Rick Krochalis, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Region X Administrator, recently kicked off the Center for Transportation Seminar Series on January 8th with a presentation on the Regional Implications of the Federal Livability Initiative. The presentation touched on the federal interagency partnership in addition to FTA’s involvement in the effort. Smart growth and transit-oriented development are not new concepts. With growing congestion, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, needs for maintaining a state of good repair on existing transportation systems in addition to a growing and aging and population in the United States; transit is playing a key role in helping address these issues.The seminar was followed with with a roundtable group discussion with TriMet and local partners; and meeting with faculty and students highlighting transit-related research. You can download the podcast or view the seminar if you missed the presentation. Livability is also the theme for the winter transportation seminar series.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood proclaims “Portland is the transportation capital of the United States…” as part of his speech unveiling the Portland-made streetcar, the first to be built in the US in nearly 60 years. OTREC staff were present to witness this historic moment for Portland, in addition to having the opportunity to meet and talk with other leaders in transportation from Oregon. Pictured left: Jon Makler, Lily Makler, Congressman Peter DeFazio, and Hau Hagedorn Pictured right: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
Northeastern Universityís Peter Furth is known equally for his research in public transportation, bike planning and traffic signals. Furth brings his diverse interests to Portland for the holiday-shortened week of May 25th. On Tuesday, 5/26, there will be a seminar on his traffic signal priority work and on Wednesday, 5/27, there will be another seminar on his work regarding cycle tracks. In addition, Furth will have a variety of meetings with local transportation practitioners, including a bike tour by staff from the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The visit is co-sponsored by OTREC and IBPI. For more information about the seminars, visit PSU's Center for Transportation Studies.
Dr. Brian Taylor, Professor in Urban Planning and Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA, was the guest speaker and OTREC Visiting Scholar for the CTS Transportation Seminar on November 16, 2007. Dr. Taylor presented "Transit’s Dirty Little Secret: Analyzing Patterns of Transit Use." Later in the day, he was also the keynote speaker at the fall TransNow Student Conference at PSU, presenting "Rethinking Congestion" to the group of students from around the northwest. Professor Taylor’s research centers around transportation policy and planning. In particular, his work explores how society pays for transportation systems and how these systems in turn serve the needs of people who have low levels of mobility.
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Abstract: TriMet has used a computer aided dispatch (CAD)/automatic vehicle location (AVL) system to manage bus and rail operations since the late 1990s. TriMet is currently in the process of updating the CAD/AVL system, and anticipates improvements in bus tracking and performance monitoring. This presentation will show how TriMet uses data from the system to support intelligent transportation systems (ITS) such as TransitTracker and automatic stop announcements in buses and trains, as well as to analyze transit operations such as on time performance and passenger loads.
Speaker Bios: Steve Callas is the Manager of Service and Performance Analysis at TriMet in Portland Oregon, where he is responsible for operations performance monitoring and analysis. This includes analyzing TriMet’s comprehensive automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter data archive. Additionally, Steve is involved in various transit operations research projection in conjunction with Portland State University and OTREC. Steve has been with TriMet for over 15 years.
David is an operations analyst with TriMet. He is involved in AVL data mining and analysis, safety analysis, automatic stop announcements, transit signal priority, and real-time...
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PRESENTATION ARCHIVE
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OVERVIEW
Today’s youth are tomorrow’s riders, bikers, walkers, voters, and transportation planners. As more transit agencies begin to offer free fare passes to public middle and high school students, it is important to have good communication strategy in place to encourage transit usage so they don't miss out on the potential to affect behavior change.
Thus, transit agencies need to develop age-appropriate messaging strategies and tactics that promote youth car-free mobility.
This webinar will present results from a NITC research project that sought to create and evaluate communication messaging that fosters more positive attitudes, intentions, and behaviors related to transit and other car-free transportation options among Portland youth. While there is no "one size fits all" approach, the Portland-based findings may yield insights that could be adapted for application in other regions.
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES...
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Abstract: Urban arterials often represent complex venues of transportation operations, co-mingling non-motorized users with transit services and a wide variety of land uses and traffic patterns. This presentation presents results related to the evaluation of a new Adaptive Traffic Control System (SCATS) on Powell Boulevard in southeast Portland. The presentation will discuss challenges and opportunities associated with the evaluation of new technologies and the development of comprehensive urban arterial performance measures.
Speaker Bio: Miguel Figliozzi is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University. His diverse research interests include transit and traffic operations, bicycle and pedestrian modes, emissions and air quality modeling, and freight and logistics. He holds a MS from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from the University of Maryland College Park. Figliozzi is a member of the Transportation Research Board Network Modeling Committee, Freight and Logistics, and Intermodal Terminal Design Committees. Papers, reports, and more detailed information available at Figliozzi's webpage: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~maf/
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Abstract: A new way of measuring Level of Service for bicycles, pedestrians, and transit is planned for the next Highway Capacity Manual. Are these the right tools to help us plan and build the system we want? If not, what answers do these tools give us and how should we use them? This presentation will review the approaches to multi-modal Level of Service at the national and local levels and discuss efforts to validate the HCM methods. It will also cover the effect of our LOS policies on climate change and explore ways that we might tweak our analysis to get a more accurate picture of the transportation system for all users.
Bio: Seleta Reynolds plans, funds, and implements bicycle and pedestrian projects as a consultant for the Seattle office of Fehr & Peers. Seleta contributed to the national Safe Routes to School toolbox and has served as a guest lecturer on transportation planning for San Jose State University, Portland State University, and UC Berkeley. She serves on the Transportation Research Board Pedestrian Committee and as the President of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. One of her favorite side projects was a collaboration with artists Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings to imagine the future of transportation for the Art on Market Street project in San Francisco. Prior to joining Fehr & Peers in 2001, she was the bicycle and...
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