Psychological Insights on Transportation Mode Choice

Transportation mode choice is often expressed in terms of models which assume rational choice; psychological case studies of mode adoption are comparatively rare. We present findings from a study of the psychology of adoption for sustainable transportation modes such as bicycles, car sharing, and mass transit. Case studies were conducted with current and former participants in PSU’s ‘Passport Plus’ transit pass program, as well as a longitudinal cohort study of first-time winter bicycle commuters. Composite sequence analysis was used to construct a theory of the adoption process for these modes. Our findings suggest that mode evaluation is cognitively distinct from mode selection and has different information requirements. We conclude that public and private organizations could improve the adoption rate for these modes by tailoring their communication strategies to match the commuter’s stage of adoption.

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The video begins at 9:01.

Webinar: Community Transportation Academies: Rethinking Effective Community Engagement Around Transportation Decision-Making

 

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

OVERVIEW

This webinar will introduce you to the concept of the Community Transportation Academy (CTA), a model which has been operating in Portland for over 30 years in the form of the Portland Traffic and Transportation (PTT) class. Now catching on in other cities, the project team recently implemented the Wasatch Transportation Academy (WTA) in Salt Lake City. The presenters also include key stakeholders (and guest lecturers) in the WTA, and the PTT instructor. The presentation will include discussions about why CTAs can be good for both community members and transportation agencies/practitioners, and how you can bring a CTA to your city.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • How to make interactions between community members and transportation agencies more effective
  • How to increase human capital and community capacity by teaching community members how and where they can engage in transportation decision-making processes
  • Lessons from transportation...
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How electric bikes can make cities safer

Social Transportation Analytic Toolbox (STAT) for Transit Networks

Webinar: Social Transportation Analytic Toolbox (STAT) for Transit Networks

 

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

Miss the webinar or want a look back?

OVERVIEW

This webinar will present an open-source socio-transportation analytic toolbox (STAT) for public transit system planning. This webinar will consist of a demonstration of the STAT toolbox, for the primary purpose of getting feedback from transit agencies on the tool's usefulness. We are especially interested in hearing about any improvements that would aid transit agencies in implementing it.

The STAT toolbox was created in an effort to integrate social media and general transit feed specification (GTFS) data for transit agencies, to aid in evaluating and enhancing the performance of public transit systems. The toolbox enables the integration, analysis, and visualization of two major new open transportation data sources—social media and GTFS data—to support transit decision making. In this webinar, we will introduce how we...

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PSU TRB Presentations - Week 2

The video begins at 1:44.

Oliver Smith (USP PhD) - Peak of the day or the daily grind? Commuting and subjective well-being

To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and societal well-being, measurement techniques that go beyond satisfaction-based measures of travel are used. Such metrics are increasingly important for evaluating transportation and land-use policies. This study examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and its influences using data from a web-based survey that was distributed to Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. workers. Valid surveys (n=828) were compiled from three roughly equally sized groups based on mode: bike, transit and car users. Average distances between work and home varied significantly among the three groups. Descriptive results show that commute well-being varies widely across the sample. Those who bike to work have significantly higher commute well-being than transit and car commuters. A multiple linear regression model shows that along with travel mode, traffic congestion, travel time, income, health, job satisfaction and residential satisfaction also play important individual roles in shaping commute well-being. While more analysis is needed, these results support findings in previous research that commuting by bike enhances well-being while congestion detracts from well-being. Implications...

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Spatial Analysis of Bicycling Behavior; Parking at Transit-oriented Multi-family Housing

Two MURP presentations

The video begins at 4:18.

NITC Webinar: Arterial Reliability Performance Metrics w Jason Anderson of Portland State

Webinar: Evaluating Urban Arterial Reliability Performance Metrics

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

Miss the webinar or want a look back?

OVERVIEW

With worsening congestion, travel time reliability is increasingly becoming as critical as average travel times in affecting travel choices. Researchers from Portland State University (PSU) partnered with Washington County, Oregon to offer data-driven strategies in prioritizing funding for travel time reliability improvements on their urban arterials. The vast majority of existing research on travel time reliability has focused exclusively on freeways. Avinash Unnikrishnan, Sirisha Kothuri and Jason C. Anderson leveraged Bluetooth sensors provided and deployed by Bluemac Analytics to identify problem areas in the county. Set up at intersections throughout Washington County, the sensors are able to calculate travel time from one intersection to another by matching Bluetooth signals from devices in people's cars. The researchers evaluated the Bluetooth travel time data to understand the temporal variation in travel time reliability metrics on these urban arterials, including factors related to time of day, weather, and holidays....

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PSU TRB Presentations - Week 1

The video begins at 3:22.

Steve Gehrke (CEE PhD) - Application of Geographic Perturbation Methods to Residential Locations in the Oregon Household Activity Survey: Proof of Concept

Travel demand models have advanced from zone-based methods to favor activity-based approaches that require more disaggregate data sources. Household travel surveys gather disaggregate data that may be utilized to better inform advanced travel demand models and also improve the understanding of how nonmotorized travel is influenced by a household’s surrounding built environment. However, the release of these disaggregate data is often limited by a confidentiality pledge between the household participant and survey administrator. Concerns regarding the disclosure risk of survey respondents to household travel surveys must be addressed before these household-level data may be released at their disaggregate geography. In an effort to honor this confidentiality pledge and facilitate the dissemination of valuable travel survey data, this research: (i) reviews geographical perturbation methods that seek to protect respondent confidentiality; (ii) outlines a procedure for implementing one promising practice, referred to as the donut masking technique; and (iii) demonstrates a proof of concept for this technique on ten respondents to a household activity travel survey in the Portland metropolitan region. To examine the balance...

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Student presentations from TRB, week 1

View Blanc's slides

View Mathez's slides

The video begins at 0:33.

Following the 2015 annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, this Friday seminar will showcase some of Portland State University's student TRB research.

Presenters:

Bryan Blanc, GRA in civil and environmental engineering

Leveraging Signal Infrastructure for Non-Motorized Counts in a Statewide Program: A Pilot Study

Summary: Transportation agencies are beginning to explore and develop non-...

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Transportation & Communities 2018: Academy Edition

In honor of our 10-year anniversary, we’re trying something a little different. Instead of brief sessions that introduce you to a topic– we will be offering fifteen half-day workshops that focus on skill building and providing the tools to apply the latest research to practice. These will be hands-on, immersive learning experiences in a small classroom setting.

REGISTRATION

This event is a la carte, and pricing is per workshop. You may attend as few as one, or as many as four workshops.

  • Half-Day Workshop (general admission): $95
  • Half-Day Workshop (student rate): $50

THE PROGRAM

⇨SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE AND DETAILS

  • Survey Design: Asking the Right Questions
  • Bicycle/Pedestrian Focused Signal Timing Strategies: What, When, Where, Why, and How?
  • Activating Community Opportunities Using Transportation Organizations as Assets
  • Cost Accounting for Program and Budget Planning Today and Tomorrow
  • Data Analysis for Smarties Who Forgot What They Learned in College
  • What’s New in the HCM 6th Edition?
  • Ecological Momentary Assessment Methods with Transportation Disadvantaged Populations
  • Calculating...
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