About | National Institute for Transportation and Communities

National Institute for Transportation and Communities

Improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities — through research, education and technology transfer.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of five U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers.

Housed at Portland State University, NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC). This Portland State-led research partnership includes the University of Oregon, Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Utah and new partners University of Arizona and University of Texas at Arlington.

Urban populations are increasing, yet so is income inequality. As the second-largest household expense, transportation is a significant contributing factor. Demographic shifts, along with efforts to address climate change and other policy challenges, are contributing to the demand for multimodal solutions. Rapid advances in technology and shared mobility have the potential to address these challenges, yet they also pose new ones in implementation and equity. With constrained resources, we need better data and tools to optimize mobility for all.

To address these challenges, our consortium of six leading universities focuses on research to:

INCREASE ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES

IMPROVE MULTI-MODAL PLANNING & SHARED USE OF INFRASTRUCTURE

ADVANCE INNOVATION & SMART CITIES

DEVELOP DATA, MODELS & TOOLS

Our research is designed with end-users in mind: elected and appointed decision-makers, transportation professionals, and an engaged public. We disseminate our research through education programs and toolkits in order to produce a diverse, interdisciplinary workforce at all levels and ages.

Our shared goal is a safe and efficient multimodal system that promotes economic opportunities, improves health, and reduces inequality - through innovative technology and effective, data-driven decision making.

The Origin of NITC
Portland State University, the University of Oregon, and the Oregon Institute of Technology jointly formed OTREC in 2005 - one of the first national university transportation centers to be designated and funded by the U.S. DOT. The partnership outgrew Oregon’s borders to welcome the University of Utah in 2012, adopting the NITC name, and again in 2013 with the addition of the University of South Florida. The NITC program continued its national expansion through the University of Arizona and the University of Texas at Arlington and in late 2016 successfully competed for five years of funding as one of five national centers in the U.S.

Our Team at Portland State University

TREC STAFF

Jennifer Dill, Ph.D.
Director
Professor, Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning
503-725-5173 | jdill@pdx.edu
https://jenniferdill.net/
Twitter | TREC Researcher Profile

Director of TREC and the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Jennifer is also a professor of urban studies and planning. She is an internationally cited researcher on sustainable transportation. Among her research projects are Lessons from the Green Lanes: Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S., Understanding Types of Cyclists Nationally, Pedestrian Observation and Data Collection Curriculum and more. See her researcher profile here.

Hau Hagedorn
Associate Director
503-725-2833 | hagedorn@pdx.edu
Twitter | TREC Researcher Profile

Hau is the Associate Director of TREC at Portland State University and is responsible for the day-to-day management, operations and provides overall direction for the TREC's peer-reviewed research and technology transfer programs, and shaping workforce development efforts. She actively participates in national efforts on conducting and implementing research. She also oversees programming and delivery of professional development workshops through the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI). She is co-Chair of the TRB Conduct of Research Committee, and member of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (OBPAC) and Region 1 Area Commission on Transportation (R1ACT). Hau has over 20 years of public and private sector experience in transportation. In her spare time, she runs to escape juggling the busy lives of three active kids.

Anna Archer

Transaction Specialist

503-725-5954 | alnelson@pdx.edu

Anna is a Transaction Specialist who supports the Departmental Research Administrator by coordinating new hires, travel, contracts, and student support for grant funded activities at TREC. She is a Portland State graduate, with a bachelor's in Business Administration, focusing in HR Management. She recently moved back to Portland after teaching abroad in South Korea and China.

Lacey Friedly
Communications Coordinator
503-725-8545 | rlacey@pdx.edu

Lacey is the communications coordinator for TREC. She connects with researchers, writes articles, and documents (through pictures, videos, and model towns) the value of the transportation research being done at TREC and through the NITC program. Before TREC, Lacey was the acquisitions editor for Dark Discoveries magazine. She also managed the editing department at Ooligan Press, Portland State University's student-run publishing house. She graduated from PSU in 2013 with a master's in book publishing. In her spare time Lacey enjoys swimming, reading, and making stop-motion animation videos. she/her/hers

Tammy Lee, Ph.D.
Transportation Data Program Administrator
503-725-2884 | leetam@pdx.edu

Tammy is working on a variety of projects for TREC, including documentation, data synthesis, analysis, and visualization supporting ongoing work with PORTAL and Bike-Ped Portal. Tammy received a BS in Genetics & Plant Biology from UC Berkeley before earning a PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences from WSU. Prior to joining TREC she worked as a data scientist for a political digital media consulting firm. When not working she's either hiding in the forest or experimenting in the kitchen.

John MacArthur
Sustainable Transportation Program Manager
503-725-2866 | jhmacart@pdx.edu
Twitter | TREC Researcher Profile

Mr. MacArthur currently manages a complex Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant to Develop and Test an Emergency Transportation Recovery Plan for the Portland, Oregon Region. This project requires close coordination and collaboration with a variety of public agency partners including city of Portland emergency management and transportation bureaus in addition to transit and other agencies critical to the region’s emergency transportation recovery efforts. In addition, this project is creating national training program that will be tested in six cities in early 2018. MacArthur is the Principal Investigator for TREC's electric bicycle research initiatives. His research also includes low-/no-emission vehicle infrastructure in Portland metro, as well as a climate change impact assessment for surface transportation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Before joining the TREC staff, John was the Context Sensitive and Sustainable Solutions Program Manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program.

Cait McCusker
Communications Director

503-725-2843 | cmccusker@pdx.edu

Cait joined the TREC team in fall 2017 with an extensive background in event planning and strategic communications for green building policy and design. An avid biker and long-time volunteer with pedestrian advocacy group Oregon Walks, she is excited to tackle the dissemination of the center's progressive portfolio of transportation research on mobility. Storytelling is a critical piece to moving research from the theoretical realm to practical application, and Portland is the perfect landscape for this. Off-hours she spends her time with Tomato the Dog, tending to her 82 house plants, or advocating for more equitable infrastructure in Portland.

Theresa Somrak

Office and Events Admininstrator

503-725-2896 | tsomrak@pdx.edu

Theresa is the Office and Events Coordinator for TREC. She supports the day-to-day operations of the office, purchasing and finance tasks, hosting visiting scholars, and event planning for TREC events such as the Friday Transportation Seminars. Though Theresa comes to TREC from PSU's Electrical and Computer Engineering department, she has also worked as a beer and Portland history tour guide, the Operations Director at the Democratic Party of Oregon, and an AmeriCorps volunteer at a social service nonprofit. Theresa has a bachelors in Cultural Anthropology and is currently taking graduate classes in Rehabilitation Counseling at PSU. Outside of work and school, she enjoys playing fetch with her cat, volunteering and handbuilding ceramics at a community studio, cooking, and bicycling.

Brendan Williams

Research and Grants Program Administrator

503-725-2863 | brendan.williams@pdx.edu

Brendan is responsible for TREC’s day-to-day research project management and metrics tracking from inception to close-out. Also, he administers the competitive, peer-reviewed, project selection process including the annual Request for Proposal, Pooled Fund, small starts, and dissertation fellowships. Prior to this, he provided financial management and project coordination for Oregon State University’s Precollege Programs. Brendan enjoys playing soccer, going on long bike rides, traveling to other countries, or, most often, making pizza.

GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS (2019-20)

Matthew Cramer

Advisor: John MacArthur

Matthew is a second year master's student in Urban & Regional Planning. He is working with John MacArther and Dr. Aaron Golub to research the impact automated fare payments may have on vulnerable community members as transit agencies modernize their fare payment systems.

Minju Kim

Advisor: John MacArthur

Minju Kim is a second-year PhD student in Urban Studies from the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning with a specialization in transportation and gerontology, and candidates graduate certificate program in the Institute of Aging. She received a Master's degree in Transportation Studies from Seoul National University and studied in Urban Planning for Bachelor from Chung-Ang University from South Korea. Her current research interest focuses on transportation for older people, and she would like to research the differences in preference and trends of older adults. She is working on a TREC project about the impacts of shared E-scooter operations during the 2019-2020 Portland Pilot Program with John MacArthur and Jennifer Dill. In order to improve the accessibility and sustainability of micromobility systems to the citizens of Portland, this research focuses on the impacts of scooter operations on VMT, including scooter deployment, rebalancing, and charging.

Kyuri Kim

Advisor: Jennifer Dill

Kyu Ri is a second-year Ph.D. student in urban planning at the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning.. She is supporting TREC (Jennifer Dill and Hau Hagedorn) in transportation data analysis and visualization (including BikePed Portal and OHSU Census data) and other transportation research.

Michael McQueen

Advisor: John MacArthur

Mike McQueen is a second year master's student working with John MacArthur of TREC and Kelly Clifton of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Currently Mike is researching e-bike travel behavior and micromobility as an Eisenhower Fellow. In the past he has studied e-bike purchase incentive programs, potential positive environmental impact of e-bikes in Portland, BIKETOWN, and the demographics of zero car households.

Max Nonnamaker

Advisor: Jennifer Dill

Max is a first year master's student in Urban & Regional Planning and Public Health. Coming from Milwaukee, WI, most of Max's previous work has been in the public health and social sectors with a focus on advocacy and community engagement. Max graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2014 with a BS in Kinesiology and a certificate in African Studies and shortly after began working as a Community Health Advisor with the Peace Corps in Madagascar from 2015 - 2017. At TREC, Max is working with Dr. Jennifer Dill and Metro/ODOT on the Region Mobility Policy Update by conducting background research on existing and new mobility measures and approaches to be recommended for implementation in the next Regional Transportation Plan update.

Nicholas Puczkowskyj

Advisor: John MacArthur

Nick Puczkowskyj is an Urban Studies PhD student at the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning. He is currently working with Prof. Dill and John MacArthur to examine the impacts of e-scooter operations on VMTs in Portland, OR. His dissertation research seeks to challenge the binary approaches to transportation research by using feminist, queer, and travel behavior theory to address the noticeable gap of transgender/genderqueer data and research in the transportation field. Nick hopes to use this research to expand and redefine inclusive transportation policy and practices. Nick's other research interests include: mobility justice, active transportation, micromobility, and transit.

Aman Singh Solanki

Advisor: Hau Hagedorn

Aman is a versatile, results-driven software engineer who loves to solve real-world problems by writing software. When he is not doing that, he loves to be outdoors and hang out with friends and try new food carts. He works as a research assistant with TREC and is currently associated with the BikePed Portal project. He created a filter application to help users easily view all the transportation research work in one place. He is also helping to design UI for some awesome applications being made here at TREC. To learn more, check out his portfolio.

Nora Stoelting

Advisor: Hau Hagedorn

Nora is pursuing a dual master's in Leadership for Sustainability Education and Urban and Regional Planning. She is excited about the ways these two programs intersect in building a more dynamic, connected, and sustainable world. Though she loves exploring outdoor recreation in the great state of Oregon, she is originally from the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, NY. Nora's background is in garden education and environmental advocacy, and most recently worked in waste minimization with airport businesses at PDX. Nora is thrilled to join TREC to work on education programming through integrating tactical urbanism projects into PSU classes and designing TREC's free summer camp for high school students. She feels strongly in the power of collaborative, holistic, experiential teaching and learning to transform ourselves and the world. Outside of school and work, Nora likes to search for new trail races to run, plan outdoor adventures, answer people's questions about recycling, and go for long walks while listening to podcasts.

PARTNERSHIPS

University Partner Logos - NITC Email - Medium.png

University Research Partners

The NITC program is a Portland State-led partnership with the University of Oregon, Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Utah and new partners University of Arizona and University of Texas at Arlington. Our university partners conduct research projects around our theme, and match money to each project.

Project Cosponsors

Dozens of partners, including universities, utilities, governments, businessess, and nonprofit organizations have supported NITC projects with cash matches or in-kind assistance.

CUTC

The NITC program is a member of the Council of University Transportation Centers. CUTC provides a forum for universities and centers to interact with government and industry.

Executive Committee

Arlie Adkins, PhD

Assistant Professor

School of Landscape Architecture and Planning

University of Arizona

Email | Website | NITC Researcher Profile

Keith Bartholomew, JD

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

College of Architecture + Planning

University of Utah

Email | Website | NITC Researcher Profile

Roger Lindgren, PE, P.Eng, PhD

Professor & Graduate Program Director

Civil Engineering Department

Oregon Institute of Technology

Email | Website | NITC Researcher Profile

Stephen P. Mattingly, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Civil Engineering

University of Texas at Arlington

Email | Website | NITC Researcher Profile

Marc Schlossberg, PhD

Co-Director, Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI)

Professor, Planning, Public Policy & Management (PPPM)

University of Oregon

Email | Website | NITC Researcher Profile

Avinash Unnikrishnan, PhD

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science

Portland State University

Email | Website | NITC Researcher Profile

NITC Advisory Board

The NITC advisory board comprises transportation professionals from various regions and organizations throughout the United States whose role is to lend guidance in NITC's research, education and technology transfer programs.

Diana Alarcon, Director of Transportation, City of Tucson

Michael Baltes, Federal Transit Administration

Michael Bufalino, Research Section Manager, Oregon Department of Transportation

Wendy Cawley, Safety Engineer, City of Portland Bureau of Transportation

Jen Duthie, Division Manager, Arterial Management, City of Austin

Kate Fillin-Yeh, Director of Strategy, National Association of City Transportation Officials

Toshi Forrest, Program Manager, Moovel

Susan Handy, Director, National Center for Sustainable Transportation

Cameron Kergaye, Director, Planning, Utah Department of Transportation

Bill Keyrouze, Technical Programs Director, Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations

Ted Knowlton, Sustainability Director, Wasatch Front MPO

Brian Lagerberg, Director, Public Transportation Division, Washington State Department of Transportation

Alan Lehto, Director of Planning & Policy, TriMet

Ivan Marrero, Division Administrator, FHWA-Utah Division

Hugh Morris, National Association of Realtors

Gabe Rousseau, Safety Operations Team Leader, Federal Highway Administration

Brian Saelens, Principal Investigator, Seattle Children's Hospital

Tom Schwetz, Planning & Development Director, Lane Transit District

David Straus, Executive Director, Association for Commuter Transportation

Leah Riley, Managing Director, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates

Yinhai Wang, Director, PacTrans

Wayne Kittelson, Senior Principal Engineer, Kittelson & Associates, Inc.

PROGRAM PROGRESS PERFORMANCE REPORTS

Written for our U.S. DOT grant reporting, our semi-annual Program Progress Performance Reports (PPPR) share the activities and impacts of the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) research consortium. We also maintain the annual reports from our predecessor grant OTREC.

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