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.
Research Highlights
Understanding the Impact of Decentralizing Homeless Services on Transportation and Mobility in Salt Lake County
Sarah Canham Ivis Garcia , Jeff Rose , Shannon Jones
How can relocating services away from a downtown center change the transportation decisions and patterns for persons experiencing homelessness? And how do those changes affect access to the services they need? New research from the University of Utah (UU) examines the impacts of decentralizing homeless service locations through a case study in Salt Lake County, Utah.
Prior to 2019, resources for people experiencing homelessness in the county were concentrated in a single location: The Road…
Read More
Bi-objective Optimization for Battery Electric Bus Deployment Considering Cost and Environmental Equity
Xiaoyue Cathy Liu Aaron Golub , Ran Wei
Led by Xiaoyue Cathy Liu of the University of Utah, researchers have created a web-based modeling tool that enables U.S. transit providers to explore the impacts of changing over their systems to battery electric buses, or BEBs. The researchers ran the model for TriMet in Portland, OR, as well, with TriMet results and analysis presented in the final report.
“The interactive visualization platform lets users explore various electric bus deployment budget scenarios, so that transit agencies…
Read More

