We're proud to announce that Dr. Jennifer Dill, director of TREC at Portland State University, has been awarded the 2020 Research Professional of the Year award by the Association of Bicycle and Pedestrian Professionals (APBP). Given the need for ongoing quarantine, we had to get creative with her acceptance speech - Watch the video to see the award delivered to her by TREC staffers, handed off in a multimodal relay, before Dill accepts the award on a neighborhood greenway/bike boulevard.
Dill received the 2020 APBP Research Professional of the Year award for her contributions advancing the state of practice in bicycle and pedestrian research with a high degree of professional integrity. Dr. Dill addresses important research questions related to walking and bicycling, points out limitations, and suggests lines of future research. Her teaching and advice to students at Portland State University, her leadership through the Transportation Research Board and APBP, and her insightful thoughts related to equity inspire practitioners and researchers working in bicycle and pedestrian transportation.
Watch her accept the award:
Tell us about yourself?
I come from a small town in Ghana called Adamsu but spent most of my formative years in Accra, the capital city. Living in Accra, a city where road transport has been the primary mode for several decades, I came to appreciate how a disintegrated transportation system affects a nation’s economic growth and therefore requires effective and efficient planning and design to increase productivity. This informed my decision to read civil engineering during my 4-year undergraduate study at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology. At Tech I was much involved in student groups such as CESA (Civil Engineering Students Association), where I held some...
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Last month we hosted another online student event in our new series, "Shape Your Transportation Career" with NITC Advisory Board Member Jen Duthie of the City of Austin. Our first event featured Cameron Kergaye of the Utah DOT. Students on NITC campuses get the opportunity to ask our board members about their careers, experience at university, and advice on how to succeed in the transportation industry.
Jen Duthie, PE, PhD leads the Arterial Management Division (AMD) of the City of Austin Transportation Department. AMD is responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of traffic signals and related systems, as well as managing traffic in real-time through the Mobility Management Center. Dr. Duthie is a Professional Engineer and has a doctorate in Civil Engineering. Prior to working at the City of Austin, she led a research group at The University of Texas at Austin Center for Transportation Research that specialized in building innovative models for current and forecasted traffic flow.
When you were new in your role, and felt like you...
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Short-term flooding from extreme storm events poses a serious transportation challenge in U.S. cities. This problem—which is anticipated to grow over the next century with our global climate crisis—is often hardest on vulnerable populations, including low-income and minority neighborhoods. The latest report from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), led by Courtney Crosson of University of Arizona (UA), advances national research methods for assessing flood vulnerability and prioritizing transportation improvement investments to ensure that no community is left stranded when the next flood occurs.
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- Download the final report: "'I Should Have Moved Somewhere Else': The Impacts of Gentrification on Transportation and Social Support for Black Working-Poor Families in Portland, Oregon (PDF)"
- Download the Project Brief (PDF)
The historically Black district of Albina in Portland, Oregon, due to racist real estate practices, faced multiple displacement events between 1960 and 1990 with the construction of Interstate 5 through the heart of the neighborhood as well as wholesale destruction of hundreds of homes to make room for the Memorial Coliseum and various other urban renewal projects. Gentrification in Portland saw a mass displacement of Black households from Albina, largely to East Portland, a suburban area that was unincorporated...
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- Download the Final Report "What Makes Cents? How Uber Shapes Municipal On-Street Parking Revenue" (PDF)
- Download the Project Brief (PDF)
- Watch the 2019 webinar: The Effects of Ride-hailing on Parking Demand and Revenues
- See the 2020 TRB Poster: How are Uber/Lyft Shaping Municipal On-Street Parking Revenue?
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will challenge cities in ways that are difficult to fully predict, and yet critical...
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Kayla deHoop recently completed her bachelors degree in Civil Engineering at Oregon Tech and is currently a masters student. Her graduate project will focus on the safety impacts of raising the speed limit on rural two-lane highways in Eastern Oregon. During her time at OIT, she has been actively involved in many of the engineering student clubs on campus including the American Society of Civil Engineers-Associated General Contractors (ASCE-AGC), Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and Tau Beta Pi. Kayla has also had the opportunity to hold several internships in the transportation field including working with ODOT and WSDOT as a field intern on highway reconstruction and paving jobs and Kiewit Infrastructure Engineering as a roadway design intern.
Tell us about yourself?
I grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon on a dairy farm and didn't really consider engineering until my senior year of high school. I took a personality and placement test and several times civil engineering came up as the top career for me, so that is what I pursued and I am so glad I did! At Oregon Tech I have become very involved with many student clubs including ASCE-AGC, ITE, and Tau Beta Pi, often taking on a leadership...
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The National Institute for Transportation & Communities (NITC) research consortium, led by Portland State University, has awarded $1.14 million in total funding for eleven research projects spanning five universities. This year we focused funding on disaster resilience (including transportation in the era of COVID-19) and improving mobility in marginalized and underserved communities. Several projects examine how emerging technologies can be leveraged to create safer, more sustainable transportation systems for everyone.
Understanding Connections Between Mobility, Transportation, And Quality Of Life In Refugee Communities In Tucson, Arizona ($101,839
Led by Orhon Myadar, Maia Ingram, Nicole Iroz-Elardo and Arlie Adkins of the University of Arizona
Data-Driven Optimization for E-Scooter System Design ($67,619)
Led by Jianqiang Cheng and Yao-jan Wu of the University of Arizona
Understanding the Mobility Impacts of Decentralizing Homeless Services on Mobility in Salt Lake City ($100,206)
Led by Sarah Canham and Ivis Garcia of the University of Utah
Last year, Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) released a 130 page evaluation comparing equity-oriented programs from over 70 U.S. bike share systems across the U.S. Bike share being a relative newcomer to the transportation system, the research team was not surprised to find that approaches to equity programs ranged widely. In the latest installment, funded by the Better...
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Earlier this summer we held our inaugural "Shape Your Transportation Career: Ask Me Anything" with NITC Advisory Board members. The guest speaker fields career questions from NITC transportation students about their career path and current role. Our next NITC Shape Your Transportation Career AMA, featuring Jen Duthie of the City of Austin, will be held on July 21 at 12 PM (PT).
Our first guest speaker was Cameron Kergaye, PhD, PE, PMP:
Cameron Kergaye is Director of Research & Innovation at the Utah Department of Transportation where he has nearly thirty years of project engineering experience. He was the Quality Manager for Utah’s $1.5 billion design-build project completed on time for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Cameron is a Professional Engineer in the State of Utah and a Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute. He holds a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Utah with a research focus on adaptive signal control, traffic simulation studies and transportation system...
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