Urban Studies Commons^™

Identifying Key Factors Of Rail Transit Service Quality: An Empirical Analysis For Istanbul, Erkan Isikli, Nezir Aydin, Erkan Celik, Alev Taskin Gumus

Journal of Public Transportation

Providing a high quality of service in public transportation is essential to reduce dissatisfactions stemming from traffic congestion and noise. Public transport providers need to find ways to dilute the effects of immoderate use of private cars in big cities while maintaining a sufficient level of customer satisfaction. This study aimed to identify the key service quality (SQ) factors that drive passenger satisfaction in Istanbul’s rail transit (RT) system using data obtained from an extensive survey conducted by the Istanbul Public Transportation Co. A total of 11,116 passengers who used rail transport from May 15–June 3, 2012, and June 17–July …

The Causal Effect Of Bus Rapid Transit On Changes In Transit Ridership, Orion T. Stewart, Anne Vernez Moudon, Brian E. Saelens

Journal of Public Transportation

Numerous studies have reported ridership increases along routes when Bus rapid transit (BRT) replaces conventional bus service, but these increases could be due simply to broader temporal trends in transit ridership. To address this limitation, we compared changes in ridership among routes where BRT was implemented to routes where BRT was planned or already existed in King County, Washington. Ridership was measured at 2010, 2013, and 2014. Ridership increased by 35% along routes where BRT was implemented from 2010 to 2013 compared to routes that maintained conventional bus service. Ridership increased by 29% along routes where BRT was implemented from …

Destination Portland: Post-Great Recession Migration Trends In The Rose City Region, Jason R. Jurjevich, Greg Schrock, Jihye Kang

Publications, Reports and Presentations

This report explores how individuals decide to move to Portland, why they stay and how the region’s growth challenges might introduce costs that disproportionately burden people of color and young people of lower socioeconomic status.

Modeling And Analyzing The Impact Of Advanced Technologies On Livability And Multimodal Transportation Performance Measures In Arterial Corridors: Phase 2, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Chawalit Tipagornwong

TREC Final Reports

Transportation corridors are complex systems. Tradeoffs, particularly in terms of traffic mobility, transit performance, accessibility and pedestrian interactions, are not well understood.When the focus is on motorized vehicle mobility and throughput, high traffic or vehicle speeds are desirable because at high speeds more vehicles can flow per unit of time and roadway section. However, high traffic/vehicles speeds are not desirable for pedestrians who have to cross urban arterials. In particular, pedestrians can be highly vulnerable at unsignalized, marked crosswalks where pedestrians have the right of way but where drivers’ yield rates are significantly lower than at signalized intersections. Pedestrians are …

Estimating Walking And Bicycling At The State Level, Krista Nordback, Mike Sellinger, Taylor Phillips

TREC Final Reports

Estimates of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) drive policy and planning decisions for surface transportation. No similar metric is computed for cycling and walking. What approaches could be used to compute such a metric on the state level? This report discusses three such approaches, identifies the advantages and disadvantages of each, and applies them to Washington State. The first approach employs travel survey data. The second approach is sample-based using pedestrian and bicycle count data. The third approach is an aggregate demand model approach using demographic data combined with count data. Due to data limitations, none of these methods could be …

Making Every Mode Count In Washington State, Krista Nordback

TREC Project Briefs

A NITC report by Krista Nordback of Portland State University offers a step toward establishing a performance metric by which statewide progress with respect to bicycling and walking can be evaluated. The Washington State Pedestrian and Bicycle Miles Traveled Project discusses the relative merits of three different methods which can be used to compute bicycle miles traveled (BMT) and pedestrian miles traveled (PMT).

A Model For Better Crosswalk Safety, Miguel Figliozzi

TREC Project Briefs

NITC researchers from Portland State University developed models to find what factors affected vehicles’ compliance with pedestrian safety laws.

The results suggest that treatments discouraging accelerating toward a crosswalk could help increase pedestrian safety.

From An Emerging Market To A Multifaceted Urban Society: Urban China Studies, Shenjing He, Junxi Qian

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

China is undergoing an urban revolution. In 2011 more than half of the total population resided in cities and towns for the first time in history. Over the last two decades urban China scholars have actively engaged in dialogues with urbanists from different disciplines and different urban contexts. In consequence, urban China studies have embarked on a trail of rapid diversification and proliferation, moving beyond the topics of urbanisation and urban expansion to address a variety of issues echoing the latest developments in the Chinese city. Overall, urban China studies are witnessing a transition from a focus on economic development …

Mobile Cities, Modelling Policies: Importing/Exporting The Singapore ‘Model’ Of Development, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A recent focus of research has been the making, mobility and mutations of urban policy. The global circulation of urban models – or exemplars of best practices and values that are deemed to be desirable and achievable – has gained significant traction. Such models are those that are dislocated from their place of origin, and transplanted to an adopted site. This chapter draws on the case of Singapore: one of the most emblematic examples of an importable/exportable urban model – a prototype for growth-oriented urban development with its normative and technical plans for growth and management – to foreground problems …

Impact Of Bike Facilities On Residential Property Prices, Wei Shi

PSU Transportation Seminars

As many cities are investing in street improvement or transportation infrastructure upgrade projects to provide better bike access or more complete bike networks, the economic value of bike infrastructure and bike facilities remains an area where many practitioners, planners and policy makers are seeking more conclusive evidence. Using residential property values as indicators of consumer preferences for bicycle infrastructure, this study focuses on advanced bike facilities which represent higher levels of bike priority or bike infrastructure investments that have been shown to be more desirable to a larger portion of the population. Estimating ordinary least squares hedonic pricing models and …

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.

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, …

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 …

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 …

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.

Overpopulation And The Impact On The Environment, Doris Baus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this research paper, the main focus is on the issue of overpopulation and its impact on the environment. The growing size of the global population is not an issue that appeared within the past couple of decades, but its origins come from the prehistoric time and extend to the very present day. Throughout the history, acknowledged scientists introduced the concept of “overpopulation” and predicted the future consequences if the world follows the same behavioral pattern. According to predictions, scientists invented the birth control pill and set population control through eugenics. Despite that, population continued to increase and fight with …

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 …

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. …

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 …