Urban Studies Commons^™

Quiscalus Mexicanus Vocalization Pitch And Traffic Noise In Breeding Populations Along The Cinta Costera Highway And In Downtown Gamboa, Panamá, Benjamin P. Gregory

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Urbanization is one of the fastest-growing threats to the biodiversity of the planet, but not all animals are extirpated by the drastic environmental changes of urbanization, and many are even able to thrive in urban landscapes. Behavioral flexibility is often cited as one reason that successful urban animals can so rapidly adapt to a foreign environment with novel stressors. A well-studied example of urban behavioral flexibility is urban-living birds singing with higher-frequency songs in areas with high levels of traffic noise. The present study investigated this trend in Quiscalus mexicanus, an icterid bird with a huge vocal range, highly sexually …

Webinar: E-Bikes For Everyone: Electrifying Communities In New Ways, John Macarthur, Sergio Lopez

TREC Webinar Series

Electric bicycle (e-bike) use is a rising phenomenon in North America. In 2018, John MacArthur of Portland State University conducted a national survey to understand issues facing e-bike owners. Reducing physical exertion, conquering challenging topography and replacing car trips are a few of the most important reasons for buying an e-bike. The electric assist of the e-bike helps to generate more trips, longer trips and different types of bicycle trips. Through analysis it also became evident that e-bikes are making it possible for more people to ride a bicycle, many of whom are incapable of riding a standard bicycle or …

Pedpdx: Addressing Equity Through Citywide Pedestrian Planning, Michelle Marx, Francesca Patricolo

PSU Transportation Seminars

Pedestrian safety and access is an equity issue. In Portland, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure and traffic safety concerns disproportionately impact low-income communities and people of color. The City is attempting to rectify these inequities through PedPDX, Portland’s new citywide pedestrian plan (anticipated for adoption in Spring 2019). PedPDX prioritizes sidewalk and crossing improvements and other investments, policies, strategies and tools to make walking safer and more comfortable across the city.

Come learn about the strategies PedPDX is using to address transportation equity in Portland, including establishing a data-based prioritization for citywide pedestrian investments, identifying roadway and behavioral characteristics most closely …

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.

Transferability & Forecasting Of The Pedestrian Index Of The Environment (Pie) For Modeling Applications, Kelly Clifton, Jamie Orrego-Onate, Patrick Allen Singleton, Robert J. Schneider

TREC Final Reports

This project focuses on making our measures, models, and methods more transferable to other locations. Specifically, we re-evaluate, compare and test our pedestrian index of the environment (PIE) measure using data resources more commonly available to planning agencies across the country. Next, we test the results of PIE and its input data in models of pedestrian mode choice for stability of estimation results within a region (intraregional) and between regions (interregional). This research is the next logical step in the MoPeD’s enhancement and is critical to enabling its utility beyond the Portland region. The results of this project show that …

V2x: Bringing Bikes Into The Mix, Stephen Fickas

TREC Final Reports

This project demonstrates how an inexpensive system (hardware and software) can add new functionality to existing signal controllers, giving bicyclists an efficient way to cross a controlled intersection. The system integrates three components: (1) a Bike Connect box that resides near the signal-controller and is connected to it, (2) an application that runs on a Bike Connect device (currently an iPhone) and requests a green light at the correct approach-distance, and (3) a cloud-based publish/subscribe (pub/sub) component that handles cellular-communication between phone app and box. One stumbling block for the project was a means to obtain reliable GPS data to …

New Pedestrian Modeling Tools: Growing Beyond The Portland Region, Kelly Clifton, Jamie Orrego-Onate, Patrick Allen Singleton, Robert J. Schneider

TREC Project Briefs

This project focuses on making our measures, models, and methods more transferable to other locations. Specifically, we re-evaluate, compare and test our pedestrian index of the environment (PIE) measure using data resources more commonly available to planning agencies across the country. Next, we test the results of PIE and its input data in models of pedestrian mode choice for stability of estimation results within a region (intraregional) and between regions (interregional). This research is the next logical step in the MoPeD’s enhancement and is critical to enabling its utility beyond the Portland region. The results of this project show that …

Odot Highway Cost Allocation Study Review: Challenges In Including Regional Revenues, Northwest Economic Research Center, Thomas Potiowsky, Emma Willingham, Katelyn Kelley, Devin Bales

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report, written for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) by Portland State University’s Northwest Economic Research Center, outlines the challenges that regional revenue collection poses for ODOT’s biennial Highway Cost Allocation Study (HCAS). The HCAS assesses the relative burdens of light and heavy vehicle classes on state infrastructure, in relation to the amount of revenue that said vehicle classes generate. In other words, it ensures that light vehicles and heavy vehicles are “paying their share” of state transportation expenditures.

Differences in vehicle traffic or differential impacts to vehicle classes are the root cause of most of the problems that …

Imagining An Old City In Nineteenth-Century France: Urban Renovation, Civil Society, And The Making Of Vieux Lyon, Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Urban histories of nineteenth-century France have tended to focus on Paris and emphasize state actions. This has obscured movements that were crucial in shaping modern cities, particularly segments of civil society that worked on preserving old neighborhoods. This article focuses on Lyon—a “second city”—and analyzes how state-driven urban renovations under the Second Empire fostered a fin-de-siècle localist reaction that sought to preserve what was seen as Lyonnais urban forms (in particular neighborhoods defined by their narrow and crooked streets). Through an antiquarian discourse, cultural elites argued that these urban forms were an essential part of Lyonnais identity—which they feared was …

Zoning Changes And Social Diversity In New York City, 1990–2015, Juan G. Yunda, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The writings of Jane Jacobs led urbanists to advocate for increased social diversity in neighborhoods as a method of promoting vitality in public spaces. Since then, New York City has become both a role model and a testing ground for zoning changes that support this objective. However, since the 2000s community activists and scholars have argued that these zoning changes have led to the dislocation of communities of color and incentivized gentrification. This project analyzed panel social and housing census data from 1990 and 2015 to assess the validity of these arguments. Results suggest that zoning changes have limited and …

Webinar: Rethinking Streets For Bikes: An Evidence Based Guide Of Bike-Friendly Street Retrofits, Marc Schlossberg, Roger Lindgren

TREC Webinar Series

There is a growing demand for better infrastructure and fewer barriers to biking and other forms of space-efficient micromobility. Tackling daily trips by bike is easier on the environment, healthier for users and non-users alike, uses precious urbanized public and private land more efficiently, costs taxpayers less to build and maintain infrastructure, and when routes are safe and comfortable, moving by bike is also fun! Complete Streets policies are being adopted across the country, and there is an active conversation around the safety imperative of a Complete Streets approach. Yet, local officials often need both design guidance and the …

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 …

Rethinking Streets For Bikes: An Evidencebased Guidebook, Marc Schlossberg, John Rowell, Roger Lindgren, Dave Amos

TREC Final Reports

This project is a follow up to a successful previous NITC project and subsequent nationally distributed book, called “Rethinking Streets: An Evidence-Based Guide to 25 Street Transformations.” The success of the first book demonstrated a need for easy access to evidence-based transportation information that can be used by practitioners, community members, policymakers, educators, and researchers. This project produced a follow-up guidebook, but with a focus on streets redesigned to accommodate bicycle transportation in ways following current best practices. Whereas the first book purposefully focused on “average” street retrofit projects to communicate the normalcy of such projects around the country, this …

Addressing Changing Demographics In Environmental Justice Analysis, State Of Practice, Aaron Golub, Les Brown, Michael Grant, Nathan Mcneil, Charles Ryerson, Matt Gray, Stephanie Lonsdale, Madison Levy

TREC Final Reports

This report documents how metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), State departments of transportation (DOT), and other transportation agencies are adapting Environmental Justice (EJ) analysis techniques to understand transportation impacts in communities undergoing rapid demographic change. The report also highlights national demographic trends, showing significant change in the size and location of low-income and minority households. These changes are documented in a series of State- and county-level maps demonstrating absolute and percent change in minority populations, low-income populations and limited English proficiency populations between the 1990 – 2010 decennial census periods. Based on the state of practice review, the report also highlights …

Appetite For Growth: Challenges To Scale For Food And Beverage Makers In Three Us Cities, Greg Schrock, Marc Doussard, Laura Wolf-Powers, Steven Marotta, Max Eisenburger

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Food and beverage (FaB) manufacturing represents a promising opportunity for small-scale “makers” and local economic development. The growth of entrepreneurial maker businesses can be understood in terms of segmentation of market demand, emergence of new intermediaries, and availability of affordable production infrastructure. Yet the ease of starting maker businesses stands in contrast with the challenges of achieving growth and scale as a manufacturer. Through semistructured interviews with 31 FaB makers in Chicago, New York City, and Portland, Oregon, the authors analyze the challenges facing maker–entrepreneurs in this sector. The authors find that the everyday character of food and the relative …

Vehicle To Infrastructure: Letting Cyclists Talk To Signals, Stephen Fickas

TREC Project Briefs

This project demonstrates how an inexpensive system (hardware and software) can add new functionality to existing signal controllers, giving bicyclists an efficient way to cross a controlled intersection. The system integrates three components: (1) a Bike Connect box that resides near the signal-controller and is connected to it, (2) an application that runs on a Bike Connect device (currently an iPhone) and requests a green light at the correct approach-distance, and (3) a cloud-based publish/subscribe (pub/sub) component that handles cellular-communication between phone app and box. One stumbling block for the project was a means to obtain reliable GPS data to …

From Knowledge To Practice: Rethinking Streets For People On Bikes, Marc Schlossberg, John Rowell, Roger Lindgren

TREC Project Briefs

For too long we’ve been building streets as though they have one function–to move cars quickly. The reality is that streets can to do more than just move cars. They can move people on foot, on bikes, on transit, without hurting vehicular throughput and safety. They can be more than a way to get somewhere else. Good streets are good places, too – public places where people meet, sit and socialize, conduct business, wander about, play, and more.

Oregon Clean Fuels Program Report 2018, Northwest Economic Research Center, Jenny H. Liu, Emma Willingham

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report, written by the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) of Portland State University with support from the Packard Foundation, is the first in a series designed to assess the economic impact of the Oregon Clean Fuels Program (CFP). Following a discussion of carbon mitigation tools and policies, the body of the report establishes a baseline of infrastructure and regulated parties, followed by presentation and analysis of a set of economic indicator variables expected to influence or be influenced by the CFP. (See p. 5 for a table with all variables and their relevance to the program.)

Low carbon fuel …

Knowledge Commons In Ancient Greece, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper reviews a variety of published sources by specialists in ancient history and philosophy written for students of philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, commons and other, related social sciences. It discusses Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, and other philosophical schools as real historically significant organizations, not merely ideas or symbols. It was expanded from one section of Chapter 3 of the author's book, The Commons: New Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations, Voluntary Action and Philanthropy (1992).

The Portland E-Scooter Experience, Briana Orr, John Macarthur, Jennifer Dill

PSU Transportation Seminars

Portland's E-Scooter Pilot made national news for its proactive and data-driven approach to exploring the role of e-scooters in our transportation system. One of the first cities to implement a comprehensive data sharing agreement with e-scooter providers, Portland now has a lot of findings to share. This Friday Seminar will dive into both the data collected and the experiences of Portlanders during the pilot. We’ll discuss what worked well, unexpected findings, and considerations for future new mobility pilots. Download the E-Scooter Findings Report (released Jan 2019) here.