TREC research addresses complex transportation problems by drawing on multiple disciplines, including engineering, planning, economics and design, from across the Portland State University campus. Use the search box at right to search for a specific project.
NOTE: If you're looking for projects from our partner campuses, use the NITC research search.
Research Highlights
Access to Opportunities: Redefining Planning Methods and Measures for Disadvantaged Populations
Arlie Adkins
Stephen Mattingly
This project will be made up of two separate studies that together will investigate areas where transportation planning and engineering can better serve disadvantaged and underserved communities. An interdisciplinary team of planning and public health researchers from UA will investigate how standard measures and conceptions of walkability hold up across socio-economic contexts. Pilot data from a CDC-funded project suggest that many standard measures of walkability may miss important elements...
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Exploring the positive utility of travel and mode choice
Patrick Singleton
Traditionally, travel is considered a disutility to be minimized, and travel demand is derived from activity demand. Recently, scholars have questioned these axioms, noting that some people may like to travel, use travel time productively, find other benefits in traveling, or travel for non-utilitarian reasons. These are instances of “the positive utility of travel” (PUT). In this dissertation, I conceptually and empirically investigate PUT, its determinants, and its impacts on travel behavio...
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