OTREC's Past Events

May 2013


Are Bicycling and Walking “Cool?”: Adolescent Attitudes about Active Travel (Friday Seminar at PSU)

May 24, 2013 12:00 pm - May 24, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Tara Goddard, PhD Student in Urban Studies, PSU
 
Summary: The declining rates of physical activity among children, particularly adolescent girls, are well-documented, yet there has been insufficient research into the attitudes about health behaviors, particularly active travel, of the children themselves. Tara's research explores attitudes about active transportation among children aged 4-17 years and examines how perceived ability, self-efficacy, and sensitivity to certain environments or facilities vary across gender and age of the children. She utilises data from the Family Activity Study, a multi-year longitudinal intervention study in Portland, ORegon, in which 490 children answered surveys regarding their attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors about traveling by walking, bicycling, or being in a car.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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Webinar: Addressing the Challenges of Transient Populations on Transportation Facilities

May 23, 2013 10:00 am - May 23, 2013 12:00 pm

This webinar will present an in-depth discussion of emerging issues associated with homeless populations that reside on public lands.  As major land owners, transportation agencies have had to address challenges associated with homeless encampments on right-of-way.  With growing public and legal push-back against an enforcement-only approach, new solutions are needed. This module will highlight practical approaches for holistically addressing the challenges posed by transient populations residing on or adjacent to public land and transportation facilities.

 
Webinar and Registration Information:
 
Date:   Thursday, May 23, 2013
Time:   1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 - noon Pacific)
Registration Page:  https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/webconference/web_conf_learner_reg.aspx?webconfid=26027  
 
Speakers Include:
Sharlene Reed, Community Planner, Office of Human Environment, FHWA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Bruce Bradley, Realty Specialist, Office of Real Estate Services, FHWA Headquarters, Washington DC
Mary Jane Daluge, Realty Specialist, Office of Real Estate Services, FHWA Headquarters, Washington DC
Ellen M. Bassett, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia
Andrée Tremoulet, Ph.D., Research Associate, Center for Urban Studies—CUS Portland State University
 
This event is sponsored by FHWA’s Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty and the Office of Human Environment.
Research funded by OTREC.
 
For more information contact, Sharlene Reed@dot.gov  or (202)366-9629.
 
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Making Urban Transport Sustainable: Comparison of Germany and the USA

May 17, 2013 12:00 pm - May 17, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker:Ralph Buehler, Professor, Virginia Tech
 
Summary: Reliance on the automobile for most trips contributes to costly trends like pollution, oil dependence, congestion, and obesity. Germany and the U.S. have among the highest motorization rates in the world. Yet Germans make a four times higher share of trips by foot, bike, and public transport and drive for a 25 percent lower share of trips.
 
This presentation first investigates international trends in daily travel behavior with a focus on Germany and the USA. Next, the presentation examines the transport and land-use policies in Germany over the last 40 years that have encouraged more walking, bicycling, and public transport use. Using a case study of policy changes in the German city of Freiburg, the presentation concludes with policies that are transferable to car-oriented countries around the world.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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Integrating Schedule-based Public Transportation Planning Models (Friday Seminar at PSU)

May 10, 2013 12:00 pm - May 10, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Hyunsoo Noh, PhD Candidate, University of Arizona
 
Summary: Public transportation is benefiting from the open-environment information system. Transit schedule information, made available by Google Developers General Transit Feed Specification (GTF), helps passengers choose their preferred transit routes more reasonably. For transportation planners a range of questions emerge including how the behavior of passengers looks and how we model this behavior with transit schedule information, We may also ask: What is the transportation assignment? How do we assign the passengers on this public transportation system? How do passengers choose their routes to arrive at destinations? What if the transit vehicle is congested by passengers? How do we integrate this assignment model with other transportation models such as activity-based model (ABM) and dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) model?
 
This seminar will address these questions using a well-known traffic assignment foundation, Wardrop’s user equilibrium (UE) and some behavioral assumptions. To define route choice behavior of passengers, we will explore important path models on a transit schedule network considering deterministic and stochastic passenger behaviors. With this transit assignment model, we can think about possible integration of other transportation models such as DTA model and ABM in terms of providing a better transportation planning model.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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Pedestrian safety and flashing-yellow-arrow traffic signals: a live-interview Webinar

May 7, 2013 10:00 am - May 7, 2013 10:45 am

Agencies across North America are increasingly installing flashing yellow arrows at intersections to allow drivers to turn left after first yielding to oncoming traffic. While studies have shown the effectiveness of flashing yellow arrows, the factors that influence drivers' behavior at these intersections haven't been well studied, particularly the number of pedestrians and oncoming vehicles.

An OTREC study paired researchers David Hurwitz of Oregon State University and Christopher Monsere of Portland State University to look at improving pedestrian safety at intersections with the flashing yellow arrow. We present the results of this study in a new interview show-style Webinar on Tuesday, May 7.

Host Steph Routh, executive director of Oregon Walks (formerly the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition), will interview the researchers on the findings and their implications. She'll also talk with Stacy Shetler, principal traffic engineer with Washington County, Oregon, about the county's experience. Among the research findings:

  • The more pedestrians that are present, the more attention drivers pay;
  • The more oncoming cars, the less attention drivers pay to pedestrians;
  • Four to 7 percent of drivers don't even look at pedestrians in the crosswalk.

Results like these bolster arguments for limiting permissive left turns when pedestrians are present, as Washington County has done. Join us for the free Webinar and ask questions of the researchers and practitioners. Registration is free and can be completed any time at:

https://portlandstate.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_aWXyIW362feTcpf

The Webinar will run from 10 to 10:45 a.m., Pacific time, including questions and aswers. Participants may ask questions at any point in the program through the UStream chat interface or by emailing askotrec@otrec.us.

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Lessons Learned from the Transportation Buzzword “Livability” (Friday Seminar at PSU)

May 3, 2013 12:00 pm - May 3, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Lisa Aultman-Hall, Professor, University of Vermont
 
Summary: In 2009, the US DOT presented livability principles as the foundation of a new vision and direction for federal transportation policy. In 2010, the hype within the transportation community was at its peak and many were grappling with defining the latest buzzword. Are sustainability and livability the same or different concepts? Is safety part of livability? Who has data on livability and how do we measure it? 
 
A 2010 US DOT UTC TRB conference defined transportation systems that create “livability” as systems that work with land use to give everyone multiple travel choices for meeting their daily mobility needs affordably, safely, conveniently, and efficiently. The concepts embedded in this definition are not new for academics or practitioners in many transportation-related disciplines. But the livability policy effort was intended to represent a major change in how transportation agencies have viewed and managed their transportation programs in the United States.
 
Livability was a particularly short-lived buzzword in the transportation community,practically disappearing early in 2011. This seminar presents numerous hypotheses for this short life. The story of livability, as a broad federal transportation policy endeavor, also dictates some
important lessons for what needs to come next in a comprehensive federal approach to renewing our transportation system. To advance us beyond our current system to a new paradigm of programs that advance sustainable, reliable and equitable mobility, new federal policy (and its associated buzzword) must convincingly address both urban and rural communities.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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April 2013


2013 Oregon Active Transportation Summit

April 24, 2013 7:59 am - April 25, 2013 2:59 pm

The Oregon Active Transportation Summit offers presentations, panels and sessions with active transportation advocates, officials and researchers, including OTREC faculty members.

The event agenda and individual session descriptions are now available.

Highlights of the conference include a keynote speech from OpenPlans executive director Mark Gorton: "Rethinking America's Auto-Oriented Transportation and Land-Use Planning." Oregon state Rep. Shemia Fagan will speak in the morning of Day 2, giving attendees specific tips for effectively talking with legislators. 

Other highlights include breakout session and a networking reception. Conference organizers expect more than 300 attendees. 

Registration includes conference sessions, two breakfasts, one lunch, one afternoon break and an evening networking reception, plus the chance to connect with state legislators and transportation advocates. More information is at the Oregon Active Transportation Summit website.

Oregon DOT Jurisdictionally Blind Safety Program (Friday Seminar at PSU)

April 19, 2013 12:00 pm - April 19, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Douglas Bish, Traffic Engineering Services Unit Manager, ODOT
 
Summary: Over half of fatal and serious injuries on Oregon Roads occur off the state highway system on local roads, city streets, county roads and tribal lands. The Jurisdictionally Blind Safety Progarm is a safety program to address the safety needs on all public roads in Oregon. Only by working collaboratively with local road jurisdictions (cities, counties, MPOs and tribes) can ODOT expect to increase awareness of safety on all roads, promote best practices for infrastructure safety, compliment behavioral safety efforts and focus limited resources to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes in the state of Oregon. This seminar will introduce some of the details of the program.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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Alternative Transportation Fuel Standards: Economic Effects and Climate Benefits (Seminar at OSU)

April 19, 2013 3:30 pm - April 19, 2013 5:00 pm

Where:

1001 Kelley Engineering Center, Oregon State University

Speaker:

Madhu Khanna, professor of agricultural and consumer economics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Summary:

Khanna will present a paper that develops an integrated model of the fuel and agricultural sectors to analyze the economic and greenhouse-gas-emission effects of the existing renewable fuel standard (RFS), a proposed national low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) and a carbon-price policy. The conceptual framework shows that these three policies differ in the incentives they create for the consumption of biofuels and fossil fuels and in their effects on food and fuel prices and emissions. The numerical analysis shows that a carbon tax of $30 per ton of CO2 and a 10 percent LCFS have the potential to achieve a larger reduction in global emissions but they lead to a smaller reduction in fuel consumption in the U.S. compared to the RFS. By promoting greater production of first-generation biofuels, the increase in food prices is larger with RFS compared to the LCFS and the carbon tax. All three policies are found to increase U.S. economic surplus compared to a no-biofuel, business-as-usual scenario due to improved terms of trade. Findings quantify the trade-offs between emissions reduction, energy security and domestic economic benefits that are implied by the choice of low-carbon fuel policy.

Four Types of Cyclists: What do we know and how can it help? (Friday Seminar at PSU)

April 26, 2013 12:00 pm - April 26, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Jennifer Dill, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, PSU
 
Summary: Labeling or categorizing cyclists has been occurring for over a century for a variety of purposes. This research aimed to examine a typology developed by the City of Portland that includes four categories: Strong and the Fearless, Enthused and Confident, Interested but Concerned, and No Way No How. Unlike several other typologies, this widely referenced typology is intended to apply to all adults, regardless of their current cycling behavior. Our analysis used a random phone survey (n=908) of adults in the Portland, Oregon, region. This seminar will present the findings of that work, focusing on differences between the four types and a better understanding the market for increasing cycling for transportation. We will examine the role of demographics, such as gender and age, as well as attitudes and perceptions, in predicting behavior.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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Healthy Food Accessibility and Food Deserts in Seattle, Washington (Friday Seminar at PSU)

April 12, 2013 12:00 pm - April 12, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Junfeng Jiao, Assistant Professor in Urban Planning, Ball State University
 
Summary: Access to healthy food and the existence of food deserts have become important policy issues in the public health and community planning fields. Food deserts have been defined as populated areas which lack food sources, specifically where residents have little or no access to healthy food. Research has shown that living in food deserts can lead to poor diet control, higher levels of obesity, and other diet-related diseases. Identifying and eliminating food deserts have become a priority issue in national-level food and nutrition policies. However, the process has been hindered by various technique difficulties.
 
This research introduced a new way to measure healthy food access and to identify food deserts. Healthy food access was estimated through Geographic Information System from both physical and economic perspectives. In detail, physical access was calculated by testing whether the residents can travel to a supermarket through a 10-minute walk, bicycle, ride transit, or drive. Economic access was estimated by stratifying supermarkets into low, medium, and high cost and testing whether residents have access to supermarkets corresponding to their income levels. This is an imperative feature in this research as economic accessibility continues to increase in importance for families across the nation. Finally, combining income and access criteria generated multiple ways to identify food deserts. This method was successfully tested in Seattle, WA. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was recently published by the American Journal of Public Health in 2012.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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Webinar: How to select bicycle and pedestrian counting sites

April 9, 2013 11:00 am

Governmental agencies have been and are beginning to allocate funding to non-motorized data collection programs but how do agencies select counting locations?  During this webinar, several suggestions on how to select bicycle and pedestrian counting sites will be discussed.  Research project findings, strategic plan development, and how to implement a site selection process to strategically select the best sites for counting will be included in this webinar.  If you are just starting to think about building a count program or if you have been counting for a number of years, please feel free to participate in this webinar!  Everyone is welcome and your participation will be greatly appreciated.

Speakers: 

  • Krista Nordback, PhD, Portland State University – What can be learned from factoring non-motorized volume data that can influence your continuous count site selection?
  • Shawn Turner, P.E., Texas A&M Transportation Institute – Building non-motorized strategic plans that guide a data collection program’s continuous count site selection process.
  •  Liz Stolz, Chaparral Systems Corporation – Implementing non-motorized strategic plans and selecting bicycle and pedestrian continuous count sites

How to Participate

Talking Traffic Webinar  CONNNECTION LINK: 

http://fhwa.adobeconnect.com/fhwatalkingtraffic/

Login as Guest.

Audio Portion Please Dial:

            877-848-7030      

Passcode: 6217068

Walking and Biking on their Own: Modeling Children’s Independent Travel (Friday Seminar at PSU)

April 5, 2013 12:00 pm - April 5, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Joe Broach, PhD Candidate in Urban Studies, PSU
 
Summary: It is commonly acknowledged that children today are traveling less often by active modes and less often without adult supervision. Potential negative effects of these joint trends may include, for children, a decrease in physical activity level and loss of developmental benefits from independently navigating their neighborhood environment, and, for society as a whole, an increase in vehicle miles traveled and associated negative externalities. This research models the propensity of children aged 6-16 to walk or bike to parks and school without an adult chaperone. A rich set of potential correlates was available from linked household, parent, and child surveys. This analysis extends existing work on children’s active travel in several ways: 1) focus on travel without an adult, 2) inclusion of school and a non-school destinations, 3) separate walk and bike models, 4) consideration of both parent and child attitudes and perceived social norms, 5) explicit inclusion of household rules limiting walking or bicycling.
 
Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.
 
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February 2013


The Future of the MUTCD: OTREC visiting scholar Gene Hawkins (Friday Seminar at PSU)

February 8, 2013 12:00 pm - February 8, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Gene Hawkins, Texas Transportation Institute

Summary: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all public streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public traffic. The MUTCD, published by the Federal Highway Administration, aims to provide uniformity in traffic control devices nationwide. Join OTREC visiting scholar Gene Hawkins as he discusses the future of the manual.

Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.

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January 2013


Pedestrians in Regional Travel Demand Forecasting Models: State of the Practice (Friday PSU seminar)

February 1, 2013 12:00 pm - February 1, 2013 1:00 pm

Where: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Speaker: Patrick Singleton, Civil and Environmental Engineering master's student, Portland State University

Summary: It has been nearly 25 years since non-motorized modes and non-motorized-specific built environment measures were first included in the regional travel demand models of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). Such modeling practices have evolved considerably as data collection and analysis methods improve, decisions-makers demand more policy-responsive tools, and walking and cycling grow in popularity. Many models now explicitly consider the unique characteristics of walking travel, separate from travel by bicycle. As MPOs look to enhance their models’ representations of pedestrian travel, the need to understand current and emerging practice is great.

This project presents a comprehensive review of the practice of representing walking in MPO travel models. A review of model documentation determined that – as of mid-2012 – 63% (30) of the 48 largest MPOs included non-motorized travel in their regional models, while 47% (14) of those also distinguished between walk and bicycle modes. The modeling frameworks, model structures, and variables used for pedestrian and non-motorized regional modeling are described and discussed. A survey of MPO staff members revealed barriers to modeling non-motorized travel, including insufficient travel survey records, but also innovations being implemented, including smaller zones and non-motorized network assignment. Finally, best practices in representing pedestrians in regional travel demand forecasting models are presented and possible future advances are discussed.

Stream the seminar live or watch an archived video, when made available, through the link here.

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