The NITC program’s executive committee has awarded around $1.5 million in funding for 16 research projects. The projects reflect NITC’s theme as the national university transportation center for livable communities: safe, healthy and sustainable transportation choices to foster livable communities.

This funding round included a special focus on research examining economic effects of transportation. Funded projects on this focus area looked at urban greenways, location affordability in shrinking cities, transportation affordability in developments near transit, smart-parking programs and effects of bus rapid transit on surrounding property values.

Principal investigators on funded projects represent four of the five NITC program campuses: eight projects from Portland State University, three each from the University of Utah and the University of Oregon and two from the University of South Florida. The Oregon Institute of Technology is also a NITC member campus.

Eleven projects involve collaboration between multiple researchers, with two projects involving multi-campus collaboration. 

This funding round yielded 39 proposals, requesting more than $4 million, nearly doubling the 20 proposals submitted in last year’s funding round.

Projects funded in this round:

• Understanding the economic impacts of urban greenway infrastructure, Jenny Liu, Mike Paruszkiewicz and Jeff Renfro, Portland State University
• How does transportation affordability vary between TODs, TADs, and other areas, Brenda Scheer and Reid Ewing, University of Utah
• Integrating Title VI and Equitable Investment in Transportation Alternatives into the MPO Transportation Planning Process, Kristine Williams, University of South Florida, and Aaron Golub, Lisa Bates and Liming Wang, Portland State University
• Building Planner Commitment: Are Oregon’s SB 1059 & California’s SB 375 Models for Climate-Change Mitigation? Keith Bartholomew, David Proffitt and Reid Ewing, University of Utah
• Racial Bias in Drivers' Yielding Behavior at Crosswalks: Understanding the Effect, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, Portland State University
• The economic and environmental impacts of smart-parking programs, Nicole Ngo, University of Oregon
• What do we know about Location Affordability in U.S. Shrinking Cities? Joanna Ganning, University of Utah
• Framing Livability: A Strategic Communications Approach to Improving Public Transportation in Oregon, David Remund, Kelli Matthews, Deb Morrison and Nico Larco, University of Oregon
• Effectiveness of Transportation Funding Mechanisms for Achieving National, State, and Metropolitan Economic, Health, and Other Livability Goals, Rob Zako and Rebecca Lewis, University of Oregon
• Multimodal Trip Generation, Vehicle Ownership and Use: Characterizing The Travel Patterns of Residents of Multifamily Housing, Kelly Clifton, Portland State University
• Incorporate Emerging Travel Modes in the Regional Strategic Planning Model (RSPM) Tool, Liming  Wang, Kelly Clifton and Jennifer Dill, Portland State University
• Evaluating Efforts to Improve the Equity of Bike Share Systems, Nathan McNeil, John MacArthur and Jennifer Dill, Portland State University
• Evaluation of roadway reallocation projects, Miguel Figliozzi, Portland State University
• Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on Surrounding Residential Property Values, Victoria Perk and Martin Catala, University of South Florida
• Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts with Alternate Signal Control Strategies, Sirisha Kothuri, Christopher Monsere and Krista Nordback, Portland State University and Ed Smaglik, Northern Arizona University
• Planning ahead for livable communities along the Powell-Division BRT: neighborhood conditions and change, Lisa Bates and Aaron Golub, Portland State University

Funded projects begin research August 1 and are scheduled for completion by the end of 2016.

NITC is a program of TREC at Portland State. Selected projects show strong potential to move transportation research into practice, inform other researchers, shape national conversations on transportation research and respond to the needs of practitioners and policymakers.