Better Block PSU Requests Proposals From Community Partners By March 10
The Better Block PSU program has opened our annual call for community organizations to reimagine their streets in a way to bring people together and reclaim public spaces for their community’s future. In a partnership between Better Block PDX and TREC, students in the Better Block PSU program develop plans and designs for community-driven projects that promote equitable placemaking, community building, and active transportation. Integrated into PSU planning and engineering classes, these projects can be powerful demonstrations of community-led ideas. Read about current projects underway, or learn more about the program by watching a short video below. Do you have an idea for a project? Submit your proposal by March 10!
PSU Will Work With Oregon Department of Transportation to Advance Safety At Intersections
Can changing the timing of traffic signals improve pedestrian safety? PSU researchers want to find out. To help make Oregon's road safer for everyone, the university is launching a new study. Funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), the project is led by Sirisha Kothuri of PSU and Patrick Singleton of Utah State University. Speed plays a key role in safety; the faster a car is traveling, the greater the risk of severe injury to vulnerable road users in a collision. Traditional traffic signal timing strategies have prioritized vehicle travel at the expense of other users such as pedestrians, and do not directly account for the safety of road users. Signal control strategies to improve safety and the pedestrian experience exist, but few have been evaluated for their effectiveness. This study will evaluate the impact of these strategies on speed management, safety, and operations at multiple Oregon intersections.
PSU Transportation Seminar: Preventing Carbon Emissions With Imaging-Based Civil Infrastructure Assessment And Evaluation
Friday, February 21,12 PM Pacific
For concrete bridges without existing plans, simplified and highly conservative load rating (structural evaluation) methods may be used, which can lead to unnecessary load restrictions, unjustifiable strengthening, or in the worst case, preventable replacements. Avoiding these outcomes not only saves money but it prevents carbon emissions from longer travel and construction activities and resources associated with replacement. In this presentation, Thomas Schumacher of PSU's Maseeh College will discuss a case study of a prestressed concrete bridge that required a load rating, and for which no plans existed. Using radar and ultrasonic measurements, researchers were able to complete a structural evaluation via a digital-cross section and determine that load restrictions were not necessary for the bridge.
Workshop: How To Format Count Data For BikePed Portal
Thursday, February 27, 11 AM Pacific
Interested in using BikePed Portal to host your manual or short-term bicycle and pedestrian counts? Next week, join our Transportation Data Program Administrator Tammy Lee for a free online workshop. This 1.5 hour course will go over what metadata are required and how to format your data into an acceptable machine readable format to be ingested into BikePed Portal, the comprehensive non-motorized data management system for manual and automated non-vehicular multimodal counts housed at PSU. This specialized data lake and management system is designed to make sharing data—within an agency, with partners at other agencies, and with the public—easily accessible.
PSU Transportation Seminar: Active Transportation Data Fusion: Incorporating Big Data to Estimate Volumes
Friday, March 14, 12 PM Pacific
Planners and decision-makers have increasingly voiced a need for network-wide estimates of bicycling and walking. Such volume estimates have for decades informed motorized planning and analysis but have only recently become feasible for non-motorized travel modes. Recently, new sources of activity data have emerged derived primarily from GPS-based smartphone location data, both app-based and passively collected. The project team has led several research projects aimed at evaluating and integrating the emerging sources with conventional demand data, including observed bicycle and pedestrian counts, to assess the value added of various emerging sources and the potential for estimating network-wide volumes. In this seminar, Nathan McNeil, Sirisha Kothuri, and Joe Broach will summarize lessons learned and propose next steps for agencies and researchers who want to incorporate big data into active transportation volume / exposure estimates.
Last Chance To Sign Up For Study Abroad: Sustainable Transportation in Denmark
Program dates: June 21 - July 5, 2025 Application deadline: March 1, 2025
There's just over a week left to apply for our Sustainable Transportation in Denmark study abroad program, and there are still a few spots remaining! This two-week program offered through Portland State University (PSU) and the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI) is open to college juniors/seniors and graduate students from any university as well as professionals, and includes an immersive experience to explore European approaches to cycling, transit, innovative mobility, and land use. Pictured here is a Children's Traffic Playground in Copenhagen where kids can safely practice using the rules of the road. Tour facilities like this and meet with Danish transportation professionals to get insights and ideas to bring back home to your city!
Oregon ITE Winter Workshop: Join the OR chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) for their 2025 Winter Workshop on February 27.
Project Yellow Light scholarship competition: High school and college students are invited to create public service announcements about distracted driving. Billboard designs are due March 1; videos and radio recordings are due April 1.
Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is a multidisciplinary hub for all things transportation. We are home to the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), the data programs PORTAL and BikePed Portal, the Better Block PSU program, and PSU's membership in PacTrans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium. Our continuing goal is to produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education, seminars, and participation in research.
Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), Portland State University, 1900 SW 4th Ave, Suite 175, Portland, OR 97201
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