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
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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Developing SafeSpot: A New Crowdsourcing Tool for Real-Time Near-Miss Detection and Risk Mapping
Tanmoy Bhowmik
Primal Pappachan
Transportation safety analysis has traditionally relied on police-reported crashes to identify dangerous locations. This reactive approach overlooks the many near-miss incidents and perceived hazards that occur daily but go unrecorded. Understanding such incidents is essential for proactive transportation safety planning, allowing for interventions before injuries or fatalities occur. However, current practice lacks a systematic way to collect and analyze near-miss data, creating a critical g...
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