Urban Studies Commons^™

Contesting The North Williams Traffic Operations And Safety Project, Amy Lubitow, Thaddeus R. Miller

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The North Williams Traffic Safety Operations Project, overseen by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), was proposed in 2010. With an initial budget of $370,000, the project was designed to reduce conflict between buses, bicycles and motor vehicles on North Williams Avenue and improve the overall safety and accessibility of the street. As is common practice, PBOT’s first step in this project was to organize a stakeholder advisory committee (SAC) of interested business owners, neighborhood association representatives, residents, and key stakeholders living or working along North Williams Avenue who would be tasked with advising the city on the project. However, …

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

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

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

Public Contact With And Perceptions Regarding Police In Portland, Oregon, Brian Renauer, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, Kris R. Henning, Greg Stewart

Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute Research Briefs

On September 12, 2012 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for Oregon asserting that the City of Portland has engaged in a pattern and practice of unnecessary or excessive force against persons experiencing a mental health crisis. This survey is the result of a settlement agreement between Portland’s City Council and the DOJ which specified the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) develop a means of assessing public perceptions.

The first report generated by the research team examined general attitudes of residents. This second report focuses on an area pertinent to the DOJ …

Defining, Tracking, And Displaying Regional Equity Conditions: Two Approaches From The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Region, Meg Merrick

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report explores the strengths and weaknesses of two significant regional indicator projects for the Portland‐Vancouver metropolitan area. Specifically, this paper focuses on the measurement of equity conditions at a regional scale. In 2003, the Coalition for a Livable Future (CLF), in partnership with Portland State University (PSU), launched the nation's first regional equity atlas endeavor that pushed the notion of equity to the forefront of regional discourse. Defined primarily in terms of access to opportunities, especially in spatial terms, the atlas took advantage of the analytical capabilities and graphic power of mapping and maps to convey its findings. Published …

An Examination Of Gentrification And Related Displacement Of Black Residents In Portland's Boise Neighborhood, 1990-2010, Jordan Jordan

University Honors Theses

Issues related to gentrification and its primary consequence, the displacement of vulnerable populations from their homes and communities, are rightly considered among the most pressing social concerns faced by urban communities. Portland, Oregon has seen many of its neighborhoods undergo the gentrification transition, especially in traditionally Black neighborhoods. The Boise neighborhood lies within Northeast Portland's Albina district, which has served as the cultural and commercial heart of Portland's Black community for generations. In the 1990 Census, over 70% of the population of Boise (situated within Multnomah County Census tract 34.02) were Black, while 26% were White. By 2010, those figures …

Designbridge: Integrating Transportation Into Service Learning Design/Build Projects, Juli Brode, Nico Larco, John Roswell

TREC Final Reports

This proposal develops transportation-related projects through the work of designBridge. This active, student-based organization is composed of members from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts working cooperatively with participants from the UO’s Planning, Public Policy and Management, Landscape Architecture, Geography, and Art departments. The program provides an opportunity for students to gain valuable, real-world experience by encouraging them to explore significant design issues in the community, to seek appropriate solutions to transportation problems, and to develop professional skills. Students are engaged in all phases of the design and building process, from the first client meeting through …

Assessing Soil Lead Contamination At Multiple Scales In Oakland, California: Implications For Urban Agriculture And Environmental Justice, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

As urban agriculture grows in popularity throughout North America, vacant lots, underutilized parks, and other open spaces are becoming prime targets for food production. In many post-industrial landscapes and in neighborhoods with a high density of old housing stock, the risk of lead (Pb) contamination at such sites is raising concerns. This paper evaluates the extent to which soil Pb contamination may be an obstacle to the expansion of urban agriculture in Oakland, California. Using a combination of soil sampling at 112 sites, GIS, “hot spot” analysis, and reconstructed land use histories, the research reveals that soil Pb concentrations are …

Oregon's Health Insurance Coverage Holds Steady, But The State's Uninsured Rate Remains High, Jason R. Jurjevich, Jack Byerly

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Data released in August 2012 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program show that Oregon continues to have one of highest rates of uninsured residents in the U.S. According to Census estimates, 639,710 or 19.7 percent of Oregonians under age 65 were without health insurance coverage in 2010. For the under-65 population, Oregon’s uninsured rate ranks as the 15^th highest rate in the country.

Compared to 2009, the 2010 data show no statistically significant change in the overall uninsured rate for Oregon. Similarly, there were no statistically significant changes for Oregon between 2009 and …

Analysis Of Travel Time Reliability For Freight Corridors Connecting The Pacific Northwest, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new methodology and algorithms were developed to combine diverse data sources and to estimate the impacts of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on freight movements’ reliability and delays, costs, and emissions. The results suggest that traditional traffic sensor data tend to underestimate the impacts of congestion on commercial vehicles travel times and variability. This research also shows that congestion is not only detrimental for carriers and shippers costs but also for the planet due to major increases in GHG emissions and for the local community due to large increases in NOx, PM, and other harmful pollutants.

The methodologies developed throughout …

Contextual Influences On Trip Generation, Kelly J. Clifton, Kristina Marie Currans, Christopher D. Muhs

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is national interest in building data that expands upon the existing Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) trip generation rates to include sites located in a multi-modal context. Current ITE rates represent travel behavior for development in single lots and uses, primarily measured in low-density suburban areas. Despite evidence that a more compact urban form, access to transit and a greater mix of uses generates fewer and shorter vehicle trips, local governments are often compelled to use current ITE trip generation rates to evaluate transportation impacts and calculate transportation system development charges (TSDCs). This is due to: a) the expense …

Visualizing Demographic Change: Gentrification And Older Moms In Portland, Robert Lycan, Charles Rynerson

Publications, Reports and Presentations

A presentation that attempts to shed light on social processes in Portland, Oregon, and provide a look at how GIS and demographic tools can be used to dissect complicated issues.

Public Perceptions Regarding The Use Of Force By Police In Portland, Oregon, Greg Stewart, Kris R. Henning, Brian Renauer

Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute Research Briefs

The current study sought to assess public perceptions regarding the frequency of force used by Portland police and determine whether these beliefs are consistent with officially recorded data on force used by officers in recent years.

Is Portland Really The Place Where Young People Go To Retire? Migration Patterns Of Portland’S Young And College-Educated, 1980-2010, Jason R. Jurjevich, Greg Schrock

Publications, Reports and Presentations

For many metro areas, including Portland, being economically competitive in today’s knowledge and information economy depends on attracting and retaining young, college-­‐educated (YCE) migrants. On this indicator, Portland has been most successful: since 1980, the Portland metropolitan region has attracted college-­‐educated individuals under the age of 40 at some of the country’s highest net migration rates in good economic times and bad. Though not unique to Portland, the resiliency of Portland’s migration streams, even in periods of economic uncertainty, calls attention to an increasingly selective group of YCE migrants who appear to place greater relative value on non-­‐economic factors—from political …

Is Portland Really The Place Where Young People Go To Retire? Analyzing Labor Market Outcomes For Portland’S Young And College-Educated, Jason R. Jurjevich, Greg Schrock

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Few segments of the population are more critical to Portland’s future economic vitality than the young and college‐educated (YCE). In the last several decades the Portland metropolitan region has become a magnet for YCEs nationally, boasting one of the country’s highest net migration rates for college‐educated individuals under the age of 40, a trend that has continued in good economic times and bad. The infusion of human capital from other regions has undoubtedly been a benefit to Portland, especially given Oregon’s historically low levels of investment in higher education.

However, in recent years there has been growing concern about the …

Behavioral Perspectives On Home Energy Audits: The Role Of Auditors, Labels, Reports, And Audit Tools On Homeowner Decision-Making, Aaron Ingle, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser, Zachary Lawrence Hathaway, Susan Lutzenhiser, Joe Van Clock, Jane Peters, Rebecca Smith, David Heslam, Richard Diamond

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Our study focused on the perspective of homeowner decision-making in response to home energy audits, combined with attention to the quality of the recommendations that homeowners receive, as well as the perspectives of some key industry actors on auditing and home energy labels. Unlike a program evaluation, the research was not designed to answer detailed questions about program effectiveness in terms of costs, savings, or process, nor was it designed to provide direct answers to questions of how to get people to do more audits or more retrofits. Rather it “steps back” toward a better understanding of more basic questions …

A Study Of Headway Maintenance For Bus Routes: Causes And Effects Of “Bus Bunching” In Extensive And Congested Service Areas, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Wu-Chi Feng, Gerardo Lafferriere, Wei Feng

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods to evaluate and visualize bus service reliability for transit agencies in various temporal and spatial aggregation levels; 2) identify the recurrent unreliability trends of bus routes (focusing on high-frequency service periods) and understand their characteristics, causes and effects; and 3) model service times using linear regression models.

This research utilized six months of archived automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data from a low-performance route (Route …

Crime In The News: How Do People Feel About Crime Reporting In Portland, Oregon?, Kris R. Henning, Brian Renauer, Greg Stewart

Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute Research Briefs

This research brief summarizes the results of a recent survey with residents in Portland, Oregon assessing public opinions on the local news media’s coverage of various crime topics.

Analyzing And Quantifying The Impact Of Congestion On Ltl Industry Costs And Performance In The Portland Metropolitan Region, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increased congestion during peak morning and afternoon periods in urban areas is increasing logistics costs. In addition, environmental, social, and political pressures to limit the impacts associated with CO2 emissions are mounting rapidly. A key challenge for transportation agencies and businesses is to improve the efficiency of urban freight and commercial vehicle movements while ensuring environmental quality, livable communities, and economic growth. However, research and policy efforts to analyze and quantify the impacts of congestion and freight public policies on carriers operations and CO2 emissions are hindered by the complexities of vehicle routing problems with time-dependent travel times and the …

In Search Of Opportunity: Foreign-Born Residents In Oregon, Jason R. Jurjevich, Ryan Dann

Publications, Reports and Presentations

From our earliest beginnings and to present day, the social fabric of the United States continues to be shaped by immigration. Americans are generally aware of their families’ personal stories and the inextricable link to immigration, but they are likely less familiar with historical and current trends. Focusing in Oregon and more specifically, the Portland metropolitan area, we provide a statistical portrait of the foreign-born population by examining recent growth patterns, identifying geographic origins, and describing individual-level characteristics.

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Community Needs Assessment, Robert Parker, Juli Brode, John Rowell

TREC Final Reports

Dependence on fossil fuels, climate change, and degraded air quality are forcing the auto industry and consumers to seek alternative solutions to the current transportation system. Significant technical breakthroughs are allowing automakers to develop electric vehicles (EVs) that transcend some of the key barriers that limited them historically. Plug in electric vehicles entered the Oregon marketplace in early 2011. A range of reports suggest the demand for EVs will grow rapidly once affordable highway speed vehicles become available. ODOT identified the lack of a reliable network of electric vehicle service equipment (e.g., charging stations) that increases the range of these …

Development And Sensitivity Testing Of Alternative Mobility Metrics, John Gliebe, James G. Strathman

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Oregon Highway Plan’s (OHP) mobility policies guide various planning and programming activities of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Among these activities are ODOT’s land use change review responsibilities under the Transportation Planning Rule, as adopted by the state’s Land Conservation and Development Commission. This report examines supplemental transportation performance metrics beyond the volume-to-capacity metric that currently supports OHP mobility policies. Selected supplemental metrics are empirically analyzed using a travel demand model calibrated for a Medford, Oregon study area.

Bicycle And Pedestrian Engineering Design Curriculum Expansion, Ashley Haire

TREC Final Reports

This project summary report describes the execution of OTREC Project #298 (Development, Deployment and Assessment of a New Educational Paradigm for Transportation Professionals and University Students). The project is one facet of a multiyear collaboration of the Region X Transportation Consortium that was sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The regional collaboration aims to shift the traditional paradigm of engineering course delivery to foster a more hands-on approach. The University of Idaho, for example, has created activity-based modules for a traffic signals course, while the University of Washington developed similar modules for a freight systems course. The focus of …

Regional Transportation And Land Use Decision Making In Metropolitan Regions: Findings From Four Case Studies, Richard D. Margerum, Susan Brody, Robert Parker, Gail Mcewen, Terry Moore

TREC Final Reports

Throughout the United States, metropolitan regions face increasingly complex issues related to transportation and land use. The diffuse nature of decision making creates a need to better coordinate land use and transportation to address issues such as: congestion, infrastructure costs, and greenhouse gas emissions. Key players in this decision making are regional metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) with transportation planning authority, regional planning responsibilities, and in some cases regional land use planning authority. The goal of this study was to describe and assess efforts by regional agencies to coordinate land use and transportation. Policies and processes in four key topic areas …

Extraboard Management: Trimet Case Study, James G. Strathman, Sung Moon Kwon, Steve Callas

TREC Final Reports

This paper examines extraboard operations and management at TriMet, the transit provider for the Portland Oregon metropolitan area. The extraboard consists of a pool of operators who fill open work resulting from absences and other causes. The paper first examines the general performance of the extraboard in filling open work, drawing on seven years of daily operations data from three bus garages. It then presents statistical analyses focusing on open work patterns and the effects of selected work rules on operator utilization and service delivery. Lastly, suggestions are made for improving the efficiency of extraboard operations.

Calibrating The Hsm Predictive Methods For Oregon Highways, Karen Dixon, Christopher M. Monsere, Fei Xie, Kristie Gladhill

TREC Final Reports

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) was published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in the spring of 2010. Volume 2 (Part C) of the HSM includes safety predictive methods which can be used to quantitatively estimate the safety of a transportation facility. The resulting information can then be used to provide guidelines to identify opportunities to improve transportation safety. The safety performance functions (SPFs) included with this content, however, were developed for several states other than Oregon. Because there are differences in crash reporting procedures, driver population, animal populations, and weather conditions (to name a …

Home Forward’S Aging In Place Initiative: Planning For Current And Future Residents, Paula C. Carder, Jenny Weinstein, Jacklyn Nicole Kohon

Institute on Aging Publications

This report was prepared on behalf of the Aging in Place Initiative of Home Forward. The Initiative sought to gather information about older persons currently residing in Home Forward’s public housing properties, from persons age 55 and older on the waitlist for housing, and from older adults in the Portland area. While local data were unavailable at the time of this report, we know that nationally, more than one-third (37 percent) of the approximately 5 million households receiving housing assistance from HUD are headed by persons age 62 and older. With this in mind, Home Forward must make decisions now …

Environment, Economy, And Equity: Can We Find A Language For Fairness In Regional Planning?, John Provo, Jill Fuglister

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Metropolitan Portland is often cited as a model for regional planning and growth management. In the 19905, both academics and the popular press "discovered" the Portland region, connecting our quality of life--vibrant urban places, natural beauty, and healthy economy--with our unique forms of regional cooperation and land use planning. Metropolitan Portland became the avatar of an emerging New Regionalism, a movement characterized not only by its spatial nature, but also by an interest in holistic solutions integrating a variety of issue areas. One central tenant of this movement is the ability of regional policies to address growing inequities and inefficiencies …

Weaving Together A Knowledge Community, Aaron Maples, Bob Sack, Brett Walker, Chris Mulcahy, Daniel Navarro-Gomez, Jan Frutiger, Jeremy Grotbo, Melissa Peavey, Sofie Malm, Steffanie Lorentzen

Urban Design Workshop

The purpose of this document is to propose a framework for future development that result in a connected and integrated collection of neighborhoods that form the larger University District. Design Principles guide the proposed Concept Plan. Improving multi-modal transit corridors will result in a more seamless transition between neighborhoods. Key objectives of the study include:

• Completing the fabric: Connect adjacent neighborhoods through meaningful design
• Erasing edges: Overcome barriers created by large-scale infrastructure
• Connections, continuity and accessibility: Create a connected community for all users
• Extending the urban core: Redesign areas for a more urban, vital experience
• Global knowledge exchange: Use the …

Long Trails Project: Identifying Opportunities, Solving Problems, And Exploring Implementation, Portland State University

Regional Planning and Metropolitan Growth Management Research Projects

This document presents the final report of the Long Trails Project, a partnership with the Oregon Parks Department and USP 549: Regional Planning and Metropolitan Growth Management, a course offered to graduate planning students in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. It is divided into 5 sections: (1.) History of Long Trails and Regional Trail Networks (2.) Long Trails in Northwestern Oregon (3.) The Demand for Long Trails-based Recreation (4.) Long Trails and Community Economic Development (5.) Long Trails Implementation.

This technical report is edited by Dr. Ethan Seltzer

How Well Do Home Energy Audits Serve The Homeowner?, Aaron Ingle, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser, Richard Diamond

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Home energy audits administered by utilities and government typically provide homeowners with lists of technical upgrade recommendations intended to increase the technical energy efficiency of the house. Audits proceed with assessment of physical characteristics, subsequently processed with a computational model and transformed into a report, sometimes customized by the auditor. While the design of an energy audit reflects program and policy points of view – balancing program cost with expected program savings, educating people about the value of energy efficiency, etc. – it is crucial to consider the criteria for a good home energy audit and recommendations from homeowners’ points …