Urban Studies Commons^™

Exploring The Positive Utility Of Travel And Mode Choice, Patrick Allen Singleton

PSU Transportation Seminars

Why do people travel? We traditionally assume traveling is a means to an end, travel demand is derived (from the demand for activities), and travel time is to be minimized. Recently, scholars have questioned these axioms, noting that some people may like to travel, use travel time productively, enjoy the experience of traveling, or travel for non-utilitarian reasons. The idea that travel can provide benefits and may be motivated by factors beyond reaching activity destinations is known as “the positive utility of travel” or PUT.

This study presents a conceptual and empirical look at the positive utility of travel and …

Improving Trip Data For Livable Communities, Kelly Clifton

TREC Project Briefs

NITC researchers work to refine a framework for trip generation that includes people walking, biking and riding transit.

Could E-Bikes Spur A New Wave Of Biking In America?, John Macarthur

TREC Project Briefs

In this NITC study, researchers provided participants with electric bicycles to use for a ten-week trial period and surveyed them about the experience.

Plans And Living Practices For The Green Campus Of Portland State University, Yoon Jung Choi, Minjung Oh, Jihye Kang, Loren Lutzenhiser

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study aims to comprehend Portland State University (PSU)’s green campus strategies, and students’ level of knowledge and living practices relating to green campus. PSU’s sustainable campus plan has been nationally and internationally recognized. A literature review, field investigation, and interviews were conducted to ascertain the PSU green campus strategies. This study also used a survey to understand students’ level of knowledge and practices. The survey results were analyzed by SPSS. Green campus projects at PSU were operated by official organizations and funded according to PSU’s long term plans in 12 multilateral categories: administration, energy, water, climate action, green buildings, …

Evaluation Of An Electric Bike Pilot Project At Three Employment Campuses In Portland, Oregon, John Macarthur, Nicholas Kobel, Jennifer Dill, Zakari Mumuni

TREC Final Reports

Oregon, and Portland in particular, is internationally known for its love for bikes. Not only does the region have some of the highest bike ridership but the Oregon bike manufacturing industry is quickly growing. Oregon’s electric bike (e-bike) market is also growing but little data are available on the potential market and e-bike user behavior and interest. Only a limited amount of research has explored the potential new market segments for e-bikes and the economic, operational, safety, and transportation issues surrounding e-bikes in the United States. This report examines the results of an electric bike (e-bike) pilot project, which took …

Improving Trip Generation Methods For Livable Communities, Kelly J. Clifton, Nico Larco, Kristina Marie Currans, Jael Wettach-Glosser

TREC Final Reports

Recent efforts to improve trip generation data available for transportation impact analysis of new development include the collection of multimodal trip generation data, development of models that account for the built environment, and new recommendations for practice. Building on a long line of research on transportation and built environment, many studies have identified important features of the surrounding built environment that most impact trip rates and mode shares, building on a long line of research on transportation and the built environment. Despite these improvements in data and methods, less attention is placed on identifying the conditions of the site itself …

Webinar: Improving Walkability At Signalized Intersections With Signal Control Strategies, Edward J. Smaglik, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri

TREC Webinar Series

The goal of signal timing at an intersection should be to maximize efficiency for all users. In many jurisdictions, however, traffic signals are timed mostly with the goal of reducing vehicular delay.

Other road users, such as pedestrians, deserve similar focus. In legacy transportation systems, pedestrians experience delays much in excess of those that would be deemed acceptable for a motor vehicle at the same location.

Excessive delay can lead to pedestrian frustration, non-compliance and ultimately decreased safety.

In the North American context, implementation of strategies to address pedestrian service varies greatly across jurisdictions, and there has been limited research …

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 …

A Pathway Linking Smart Growth Neighborhoods To Home-Based Pedestrian Travel, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly J. Clifton

PSU Transportation Seminars

Land development patterns, urban design, and transportation system features are inextricably linked to pedestrian travel. Accordingly, planners and decision-makers have turned to integrated transportation-land use policies and investments to address the pressing need for improvements in physical activity levels via the creation of walkable communities. However, policy questions regarding the identification of smart growth indicators and their connection to walking remain unanswered, because most studies of the built environment determinants of pedestrian travel: (a) represent the built environment with isolated metrics instead of as a multidimensional construct and (b) model this transportation-land use relationship outside of a multidirectional analytic framework. …

State Efforts To Fight Climate Change, Rebecca Lewis, Robert Zako

TREC Project Briefs

NITC Project Brief: A research project examines efforts in four states to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the transportation sector.

Improving Walkability Through Control Strategies At Signalized Intersections, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri, Andrew Kading, Edward J. Smaglik, Christopher Sobie

TREC Final Reports

As cities and communities nationwide seek to develop Complete Streets that foster livability and accommodate all modes, signal timing control strategies that include pedestrians in the operational decision process are gaining importance. This research tested several efficiency-focused pedestrian treatments – coordination, actuated-coordination, free operation, short cycle lengths – and safety-focused treatment including leading pedestrian intervals and Barnes Dance. Using a software-in-the-loop simulation, the operational impacts of these treatments on all users (vehicles, heavy vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians) at an intersection were evaluated. Results showed that among the efficiency-based treatments, free operation was most beneficial for reducing minor-street pedestrian delays. Both …

Cross-Laminated Timber: An Innovative Building Material Takes Hold In Oregon, Andrew Crampton

Metroscape

In a rapidly urbanizing world fueled by the enormous demand to house and shelter billions of people in the upcoming decades, building materials must be utilized that have a lighter climate impact than today’s commonly used energy-intensive building materials.

Is there an alternative to the energy-intensive concrete jungle that is both sustainable and financially viable? How can our built environment enhance, rather than destroy, the natural environment? Part of the solution lies in a recent innovation that uses one of the world’s oldest building materials, wood, with a modern twist: cross-laminated timber, often abbreviated as CLT. These wood-based structures can …

Women In The Trades: An Interview With Connie Ashbrook And Nora Mullane, Liza Morehead

Metroscape

Liza Morehead interviews Connie Ashbrook and Nora Mullane.

Connie Ashbrook is the Executive Director and founder of Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., Previous to her years with OTI, she worked in the trades for seventeen years as a dump truck driver, carpenter apprentice, and elevator constructor. She was the first woman in Oregon to become licensed as an elevator mechanic.

Nora Mullane has been a union journey-person carpenter, general contractor, building inspector, and City of Portland Bureau of Developments Services supervisor. Nora says that successfully completing her carpenter’s apprenticeship program has served her well throughout her entire career, and life in general, …

Election 2016: Voter Turnout And Results Across Oregon, Kevin Curry

Metroscape

Metroscape went inside the numbers from the 2016 general election. We examined Oregon’s new "motor voter" law to see if it affected turnout and to better understand the new voters added to the rolls in the ‘Beaver State.’ We looked at voter turnout and election results in Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill counties in Oregon and Clark and Skamania counties in Washington to answer several questions about the 2016 General Election.

The Landscape: Tualatin, Liza Morehead

Metroscape

This edition of The Landscape takes a brief look at the city of Tualatin, Oregon, located twelve miles south of Portland, and examines its population, growth, and demographics, as well as defining features and points of interest.

Indicators Of The Metroscape: Average Wage Per Job, Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Metroscape

A chart offering Portland MSA average wage as a percentage of the US metro average wage, 2001-2015.

Impact Of Last Mile Parking Availability On Commercial Vehicle Costs And Operations, Miguel Figliozzi, Chawalit Tipagornwong

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research analyses how parking availability levels affect commercial vehicle parking costs and operations in congested urban areas. Unlike passenger vehicles, parking availability has an impact on route characteristics and commercial vehicle fleet sizes. Hence, commercial vehicles parking costs cannot be captured solely by estimating delays and/or the cost of parking fines. This research combines logistics, queuing, and optimization models to study the impact of last mile parking availability on commercial vehicle costs and operations. Scenarios are built to study the impact of parking availability on typical less-than-truckload (LTL) and courier service costs. Results indicate that parking availability levels do …

The Fountain District: Framework Plan, Kara Boden, Alyssa Brook, Jennifer Davidson, Michael Kimble, Julia Lui, Raina Smith, Steven Rosen, Laura Voss, Victoria Weakley

Urban Design Workshop

The 'South Auditorium' neighborhood established itself in the days when loggers and other workers filled the district’s hotels due to its proximity to the river. In the wake of the Great Depression and as the logging trade declined, the area began to fall into disrepair and development shifted away from the Willamette River. By the 1950s, many of its 2,000+ inhabitants were low-income or elderly and living in small, poorly maintained apartments, shuffling from one to the next as they were forced out of their prior home. The neighborhood was also extremely diverse, housing numerous immigrant families, particularly Italian, Jewish, …

Exploiting New Data Sources To Quantify Arterial Congestion And Performance Measures At A Regional Scale, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Robert L. Bertini, Travis B. Glick, Nicholas B. Stoll, Wei Feng, Bobjot S. Sidhu, Anurag Pande

TREC Final Reports

Transit travel time, operating speed and reliability all influence service attractiveness, operating cost and system efficiency. These metrics have a long-term impact on system effectiveness through a change in ridership. As part of its bus dispatch system (BDS), the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) has been archiving automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data for all bus trips at the stop level since 1997. In 2014, a new and higher-resolution bus AVL data collection system was fully implemented.

This new AVL system provides stop-level data as well as five-second resolution (5-SR) bus position data between …

Introduction To Data Science For Transportation Researchers, Planners, And Engineers, Liming Wang

TREC Final Reports

Building on the successful scientific computing training program offered by the Software Carpentry (http://www.software-carpentry.org/), this course exposes students to the best practices in data science through hands-on lab sessions. Using transportation data and examples, it also aims to help students tackle the challenge of “drinking from a hose” when dealing with the overwhelming amount of data that is increasingly common in transportation research and practice.

Although computing is now an integral part of every aspect of science and engineering, transportation research included, most students of science, engineering, and planning are never taught how to build, use, validate, and share software …

The Lloyd Public Space Plan, Stuart Campbell, Àlvaro Caviedes, Ben Kahn, Raina Smith-Roller, Daniel Scheppke, Layne Wyse

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This plan defines a set of recommended strategies for enhancing and activating public spaces in Lloyd that fall within three main themes: Safe Lloyd, Collective Lloyd, and Dynamic Lloyd. Implementing these actions will help realize a new vision of Lloyd: A vibrant community filled with activities and amenities for people at different times of the day, days of the week, and months of the year.

The report Measuring Public Space is included here as a supplemental file.

Umatilla Together, Amber Ayers, Belen Herrera, Carlos Callava, Nate Miller, Samuel Roberts, Laura Voss

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Umatilla Together sets the stage for great opportunities and seeks to inspire the residents of Umatilla to imagine what your city could be: a truly desirable place to live, work, learn, and play. Great places are not created by accident. They are the result of a vision, leadership, planning, public investment, unrelenting tenacity on the part of city champions, and strategic, meaningful partnerships.

Summary Umatilla Together plans in English and Spanish are included here as supplemental files.

St. Johns Housing Action Plan, Jai Singh, Julia Michel, Andres Oswill, Gabriel Rousseau, Ludwig Salzmann, Eric Rutledge

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The St. Johns Housing Action Plan (Action Plan) is designed to serve vulnerable St. Johns residents who are first to feel the impacts of increased housing costs and market pressures. It also intends to capture the support of residents who are not at risk of displacement but realize that the neighborhood change they fear is partly fueled by housing instability.

Brentwood-Darlington: Say Our Name! Neighborhood Assessment And Action Plan, Laura Combs, Samuel Garcia, Olivia Holden, Amanda Howell, Andrea Pastor, Shannon Williams

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

We wrote this plan with two audiences in mind: the city agencies that will be responsible for the large scale capital improvement projects; and engaged neighborhood residents who will be the steadfast advocates driving the direction of Brentwood-Darlington’s evolution. Our hope is the plan serves as a guide and a touchstone—a reminder of where the neighborhood has been, and an arrow pointing the way to the community’s shared vision of the future.

Rethink Nw 13th: Nw 13th Phased Action Plan, Cassandra Dobson, Courtney Simms, Dylan Johnstone, Geoff Gibson, Russ Doubleday, Santiago Mendez

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

NW 13th has its own set of challenges and opportunities that set it apart from other streets in the Portland Pearl District. This plan refocuses the historic district street around the pedestrian, placing all other modes as secondary to the experience and comfort of those walking on the street. Creating a plan for the pedestrian includes creating stronger bonds with the residents, businesses, and services that run the street’s entire length.

Two appendices: Community Engagement, and Existing Conditions, are included here as supplemental files.

Columbia View Park Expansion Plan: St. Helens, Oregon, Paul Gagliardi, Jonathan Morales, Takayuki Shigematsu, Deme Shor, Nathan Williams

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Vista Planning led public engagement surrounding a waterfront park expansion to help determine how the City should expand and renovate Columbia View Park. Between March and June 2017 Vista Planning ran engagement activities to learn about the local community, build interest around the park expansion and broader framework plan, and ultimately develop a preliminary site plan based on community input.

Assessing State Efforts To Integrate Transportation, Land Use And Climate, Rebecca Lewis, Robert Zako

TREC Final Reports

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a threat to life on earth. “Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions” (International Panel on Climate Change, 2014, 8).

The transportation sector accounts for almost one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the United States. Reducing GHG from transportation rests on the “three-legged stool” of improving vehicle efficiency, reducing the carbon content of fuels …

Do People’S Perceptions Of Neighborhood Bikeability Match “Reality”?, Liang Ma, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Do people perceive the built environment the same as we objectively measure it? If not, what are the relative roles of the objective versus the perceived environment on bicycling behavior? This study, based on data from Portland, Oregon, explored the match or mismatch between the objective and perceived bicycling environment and how it affects people’s bicycling behavior. The descriptive analysis indicated a fair agreement between perceived and objective measures. Older adults, women having children, less-educated and lower-income persons, and those who bicycle less tended to perceive their high-bikeable environment (measured objectively) as being a low-bikeable environment. In addition to the …

Periodic Atlas Of The Metroscape: The Geography Of Future Housing, Randy Morris, Sheila Martin

Metroscape

In this edition of the Periodic Atlas, we provide a glimpse of housing construction that has been permitted over the past few years, with a focus on multifamily housing. Focusing on recently-permitted units provides a perspective on how the newest housing is and will be different from existing housing. The type of housing that will be built, where it is built, its characteristics, and its price will shape the Portland region in the years to come.

The Effects Of Frequency Of Social Interaction, Social Cohesion, Age, And The Built Environment On Walking, Gretchen Allison Luhr

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore, through a social ecological framework, the multifaceted effects of the neighborhood environment by investigating how dimensions of both the built environment and the neighborhood social context may interact to influence walking. Aesthetics, land use mix, crime, and pedestrian infrastructure were considered with respect to built environment walkability, and the neighborhood social context was conceptualized using measures of both social cohesion and social interaction with neighbors. This research used data from an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-funded study of 748 adults (18 years of age and older) residing in the Lents neighborhood in Portland, …