Portland State students redesign busy Portland street for active transportation
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Joseph Broach, PhD candidate in Urban Studies, will discuss the results of his research, which models the propensity of children aged 6-16 to walk or bike to parks and school without an adult chaperone, extending 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.
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The Community Cycling Center has been at the business of broadening access to bicycling for 22 years. Far before anyone was talking about "equity" in the world of bike commuting and advocacy, the Community Cycling Center was working directly with youth of color to make...
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Abstract: Traffic counts are an important piece of information used by transportation planners; however, while count programs are common for motor vehicles most efforts at counting non-motorized traffic – cyclists and pedestrians – are minimal. Long-term, continuous counts of non-motorized traffic can be used to estimate month of year and day of week adjustment factors that can be used to scale short-duration counts to estimates of annual average daily traffic. Here we present results from continuous counts of non-motorized traffic at 6 locations on off-street trails in Minneapolis, MN using two types of automated counters (active infrared and inductive loop detectors). We found that traffic volumes varied significantly by location, but the month of year and day of week patterns were mostly consistent across locations and mode (i.e., cycling, walking, or mixed mode). We give examples of how this information could be used to extrapolate short-duration counts to estimates of annual average daily traffic as well as Bicycle Miles Traveled (BMT) and Pedestrian Miles Traveled (PMT) for defined lengths of off-street trails. More research is needed to determine if non-motorized traffic patterns (and subsequently our adjustment factors) for off-street...
Read moreRoom 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus
Abstract: A variety of types of electric bicycles are now available to consumers in America and around the world. While there has been strong uptake of these vehicles in China, there remains uncertainty in other markets about their ultimate potential as a transportation mode. The technology is evolving in ways that are likely to better meet traveller's needs and the growth of this mode presents both opportunities and challenges. Since they have implications for transportation policy, planning and operations it is appropriate for the transportation profession to consider these vehicles carefully. This seminar will review developments and emerging issues with this form of transportation technology.
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During the March 2011 earthquake/ tsunami/nuclear disaster, the internet filled with stories of how something quite ordinary in Japanese life became an important lifeline—the bicycle. For example an 83-year-old woman escaped the tsunami by bicycle, and due to public-transport disruptions, bicycle stores sold out of bicycles as quickly as supermarkets sold out of food. However not just in disasters, but in daily life, the most reliable, sustainable form of transportation, next to walking, is via Japan’s estimated 80,000,000 bicycles, affectionately called mamachari.
This illustrated presentation, based on four-years of cultural-landscape research culminating the publication of世界が称賛した日本の町の秘密 (Secrets of Japanese Cities the World Admires. Tokyo: Yousensha, 2011), begins by discussing why mamachari are perfect for local transportation and the many practical ways Japanese use them. It then explores why many of Japan’s densely populated, fine-grained neighborhoods with auto-resistant narrow streets and nearby shopping, make ideal bicycle neighborhoods. Issues explored will include the mamachari’s impact on: neighborhood livability; sustainability; public health through active transportation; fostering direct human contact not possible with motor-car travel; and maintaining the compact human scale of communities by...
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Summary: Researchers from the transportation, planning and health fields share the common goal of promoting physically active lifestyle. One challenge that researchers often face is the measurement of physical activity, particularly among children. This is because the sporadic nature of children’s physical activity patterns makes it difficult to recall and quantify such activities. Additionally, children’s lower cognitive functioning compared to adults prevents them from accurately recalling their activities. This presentation will describe the design and application of a novel self-report instrument - the Graphs for Recalling Activity Time (GReAT) - for measuring children’s activity time use patterns. The instrument was applied in a study of children’s risk for obesity and diabetes in a predominately Hispanic community in Milwaukee, WI. Time-use data for two weekdays and one weekend day were collected for various physical and sedentary activities. The data was then assessed against measurements of the children’s cardiovascular fitness, weight status and insulin resistance through exploratory analysis and structured equation modeling. Findings on GReAT’s reliability and new evidence on the impacts of time-use in different activities on children’s risk for...
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The City of Portland and the Metropolitan Region have strong policies in place to encourage transportation through means other than the single-occupancy vehicle. Both governments have numeric goals for the proportion of trips to be made by walking, bicycling, transit, shared vehicles, working at home and driving alone. Indeed, the City of Portland desires that by 2035 no more than thirty percent of commute trips be made by people driving alone. Similar policies have driven transportation planning in the city and region for decades.
To understand if these policies will be effective it's necessary to understand whether their antecedents have been effective. The Portland region has been investing in transit, bicycling and walking for more than two decades? Are we moving the needle? Have we been effective?
Roger's presentation will take a look at regional data for the period 2000-2014 to assess the effectiveness of our efforts and use that information to suggest pathways forward.
Roger Geller has been Portland, Oregon’s bicycle coordinator since 2000...