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Seminar Summaries Since Fall 2000, The Center for Transportation Studies' Transportation Seminar Series has served as an important resource for those involved in urban studies and planning. The series, which is free, open to the public, and streamed live online, covers a host of the most current topics related to the field. Beginning from Fall 2002, the seminars are all archived and available as streamed media and downloadable files. We encourage you to watch them, and to enhance your knowledge in your areas of interest. IBPI has compiled a list of past seminars that are relevant to bicycle and pedestrian issues. Below you'll find links to the seminar streams, as well as descriptions of the content contained within each one. Categories
Bike/Ped-Friendly CommunityBicycling in London: Innovations, Outreach, and Progress Steve Durrant of Alta Planning + Design has spent a lot of time working as a landscape architect in London. In this presentation, he shares his experiences working with all the different cycling organizations in London and throughout England. The country contains a number of active and influential cycling organizations and partnerships, such as Cycling England, Sustrans, CTC, Cycle Training UK, and Transport for London. He details each organization’s interests, agendas, approaches, and accomplishments. The seminar is graphically supplemented, and casual in format (it is essentially derived from a notebook he kept while in England). Overall, this seminar serves to provide a strong overview of all the various cycling-oriented missions – access, education, safety, networks – going on throughout in England. A question and answer segment follows the lecture. Transportation Infrastructure Investment: Past, Present, and Future Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Representative of Oregon's 3rd District, manages a broad scope of topics when discussing transportation infrasctructure. He provides an historical context for the values placed on resources such as land and water, and discusses how some have been nationally subsidized at the expense of others. He then pulls the discussion to a local level: he notes how Portland's strategies for growth, development, and revitalization have included innovative, sustainable policy. Over the years, Congressman Blumenauer has played an integral role in the growth of these transportation systems, and his current position puts him in a place to comment on the future. Thoughtful planning and active community involvement have directed the city's development, he notes, and it's important to empower citizens to understand the transportation system for themselves. A robust question and answer segment follows his seminar. Anatomy of a Bike Network: How Did Portland Get From 65 Miles of Bikeways in 1993 to 250 Miles Today? Portland, Oregon, boasts an impressive bicycle network. But it hasn't always been this way. In this seminar Mia Birk, principal at Alta Planning and Design, instructor at PSU, and key figure in much of Portland's growth to one of the best bicycling cities in the country, presents a thorough history of the road to progress. She discusses Portland's institutionalization of bicycle planning and design, starting with the energy crisis in the early 1970s, ISTEA and state funding, local resistance, local committees and organizations (such as the Bicycle Advisory Committee and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance), and the importance of focusing on key network components. She also discusses many of the specifics to smart planning, such as bike boulevards, signage, and working with different types of existing infrastructure to make it more bicycle-friendly. She stresses the importance of building relationships with city bureaus, neighborhood organizations, and local businesses. The seminar is supplemented with an impressive slideshow. Bicycle Commuting in Portland: Evidence from 1990, 1996 and 2000 In this seminar, MURP student Mauricio LeClerc presents a statistical analysis of the relationship between the city's bicycle network and bicycle commuting. He discusses a host of elements for a bicycle-friendly city, as well as for a strong bicycle master plan. He stresses that these elements involve more than just the built environment; they also include education and encouragement (i.e. construction supplemented with culture). He also analyzes the city's declining bicycle crash rate. He then details his regression analysis, which focuses on the relationships between number of bicycle commuters and many types of treatment variables, including implementation of bike boulevards, bike lanes, and so on. Bicycle Friendly Portland 101 Phil Goff devised this informational slideshow on his own time, as a means to illustrate the rich body of bicycle-friendly infrastructure in Portland, OR. In this seminar, he provides a comprehensive overview of Portland's past, present, and future bicycle amenities. He also discusses the bicycle master plan, urban bike parking, and more. Plenty of knowledgeable audience members contribute to the discussion. Creating Active Communities: How Transportation Systems Impact Physical Activity Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure plays a strong role in helping to create active communities. In this seminar Noelle Dobson, from the Active Living by Design program, discusses in detail the dynamics of transportations systems. She lays out a comprehensive physical activity plan, which includes concept planning, land use, technical resources, presenting data to planners, and more. She also discusses the functions of trail systems, and details ways to beautify them, and make them safer and friendlier for all types of riders. Bicycling in Davis, CA : A Critical Look at Policy and Behavior in the First Platinum Bicycle City in the U.S. Davis, California, home to the University of California at Davis, is celebrated by the League of American Bicyclists as the first Platinum Bicycle City in the U.S. In this seminar, Susan Handy, UC Davis professor of Environmental Science and Policy, discusses how Davis grew to such a bicycle-friendly city, and what steps it can take to maintain its status in the future. She presents a recent study conducted by herself and her colleague, Ted Buehler, covering the evolution of bicycle policy and advocacy in Davis. Dr. Handy identifies three principle elements as being responsible for creating a golden age of bicycling in Davis: visionary leadership; an effective partnership of advocates, staff, and elected officials; and a willingness to experiment. She describes some current local policies that encourage cycling, such as a bike to soccer program. She compares Davis with other similar college towns, and, with the help of an engaged audience, discusses why some have a strong bicycling presence, and why others don’t. SafetyYouth Mobility Concepts - Planning Safe Routes for Kids Scott Bricker, MURP graduate and current Executive Director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, begins this seminar with an exercise in which the audience members think back to their childhoods and imagine the areas they traveled regularly. He then has them use those images to draw mental maps of their towns. The discussion that follows highlights how human experience can influence planning. Bricker touches upon the importance of youth mobility, not only with respect to planning, but also to a child's sense of autonomy and confidence. Most of a child's travel takes place with a parent, and so, where planning is concerned, it's easy for parents to be given priority. But youth travel networks are important for communities. When coming up with definitions for youth mobility, Bricker tries not to focus on distance, but rather on access to the important locations. He illustrates his points with a thorough slideshow. Safety Effectiveness, from a Behavioral Perspective, of Marked vs Unmarked Crosswalks at Unsignalized Intersections MURP student Delia Chi's presentation begins approximately 30 minutes into the stream. Chi's study analyzed the effectiveness of marked crosswalks at unsignalized intersections. She began with a couple of intersections in NW Portland that were scheduled to be painted, and she set up cameras at each one to record both vehicle and pedestrian behavior before and after the treatments. She discusses many variables that went into her study, as well as relevant prior research. Many visual examples accompany her presentation. Safe Routes to School Bruce Appleyard, of Appleyard and Associates, presents his seminar on Safe Routes to School. He covers a range of topic issues, presents a brief history of the program, and overview research on the topic, strategies for implementation, and advises on steps forward. He goes into detail discussing studies that address usage, habits, health risks, barriers, safety, and more. Planning and InfrastructurePromoting Safe Walking and Cycling to Improve Public Health: Lessons from Europe Rutgers University professor John Pucher (or, he refers to himself, "Car-free John") kicks off this year's Seminar Series to a packed room. His presentation examines a range of public health impacts of our urban transport systems. His points are illustrated with an extensive collection of graphs and data. He argues that the current car-dependence of American cities is responsible for enormous environmental harm, social isolation, lack of physical activity, and traffic dangers. To overcome these negative impacts, it is crucial to improve the convenience, safety, and attractiveness of walking and cycling. Professor Pucher discusses and illustrates the many specific policies and programs used in Europe, where he worked for a number of years, and proposes their widespread adoption in American cities. The points are accompanied by photographic examples from all over the world. An informative question and answer session follows this exciting presentation. Download the PDF of John Pucher's PowerPoint presentation! Using a GPS Panel to Evaluate Travel Behavior Changes Improvements in GPS technology has greatly expanded the scope of data tracking travel behavior. Dr. Peter Stopher, professor at the University of Sydney, is working at the forefront of such technology. In this seminar, he details the history of GPS usage to measure travel. And he discusses in detail in the evolution of the devices, and how it has changed the possibilities for data. Dr. Stopher and his colleagues are involved in evaluating TravelSmart projects in the Sydney area. Part of the evaluation includes the Sydney Continuous Household Travel Survey. They use this survey as a means to recruit participants for the GPS portion of the project. Dr. Stopher discusses a host of topics related to using GPS devices and data, such as response rates, respondent burdens, advantages and disadvantages, reception issues, data analysis, intrapersonal variability, and modeling. If you’re interested in the possibilities of GPS devices for measuring travel behavior, this is a recommended seminar. From Holland With Love - Will Dutch Bicycle and Pedestrian Treatments Work in Oregon? This seminar is packed with information and discussion. Michael Ronkin and Todd Boulanger host it in an open forum style, discussing a variety of Dutch treatments and how they could be applied in the US. Some of the treatments discussed: bike boxes, color lanes, separate signals for bikes, undercrossings, single two-way travel lane with bike lanes, sharing lanes with buses and transit, contra-flow streets, special pedestrian treatments, yield signals, "driveway" connections for side streets, traffic calming, pedestrian malls, and more. For each treatment, the speakers pose these five questions: -Why does it work in Holland? The audience members introduce a host of perspectives to the discussion. Topics include political willpower, culture, education, cost, engineering, safety, and shared use. The fast-paced, lively discussion is supplemented with a comprehensive slideshow. Transit's Dirty Little Secret: Analyzing Patterns of Transit Use UCLA professor Brian Taylor delivers an intriguing seminar on the primary role of public transit. His conclusion, essentially, is that public transit is a social service for the poor. The presentation covers in detail a host variables that help to construct a model for transit, including government investments in transit, marketshare, ridership levels and behavior (such as internal and external factors), and the role of private vehicles. During the question and answer section following the presentation, Professor Taylor talks about innovative transit fee systems, transit investment, and other relevant topics. Terminal Access: Increasing Bike and Pedestrian Access to PDX Scott King, senior aviation planner for Port of Portland, discusses the many facets of planning and implementing an expanded bicycle access network to Portland's airport. An airport, he notes, is a national and international transportation facility. As such, a multitude of variables are involved when planning at them. The FAA regulates funds, and does not often encourage alternative modes. On top of that, the airlines themselves have the authority of approval for some airport expenditures, and they are largely influential on other expenditures. But with a strong demand from airport employees to provide infrastructure, King was able to work toward a better connection for those using alternatives modes of transport. King's balanced analysis covers both reasons for and against providing better bike access to airports. He covers policies, strategies, master plans, participating in reviews, and he concludes with lessons learned. The Transportation Planning Rule in the Portland Region: Where Are We and How Did We Get Here? Many cities and counties throughout the country have adopted planning rules that serve to direct transportation policy. Sy Adler, of the Oregon Department of Transportation, and Jennifer Dill, of the Center for Transportation Studies at PSU, discuss the implementation of Oregon's Transportation Planning Rule in the Portland region. They lay out an overview of the rule, discuss how it has evolved over time, and present information on travel trends that give some sense of the rule's impact on travel behavior. They note ways to measure performance and maintain specificity, and they compare regions to one another and discuss evaluations of daily transit habits. Their presentation highlights the intergovernmental context in which planning takes place, as well as the relationships between state level agencies, local and regional counterparts, and private sector organizations. Adler and Dill note that together these elements function as a community. Sustaining this community is vital during the process of rule making. Roadway Design, Driver Expectation, and Pedestrian Crashes Michael Ronkin returns, this time accompanied by PSU civil engineering student Rodger Guiterrez. This seminar covers roadway design and its effect on pedestrian risk. The speakers point out that pedestrian research most often focuses too much on the pedestrian. There is always a driver involved, and so researchers should factor that in to their studies. They discuss roadway design and traffic operation factors, traffic patterns, other environmental factors, driver behavior, and so on. With a detailed slideshow, Ronkin and Guiterrez present many comparisons of roadway types, and discuss how the elements correlate to crash risk. Understanding the Link Between Bicycles and Light Rail MURP student Matthew Lasky presents the issues surrounding using light rail to transport bicyclists. He covers the history of bikes on the MAX, and compares it with the park-and-ride system that many car commuters use. He discusses the current mode share relationship in Portland, and discusses how to improve it. The first 45 minutes of this stream are dedicated to Lasky’s presentation. Reducing Car Trips Through Individualized Marketing - Results from the Eastside Hub Target Area Program According to the City of Portland, "In 2005 Options provided hands-on opportunities and materials to Eastside Hub residents and employees to promote ways to get around by transit, walking, biking, carpooling and other alternatives to drive alone trips and to promote physical activity." In this seminar Linda Ginenthal, of the Office of Transportation for the City of Portland, discusses the process and results of this Eastside Hub Target Area Program. She lays out the main tenets of the Transport Options Mission, and discusses in detail how the hub project worked toward those measures. She covers the process of outreach, individualized marketing, picking desirable locations, and advertising. Blueprint for Better Biking: 40 Ways to Get There At the heart of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance's work is a drive to promote the enjoyable aspects of bicycling: to bring families together, promote exercise, and encourage exploration. As explained by Scott Bricker, the broad goal of the BTA is to improve facilities in Portland, and get more people bicycling. A few years ago Bricker directed an ambitious report that aimed to list 40 projects the BTA believes will most help them to meet those goals. In this seminar he discusses the report, titled "Blueprint for Better Biking: 40 Ways to Get There." (PDF of report available on bta4bikes.org.) Accompanied by a comprehensive slideshow, he describes one of the BTA's major campaigns: low traffic bike boulevards. He shows how bike boulevards can effectively govern traffic by forcing cars to divert, and he explains why he thinks, for a small amount of money each, the city should be creating one new one per year. He also compares cyclists with potential cyclists, and discusses the report's analysis for getting more people on their bikes. And he touches upon traffic, commuting, and the transportation of children. With over 4,000 members, the BTA is a highly influential and effective organization in the Portland region. Employer Incentives and Mode Choice -AND- Exploring Factors Influencing Perceived Walking Distance to Light Rail Transit Stations MURP student Erin Wilson delivers the first seminar in this two-part session. Her presentation covers her graduate work studying alternative forms of transit to and from work. Her study covered trip rates by mode, employer incentives, workplace amenities (such as lockers and showers), business locations, parking information, benefits (such as telecommuting, flex-time, and compressed work week). She discusses her regression analysis, its results, and her ideas for future research. Sumi Malik, also a MURP student, presents on her study of perceptions of distance. She asks, do people generally over or under-estimate distance to light rail transit stations? And how would that influence an individual's behavior? As she discusses her study, she goes into the policy implications. Improved signage and better placement of stations relative to development, she says, could serve to make accurate people's perceptions of distance. Parking at Transit-Oriented Multi-family Housing -AND- Spatial Analysis of Bicycling Behavior in the Portland Metro Region MURP student Joe Recker begins this two-part seminar with a presentation on parking utilization and spillover at residential transit-oriented development sites in Portland, OR. He defines parking as a form of land use, and as an enabler of transportation. He addresses old parking paradigms (as laid out in ITE's Parking Generation) – such as the disadvantages of too little parking space – and updates them. He notes that too much parking can be just as harmful as too little parking. His study looks at vehicle ownership rates, number of parking spots, bike usage, and so on, at a number of sites. MURP student Kim Voros builds off the results of the survey presented by Jennifer Dill on January 26, 2007. She begins by discussing the differences between utilitarian and recreational bicyclists, and then goes on to analyze streets and routes as they relate to types of riders. She covers in detail the use of GIS software to analyze routes. Bicycle and Pedestrian Overcrossings The first half of this stream is dedicated to MURP student Rory Renfro's presentation on bicycle and pedestrian overcrossings. Overcrossings serve as critical links in networks, but some are utilized more effectively than others. Renfro, using an inventory of 30 overcrossings in the Portland area (and a few from places beyond, such as Austin, TX), presents broad coverage of the different types, and discusses how their designs, utilizations, and aesthetics work or do not work. TrailsRails-with-trails: issues related to safety, design, planning, and implementation of trails next to active railway lines Mia Birk returns a few months later to discuss in detail a key element that she touched upon in her previous seminar on Rails-with-Trails. Mia discusses a four-year study completed by Alta Planning and Design, and published by USDOT, about rails-with-trails planning and development. In this in-depth presentation, she lays out issues and discusses lessons learned from her experience with the study, and from her own personal experience in this facet of urban planning. Topics from the study include literature reviews, in-depth analyses of 18 case studies, railroad industry interviews, reviewed draft reports, design research, legal symposium and research, outreach, integration of commentary. The areas surrounding railroads are often prime locations for trails. Mia provides recommendations for both railway managers and trail planners and designers for how all parties can work together to improve their landscape. Portland Regional Trails Program The Portland Metro area is abundant with parks, greenspaces, and recreational and commuter trails. In this seminar Mel Huie provides a broad view of the region's varied systems. He details it all with maps, examples, descriptions of their various functions within neighborhoods. He discusses how to plan, design, construct, and manage environmentally-friendly trails. And he discusses guidelines to help protect water and habitat resources, acquire permits, and follow greenway requirements. Bicycle and Pedestrian Trails: Planning to Implementation George Hudson, trail designer with Alta Planning and Design (and instructor of the upcoming IBPI-sponsored workshop on Trail Design), begins this seminar by laying down the general process of planning for trails. Some details include feasibility and master planning, establishing goals and objectives, meeting community needs, working with local agencies, data collection, and field work. He also goes through the timeline of work: conceptual design, permitting, design and drawings, bidding, and finally construction. He makes sure to go into detail on every point, and he identifies specific issues that relate to different contexts. Michael Rose, also of Alta, delivers the second half of the seminar. He discusses the specific implementation the Clark County Wetlands Park, a trail project that Alta is currently working on in the Las Vegas area. He goes into the specific of planning the trail. He discusses route and their uses, how best to implement then, and how to make them work together and with the surrounding landscape. WalkabilityQuantifying Walkability - Toward an Objective and Reliable Measure of the Pedestrian Environment In this seminar, Jamie Parks of Kittleson Associates, presents innovative measures for quantifying walkability. His studies, all conducted in the Chicago area, have been refigured from previous research so as to control data collection, reduce unnecessary information and work, and find and alleviate the weaknesses in current methods. His new methods attempt to make the data more objective, less expensive to collect, and still reliable on widely available data. With a robust question and answer segment, Parks presents a thorough and knowledgeable seminar on this important topic. Walk this Way: New Tools for Measuring Walkability and Some Findings on Middle School Transportation Behavior Due to the proliferation of handheld GIS devices in recent years, we're witness to the growth of a new field for quantifying walkability. In this seminar, Marc Schlossberg presents details on these new tools for measuring walkability and transportation behavior. He begins with an overview of street-based walkability measures, and shows how they've been applied to transit-oriented developments and schools. He also provides additional results on middle school travel. He goes on to discuss the relationship between physical activity and the urban form. He looks at different road types and characteristics, and uses those definitions to differentiate between pedestrian and auto-oriented roads. Finally, he presents a detailed look at capturing and making use of GIS data.
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June '08: Find out what's happening at IBPI - click here to view our newsletter Announcing a new bicycle/pedestrian planning lab course this fall at PSU. Click here for details. Student scholarship opportunity for Comprehensive Bicycle and Pedestrian Design and Planning course May 15, 2008: Professor Jennifer Dill participated in a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C. - Read the statement |
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