Portland State University

APPLICATIONS HAVE CLOSED

Registration is open to female and female-identified students in Oregon who will be current high school students in the Fall of 2018.

For the third year in a row, we're hosting an Oregon Summer Transportation Institute (OSTI) for high school girls. This two-week residence camp offers any student entering the 9–12 grade who identifies as female an immersive introduction to the workings of the Portland transportation system.

Half of each day is spent in the classroom hearing from PSU faculty and guest lecturers from ODOT, the FHWA, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, TriMet, the Port of Portland, and various other public and private transportation agencies that operate in the Portland metro area.

The other half is spent outside, in field tours of Portland’s transportation infrastructure and public spaces. Planners, engineers and designers come from all over the country to see Portland’...

Two MURP presentations

The video begins at 4:18.

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

• Watch the video
• View the presentation slides

OVERVIEW

Since 2005, Portland State University has periodically surveyed occupants of recently developed  higher-density and mixed-use projects near transit, often referred to as Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs). The general objectives of the surveys were to better understand actual transit use, among other factors, of residents in these buildings. Between 2005 and 2018, the research team surveyed residents of nearly 50 TODs. With funding from Metro and the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, the research team carried out a two-pronged study drawing on this wealth of data. First, we explore geographic differences within the Portland region in terms of travel behavior and attitudes of TOD residents, including differences between TODs within the city of Portland, in eastside suburbs, and in westside suburbs. Second, we conducted a second wave of surveys for select TODs to understand if travel behavior or attitudes changed over time, particularly as neighborhoods surrounding the buildings were built up. In this webinar, we will present select findings from both aspects of the study.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES...

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...