News Tagged: Sustainable Cities Initiative

Third Sustainable City Year program starts in Springfield

Posted on November 2, 2011

The third Sustainable City Year partnership, this year with Springfield, Ore., is officially underway after a kickoff ceremony Sept. 28 at the University of Oregon. The experiential learning program, part of the OTREC-supported Sustainable Cities Initiative, focused on the cities of Gresham and Salem, respectively, in its first two years.

Each year, Sustainable City Year channels the resources of courses across disciplines to serve a single city for an entire academic year. Students gain invaluable experience working directly with city staffs on real-world projects. The cities gain the resources to take on needed projects that would never see the light of day without the program.

In Salem, the program encompassed 28 courses, 25 faculty members on two campuses, 10 disciplines and more than 500 students and 80,000 hours. The Springfield partnership is expected to involve more than 400 students and 20 faculty members. Projects will involve Springfield city staff from several departments and participation from the Springfield Utility Board, Willamalane Park and Recreation District, Metro Wastewater Management Commission, United Way, the Springfield school district and other community organizations. Projects include:

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Tags: otrec, springfield, springfield utility board, sustainable cities initiative, sustainable city year, willamalane park & recreation district

OTREC hosts national Council of University Transportation Centers conference

Posted on July 1, 2011

Even with uncertainty clouding the future of university transportation research, more than 150 people from around the country showed their dedication to providing the most useful transportation research at the Council of University Transportation Centers’ 2011 summer meeting. OTREC hosted the conference June 13-15 at Portland State University.

University transportation researchers and staff, along with federal and state transportation officials, convened for three days of work sessions, meetings and exploring. OTREC-organized tours gave a Portland flavor to the proceedings, letting visitors explore the city by every available transportation mode. The 4T trail took participants on a light-rail train, a trail, an aerial tram and a streetcar (or trolley). The bike tour showed off the bicycle infrastructure that is making Portland nationally known. An architecture walking tour highlighted downtown Portland’s buildings and parks. And the food-and-beer tour explored the city’s burgeoning food-cart scene and copious microbreweries.

For many people, the conference provided the first opportunity to visit Oregon, and OTREC took the opportunity to share the state’s story of integrating transportation and land use. Rex Burkholder and Andy Cotugno with regional government Metro discussed how planning and policymaking dovetail with transportation in creating a livable region. Bob Hastings, agency architect with TriMet, described the transit agency’s sustainability initiatives. Lidwien Rahman with the Oregon Department of Transportation detailed the codes that provide a backbone for transportation and land-use planning.

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Tags: andy cotugno, bob hastings, cutc, jennifer dill, lidwien rahman, oregon department of transportation, rex burkholder, rich margerum, robert liberty, starr mcmullen, sustainable cities initiative, transportation research, trimet, university transportation centers, usdot

Transportation-Minded Students Take Home Scholarships From Feds

Posted on May 30, 2011

The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium would like to congratulate two of its affiliated students who took home hefty scholarships this past week from the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS).

Kristi Currans of Portland State University and Jessica Bloomfield of the University of Oregon were both awarded scholarships at a May 26 dinner at Wilf’s in Union Station. The Women’s Transportation Seminar was established by the federal government with the goal of transforming the transportation industry through the advancement of women. Overall, WTS awarded $15,500 in scholarships this year to women pursuing higher education and careers in transportation.

Currans, a graduate Civil Engineering student at PSU, took home a $3,500 Graduate Scholarship. She holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University, where she was named Student of the Year in 2010. Currently, Curran is working with travel demand modeling as part of a workforce training program between PSU and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Active in the American Society of Civil Engineers,

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Tags: otrec, portland state university, sustainable cities initiative

Second Sustainable City Year showcases practical, visionary sides in Salem

Posted on May 29, 2011

If the posters lining the wall showed how visionary the Sustainable City Year model can be, the Salem city officials attending the May 20 reception testified how practical it can be as well. The reception recapped the work of the second Sustainable City Year, now drawing to a close.

Sustainable City Year is a program of the Sustainable Cities Initiative, one of three OTREC initiatives. In the program, 500 students on two campuses worked on 16 projects to help Salem meet sustainability goals.

Although work continues in Salem and at the University of Oregon and Portland State University, May 20 was an opportunity to thank the participants and punctuate a second successfully year, following the inaugural efforts in Gresham, Ore. Next year’s Sustainable City Year will focus on Springfield, Ore.

Linda Norris, Salem’s city manager, couldn’t say enough about the contributions the program made to her city. Students in 29 classes on the two campuses put in 80,000 hours of time. Sustainable City Year’s choosing Salem was like magic, Norris said.

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Tags: cortney mild, linda norris, nico larco, otrec, robert liberty, salem, springfield, sustainable cities initiative, sustainable city year

Bike facility database project wins student poster honors

Posted on March 10, 2011

University of Oregon master’s student Kory Northrop won an award for the best poster at the recent Region X Student Transportation Conference in Corvallis. Northrop, a second-year Environmental Studies student, along with Planning, Public Policy and Management students Michael Duncan and Ted Sweeney, presented their work Feb. 18.

The poster showcased work the group did as part of the Sustainable Cities Initiative, one of three OTREC-supported initiatives. The group presented its work in creating a bicycle infrastructure database for Salem, Ore.

 “Our goal was to create a tool that would help inform and encourage cyclists of all skill and comfort levels,” says Kory. “Our model provides qualitative information about city streets that allows decision makers and citizens to identify streets with high degrees of perceived danger, show where cyclists of varying confidence levels can comfortably ride, and calculate distance-based and comfort-based routing.”

The Region X Student Transportation Conference is a showcase for student transportation research in the Pacific Northwest, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. Region X serves as a microcosm of transportation for the entire country, with a diversity of modes, infrastructure systems and area types that make it a prime testing ground for studies in transportation operations and planning.

Northrop holds a bachelor’s degree in evolutionary biology and has worked as an Americorps volunteer coordinator, construction crew leader and nonprofit case manager. His academic focus is on geographic information systems and sustainable development.

Tags: bicycle infrastructure, bicycling, kory northrop, region x student transportation conference, sustainable cities initiative

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