News
Special seminar series opens with practical advice on transportation modeling
Transportation models keep growing more sophisticated. But complicated isn’t necessarily better, Rick Donnelly said during the inaugural seminar in OTREC’s spring 2012 transportation seminar series April 6.
“Better is contextual,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly, who leads the modeling and simulation practice at engineering consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff, opened the spring seminar series with an introduction to models. Seven more free seminars follow in the series, produced in partnership with the Oregon Modeling Collaborative.
Donnelly detailed questions that model builders and users should ask and offered his thoughts on building more useful and informative models. Click here for a link to the archived presentation.
Although transportation models consider increasingly more information, simpler models can often get the job done with a smaller investment of time and money, Donnelly said. Sometimes the simplest approach actually produces the best results.
“’Better’ is only relevant in the context of what the model is going to be used for,” he said.
The modeling series continues Friday, April 13 with another seminar geared toward non-modelers. The seminar, by Ben Stabler, also of Parsons Brinckerhoff, builds on Donnelly’s opening installment.
Stabler will discuss two approaches to travel modeling and give examples of each approach. Click here for more details on Stabler’s talk and a link to the live Webcast.
All seminars in the series are free and run from noon to 1 p.m. Fridays at Portland State University’s Urban Center, Southwest Sixth Avenue and Mill Street, Room 204. Each seminar is Webcast live and archived after the fact.
More information on the series, including links to live and archived presentations, is at http://otrec.us/events.
Tags: modeling, models, oregon modeling collaborative, otrec, parsons brinckerhoff, rick donnelly, transportation modeling, transportation models
Workforce summit draws attention to a different transportation employment crisis
With persistently high unemployment, it’s hard to imagine that having too many available transportation jobs constitutes a workforce crisis. But with many local agencies expecting half or more of their employees to be eligible for retirement within five years, that crisis looms.
Against this backdrop, 35 transportation leaders from Portland-area agencies met March 20 for a roundtable discussion of workforce challenges. Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith co-chaired the meeting, which included participants from organizations that train and educate as well as those that hire transportation workers.
The group agreed that a skills gap exists: there are plenty of people available to fill future vacancies but overwhelmingly they lack the specialized skills. Welding provides one example. The demand for skilled welders far exceeds the supply. In response, Portland Community College is working to expand its training program in that area.
Elsewhere, the region’s economic plan calls for doubling exports. But if that happens, port operators will face an even bigger struggle to find workers with maritime experience or mastery of specialized software.
Returning military veterans often present a different problem: they have the skills but don’t necessarily have the proper certification. For example, many veterans have extensive experience driving large trucks but lack the commercial driver’s license required to work as a civilian truck driver. Certified drivers are already in high demand and veterans could help meet this need by entering the transportation workforce.
Tags: cutc, loretta smith, otrec, portland community college, sam adams, skilled trades, transportation workforce, veterans
Call for the National Institute of Transportation and Communities (NITC) Proposals
We are pleased to announce the release of the inaugural National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) Request for Proposals (RFP). The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Center at Portland State University (OTREC@PSU) invites proposals for research, education, and technology transfer projects under our new grant program – the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC). This new grant is part of the University Transportation Center (UTC) program funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), and is a partnership between Portland State University (PSU), the University of Oregon (UO), the Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech), and the University of Utah (UU).
The NITC program is focused on contributing to transportation projects that support innovations in: livability, incorporating safety and environmental sustainability. The total funding available is approximately:
- Approximately $1.75 million for research, education and technology transfer projects that support NITC’s theme.
- $150,000 for researchprojects that specifically develop models and pooling of information for data collection (e.g., surveys, pedestrian/bicycle counts, real-time transit information, GPS and other technologies, etc.).
- $70,000 for transportation education projects that specifically target creating community leaders among the general public (not university students).
Eligibility: Faculty members and research faculty eligible to serve as Principal Investigators (PIs) at Portland State University, the University of Oregon, the Oregon Institute of Technology, or the University of Utah may submit proposals and serve as PIs. Also eligible are pre-approved faculty associates from other campuses.
You can download the RFP, proposal and budget forms here: http://otrec.us/for_researchers/rfp
Abstracts are due 5:00 pm (PST) on Friday, April 13, 2012. We will only accept full proposals for abstracts that are submitted by the deadline. Full proposals are due 5:00 pm (PST) on Friday, May 4, 2012. To submit abstracts and proposals, go to to: http://otrec.us/rfp/.
For questions, contact Hau Hagedorn at hagedorn@otrec.us.
Conference-goers bring TRB back to Portland
On Feb. 21, OTREC joined with the Portland State University Students in Transportation and Planning (STEP) and the Portland-area News Rail~Volutionaries to host a debrief of January’s annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington DC. Portland was well represented at the TRB meeting with a diverse array of students, faculty, and transportation professionals, and this event brought many of those attendees together at the Lucky Labrador pub in northwest Portland to share stories and lessons learned.
For students, the gathering presented an opportunity to showcase the research they presented TRB. Posters lined the room and many attendees donned buttons bearing the enthusiastic encouragement, “Ask me about TRB!” Built-in icebreakers ensured lively discussions about current issues and research in transportation.
Those who did not get to attend TRB were able to experience a little taste of it in Portland, as those who did go had no shortage of tales about the biggest annual gathering of transportation professionals.
STEP members in attendance took advantage opportunity to network with potential future employers and coworkers. To aid the soon-to-be graduates in their job hunts, STEP has created a LinkedIn group containing the profiles and resumes of many STEP members.
Tags: brian davis, otrec, step, transportation research board, trb
OTREC Remembers Gail Achterman
Last week in Portland, family, friends, and colleagues gathered to remember one of Oregon’s most stalwart and effective public servants, Gail Achterman. Gail committed her life to furthering environmental and transportation issues to improve the quality of life in Oregon. Her commitment to improving and connecting transportation with land use and environmental policy was the reason she received the 2011 OTREC DeFazio Transportation Hall of Fame Award.
A fourth-generation Oregonian, Gail distinguished herself in law and natural-resource issues (as the Director of the Institute of Natural Resources at OSU) even before her involvement in transportation. As Chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission, Gail provided policy guidance to move the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) toward a sustainable future. She has been instrumental in expanding the focus of ODOT beyond highways to include a complete multi-modal transport system.
Archives
Categories
Filter By University
- Portland State University
- University of Oregon
- Oregon State University
- Oregon Institute of Technology
OTREC's Most Used Tags
alex bigazzi bicycle bicycle infrastructure bicycling chris monsere cutc design electric vehicles hau hagedorn hiring ibpi jennifer dill john macarthur karen dixon kelly clifton kristin tufte livability livemove marc schlossberg meeting metro miguel figliozzi newsletter nico larco oregon department of transportation oregon transportation summit otrec peter dusicka portland state university proposals public transportation region x region x consortium rfp rita robert bertini roger lindgren sam adams step sustainable cities initiative transit transportation modeling transportation research board trb trimet utc visiting scholar program visiting scholars program walking yizhao yang