Every day transit riders ask the same question: when’s the next one coming? To answer this question, transit agencies are transitioning to providing real-time transit information through smartphones or displayed at transit stops.
Real-time transit information improves the reliability and efficiency of passenger travel, through:
- shorter perceived and actual wait times,
- an increased feeling of safety,
- increased ridership, and
- a lower learning...
livability
noun liv·abil·i·ty \ ˌli-və-ˈbi-lə-tē \
"Livability" is a broadly used term encompassing all the factors that add up to a community’s quality of life. It’s a key goal in many land use and transportation plans, but it's not always clear how to reach that goal. What makes people feel that their neighborhoods are livable?
Researchers Rebecca Lewis and Robert Parker of the University of Oregon surveyed over three thousand...
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The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is proud to announce our two Spring 2018 Dissertation Fellows. Hear from the fellows about their projects below, or learn how to apply for funding through the NITC Dissertation Fellowship Grant here. Proposals for Summer 2018 Dissertation Fellowships are due June 1, 2018.
Vivian Miller, University of Texas at Arlington
In November 2018, Vivian Miller published Investigating Barriers to Family Visitation of Nursing Home Residents: A Systematic Review, a paper based on her NITC-funded dissertation, in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work.
Vivian Miller is a third-year doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her primary research interests are in...
If more drivers switched seats to a bicycle, there would be immediate and tangible benefits on the road. Widespread adoption of bike commuting could improve public health through increased physical activity and reduced carbon emissions, as well as ease the burden on congested roads. However different lifestyle demands, physical ableness, and varied topography create an unequal playing field that prevents many from replacing their car trips.
Electric bicycles (e-bikes) are a relatively new mode of transportation that could bridge this gap. If substituted for car use, e-bikes could substantially improve efficiency in the transportation system while creating a more inclusive biking culture for people of all ages and abilities.
A newly published NITC study by John MacArthur of...
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The most expensive and critical links in our transportation network are its bridges. Historical and contemporary bridge failures have highlighted our reliance on these structures. While the nation’s bridge management system is robust and well administered, the tools needed to evaluate individual bridges to determine their condition—whether for asset management or in response to a significant loading event such as the imminent Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake in the Pacific Northwest— are currently highly specialized.
NITC researcher C.J. Riley, a civil engineering professor at the Oregon Institute of Technology, has developed a cost-effective, accurate, and easily deployed evaluation tool using widely available mobile technology (specifically iPods) to measure the dynamic structural response of a bridge subjected to harmonic forcing.
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Vehicle operating dynamics data have a fundamental impact on the design of roadways, but collecting this type of data is not part of your typical college curriculum.
Instead, engineering students are handed a textbook, leaving them without a firsthand experience of how accelerations and decelerations “feel” to the driver, the ultimate consumer of their designs.
Seeking to change this norm, Roger Lindgren and C.J. Riley, civil engineering professors at the Oregon Institute of Technology, undertook a...
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A newly published NITC education project offers tools for teaching collaborative regional planning in communities close to national parks and other natural attractions.
Referred to as Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) communities, these unique places have their own set of challenges and opportunities. They are often located near small towns or rural areas with limited transportation networks, but due to the periodic influx of visitors, can experience “big city problems” like congestion and sprawl.
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Maria Sipin, Graduate Assistant, Portland State University
Maria Sipin is a Portland State University grad student in Urban Planning and Public Health, and an IBPI Active Transportation Scholar. Watch Maria's video, "Communicating Intersections," on the power that transportation planners have to affect positive, equitable change in our daily lives. Or, read the 2018 final report she co-authored "Elevating People: Planning for Equitable Travel to Marquam Hill" - a report on OHSU’s vision for diversity and inclusion and their goals to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips and promote the increased use of sustainable multimodal transportation.
IBPI 2017 - 2018 Scholar| LinkedIn | PSU Institute for Sustainable Solutions Staff Member
Tell us about yourself:
I started grad school in fall 2016, just a week after moving to Portland from Los...
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To help maximize the implementation of U.S. DOT’s commitment to livable communities, the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) has launched its third round of pooled fund research funding in 2018. Agency partners are invited to submit problem statements by May 15, 2018.
The pooled fund program offers a process by which cities, counties, MPOs and other regional or local agencies can pool relatively small pots of research dollars to then leverage NITC matched funds for a single, collaborative project.
We held an online information session on February 28, 2018. Watch the video to learn more about the funding process, identifying partners, and crafting an effective problem statement:
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Principal Investigator: Rob Zako, University of Oregon
Project Overview: Effectiveness of Transportation Funding Mechanisms for Achieving National, State, and Metropolitan Economic, Health, and Other Livability Goals
Learn more about this research by viewing the two-page Project Brief; download the toolkit co-published with T4A, related presentations and the full Final Report on the Project Overview page. Hear firsthand from the PI by watching the post-webinar recording here.
FEBRUARY 2018 UPDATE
The full final report on this project is now published. The final report offers a comprehensive look at six case study states' strategies to ensure they are delivering value to taxpayers in a transparent process.
SEPTEMBER 2017
What do Americans get in return for their transportation investments? It’s a simple enough question on the surface, but digging for an answer yields a gnarled knot of...
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