physical access, or other barriers. The research team worked with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to evaluate the Transportation Wallet for Residents of Affordable Housing Pilot (TWRAH). The program provided a set of transportation incentives for low-income participants including …

Turning Streets Into Housing, Adam Millard-Bell

PSU Transportation Seminars

Wide residential streets in US cities are both a contributor to homelessness and a potential strategy to provide more affordable housing. In residential neighborhoods, subdivision ordinances typically set binding standards for street width, far in excess of what is economically optimal or what private developers and residents would likely prefer. These street width standards are one contributor to high housing costs and supply restrictions, which exacerbate the housing affordability crisis in high-cost cities.

Cities can certainly reduce street widths in new development. But what about existing neighborhoods? Dr. Adam Millard-Ball proposes two strategies through which excess street space can accommodate …

Examining The Impact Of Transportation-Related Barriers On Self-Perceived Physical Health Among Adults In The United States, Philip Baiden, Godfred O. Boateng, Stephen Mattingly, Alan Kunz Lomelin

TREC Final Reports

Objective: Drawing from the framework of social determinants of health, the objective of this paper was to investigate the crosssectional association between transportation-related factors and self-perceived physical health among adults in the U.S. while adjusting for known demographic and socioeconomic-related factors.

Methods: Data for this report were derived from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey. An analytic sample of 71,235 respondents aged 18 and 64 years was analyzed using binary logistic regression. The outcome variable examined was self perceived physical health and the main explanatory variable was a measure of household vehicle deficit.

Results: Of the 71,235 respondents examined, 8.9% …

Road Work Ahead: Using Deep Neural Networks To Estimate The Impacts Of Work Zones, Abbas Rashidi, Ali Hassandokht Mashhadi

TREC Project Briefs

Roadside construction - be it a detour, a closed lane, or a slow weave past workers and equipment - work zones impact traffic flow and travel times on a system-wide level. The ability to predict exactly what those impacts will be, and plan for them, would be a major help to both transportation agencies and road users. Funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, the latest Small Starts project led by Abbas Rashidi of the University of Utah introduces a robust, deep neural network model for analyzing the automobile traffic impacts of construction zones.

Evaluating Mobility Impacts Of Construction Work Zones On Utah Transportation System Using Machine Learning Techniques, Ali Hassandokht Mashhadi, Abbas Rashidi

TREC Final Reports

Construction work zones are inevitable parts of daily operations at roadway systems. They have a significant impact on traffic conditions and the mobility of roadway systems. The traffic impacts of work zones could significantly vary due to several interacting factors such as work zone factors (work zone location and layout, length of the closure, work zone speed, intensity, and daily active hours); traffic factors (percentage of heavy vehicles, highway speed limit, capacity, mobility, flow, density, congestion, and occupancy); road factors (number of total lanes, number of open lanes, and pavement grade and condition); temporal factors (e.g., year, season, month, weekday, …

Agent-Based Activity Generation Of Runners For City Infrastructure Planning, Quang Le

REU Final Reports

Since the pandemic started, many gyms and indoor classes have been shut down to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus. Many people have been forced to get onto pavement streets to get some fresh air while running around and coping with the new reality. There are over 60 million runners in the U.S., and that number is growing rapidly during this time without any sign of stopping once life gets back to normal. In this project, an agent-based model has been developed to generate a set of routes that runners would take in their daily run in a neighborhood of Portland …

Data Files: Green Waves, Machine Learning, And Predictive Analytics: Making Streets Better For People On Bikes, Stephen Fickas

TREC Datasets and Databases

The project builds on a prior app that was designed for Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA). This is more colloquially known as keeping a vehicle in the green wave: you are at a location and moving at a speed that will allow you to (theoretically) have a green light at each intersection you encounter along a corridor. Our long-term goal is to extend the FastTrack app described in the Background section to include actuated signals along a corridor. This project takes a first step by evaluating the effectiveness of machine-learning algorithms to predict the next phase of an actuated …

Data-Driven Mobility Strategies For Multimodal Transportation, Yao-Jan Wu, Xianfeng Terry Yang, Sirisha Kothuri, Abolfazl Karimpour, Qinzheng Wang, Jason Anderson

TREC Final Reports

Multimodal transportation systems (e.g., walking, cycling, automobile, public transit, etc.) are effective in increasing people’s travel flexibility, reducing congestion, and improving safety. Therefore, it is critical to understand what factors would affect people’s mode choices. With advanced technology, such as connected and automated vehicles, cities are now facing a transition from traditional urban planning to developing smart cities. To support multimodal transportation management, this study will serve as a bridge to connect speed management strategies of conventional corridors to connected vehicle corridors. This study consists of three main components. In the first component, the impact of speed management strategies along …

Using Deep Learning Algorithms To Give Bicyclists The “Green Wave” At Traffic Signals, Stephen Fickas

TREC Project Briefs

Led by Dr. Stephen Fickas of the University of Oregon (UO), transportation researchers are working to give bicyclists smoother rides by allowing them to communicate with traffic signals via a mobile app.

'There Are No Bathrooms Available!': How Older Adults Experiencing Houselessness Manage Their Daily Activities, Ellis Jourdan Hews

Dissertations and Theses

Older adults living unhoused encounter limitations and challenges that drastically decrease their wellbeing and quality of life. The purpose of my study was to understand how experiencing houselessness impacted older adults' ability to conduct their activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) within their communities. I conducted phone interviews with older adults aged 50 and older who experienced houselessness in the Portland metro area. The participants described the persons and places that shaped their community life when they were living unhoused, and they described how those entities intervened to alleviate barriers to daily activities. The …

Webinar: The Impact Of Ride Hail Services On The Accessibility Of Nonprofit Services, Dyana Mason

TREC Webinar Series

Nonprofit organizations are responsible for providing human services across the United States, often in partnership with government agencies. In this work, they address some of the most pressing social issues – including homelessness, poverty, health care and education. While many of these organizations consider location and accessibility crucial to supporting their clients – often locating services near bus or train stops, for example – little is known about the impact of new technologies, including ride hail services (also called Transportation Network Companies, or TNCs) like Lyft and Uber, on nonprofit accessibility. Do these services help fill gaps in client needs? …

Webinar: Electric Bus Deployment: Cost And Environmental Equity, Cathy Liu

TREC Webinar Series

This presentation introduces an innovative spatiotemporal analytical framework and web-based visualization platform developed by researchers at the University of Utah to assist transit agencies in identifying optimal deployment strategies for a battery-electric bus (BEB) system by using a combination of mathematical programming methods, GIS-based analysis, and multi-objective optimization techniques. The framework allows transit agencies to optimally phase in BEB infrastructure and deploy the BEB system in a way that can minimize the capital and operational cost of the BEB system while maximizing its environmental benefits (i.e., emission reduction).

Parking Spaces To People Places, Shawn Canny, Natalie Knowles, Arva Hussain, Ann Le, Megan Doherty, Elizabeth Cox

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In partnership with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS), we sought to better understand how off-street parking space could accommodate economic activity in East Portland, the city’s most economically and racially diverse neighborhood. We focused on two different neighborhoods based on equity considerations and interest: the Rosewood and the Jade Districts. The goal was to better understand these areas with granularity but also to juxtapose them looking for similarities and differences that could guide our recommendations for using parking spaces and serving the community. This project was exploratory in nature. Our research questions and resulting deliverables were dynamic. …

Webinar: Eliminating Cash Options For Public Transit Fares: Costs, Benefits And Equity Impacts, Aaron Golub

TREC Webinar Series

Many transit agencies plan to automate their fare collection and limit the use of cash, with the goals of improving boarding and data collection while lowering operating costs. Yet about 10% of adults in the United States lack a bank account or credit card, and many either rely on restrictive cell-phone data plans or don’t have access to internet or a smartphone. This webinar will present part of a larger research project exploring these issues in the cities of Denver, Colorado, and Eugene and Portland–Gresham, Oregon. In this part, we explore the tradeoffs between reducing cash acceptance, ridership and the …

Applying An Equity Lens To Automated Payment Solutions For Public Transportation, Aaron Golub, John Macarthur, Anne Brown, Candace Brakewood

TREC Final Reports

Many transit agencies plan to automate their fare collection and limit the use of cash for payment, with the goals of improving boarding and data collection while lowering operating costs. Still, about 10% of adults in the United States lack a bank account or credit card, and many either rely on restrictive cell-phone data plans or don’t have access to internet or a smartphone, making it very challenging for these riders to ride. In light of these potential challenges, this project was developed by a group of transit agencies and consultants interested in the barriers faced by riders, and what …

Webinar: Rethinking Streets During Covid, Clare Haley, John Larson-Friend, Marc Schlossberg, Aliza Whalen

TREC Webinar Series

Re-allocating space on streets to accommodate new uses – particularly for walking, biking, and being – is not new. However, COVID-era needs have accelerated the process that many communities use to make such street transitions. Many communities quickly understood that the street is actually a public place and a public good that serves broader public needs more urgent than the free flow or the storage of private vehicles. This seminar describes a new case study book that captures some of these quick changes to city streets in response to societal needs during COVID, with two open questions: 1. What changes …

The Impact Of Ride Hail Services On The Accessibility Of Nonprofit Services, Dyana P. Mason, Miranda Menard

TREC Final Reports

Nonprofit organizations are responsible for providing a significant level of human services across the United States, often in collaboration with government agencies. In this work, they address some of the most pressing social issues in society – including homelessness, poverty, health care and education. While many of these organizations consider location and accessibility crucial to supporting their clients – often locating services near bus or train stops, for example – little is known about the impact of new technologies, including ride hail services like Lyft and Uber, on nonprofit accessibility. These technologies, which are re-shaping transportation in both urban and …

Webinar: Transit Impacts On Jobs, People And Real Estate, Arthur C. Nelson, Kristina Currans, Robert Hibberd

TREC Webinar Series

This webinar has six elements: Introducing themes related to how transit should affect the location of jobs and people, and how real estate should respond; Creating a research typology of different landscapes served by transit that is also useful in transit planning; Analyzing how transit stations influence shifts in the regional share of jobs, people and housing; Investigating how transit station proximity influences mode choice and household transportation budgets; Estimating the effect of transit station proximity on real estate rents by type of transit system and type of real estate, and the extent to which outcomes are consistent with theory; …