The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is coming to a close, and we wanted to take a moment to look back at some of the impacts our center has had. See below for some of the outcomes of NITC research improving the overall sustainability of our nation's transportation systems.

Applying a Mt. Mazama Volcanic Ash Treatment as a Trail Accessibility Improvement

In a stellar example of moving research into practice,  researchers at Oregon Tech paved a pilot section of trail using a NITC-developed sustainable paving method. A quarter-mile section of the Klamath Geo Trail, just east and up the hill from the Oregon Tech Klamath Falls campus, was successfully resurfaced using volcanic ash from Mount Mazama. 

Substituted for portland cement, Mazama ash can be used as a more sustainable, locally sourced pozzolan to firm up gravel roadways and trail surfaces. Building on previous work by Matthew Sleep and Damien Matzen of Oregon Tech, researchers C.J. Riley and Ashton Greer employed a Mt. Mazama volcanic ash soil amendment to improve the surface stability and firmness of the trail.

The research team conducted before-and-after tests using wheelchairs and other wheeled devices, to evaluate the firmness of the trail surface. After the treatments, the surface was significantly more firm and stable, meaning that people who use mobility devices could now enjoy improved access to the natural area.

Most pavement projects use portland cement, which takes an excessive amount of energy to create: mining minerals, transporting them, and super-heating them. Such complex chemical reactions, similar to those needed to artificially create portland cement, took place naturally when the volcano erupted. Today, orange-colored deposits of Mazama ash are plentiful throughout southern Oregon and much of the Pacific Northwest, and are already being mined for other purposes. The work done by the Oregon Tech team paves the way (no pun intended) for further development of their process and technique, which could eventually lead to natural pozzolans like Mazama ash being used more widely throughout the industry.

Research Into The Potential of E-Bikes

Under the leadership of TREC's sustainable transportation program manager, John MacArthur, NITC has developed a wealth of research around electric bicycles (e-bikes) to understand the potential for e-bikes to meet people's mobility needs, increase access to active transportation options, and address sustainability goals. Findings from this research have been used in policy discussions at the local, regional, state and federal level.

"Estimating the Effect of E-Bikes on Person Miles Travelled and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," a white paper, found that given a 15% e-bike mode share in Portland, Oregon, the city's CO2 emissions would be reduced by over 900 metric tons per day. The researchers conclude that the strategy of increasing e-bike mode share can be used confidently as a tool to help meet carbon emission reduction goals.

A second white paper, "Using E-Bike Incentive Programs to Expand the Market," recorded trends and best practices for using e-bike incentive programs to expand the market. The researchers then developed an e-bike incentive tracker which offers an overview of the existing incentive programs in the United States and Canada, a resource for governments and clean energy advocates looking to encourage people to use e-bikes for transportation.

The researchers have conducted multiple surveys of e-bike riders for insights into where, when, and why they ride, with implications for planning and policy as well as strategies for increasing the mode share. 

The team also created an online tool that enables policymakers, public stakeholders, and advocates to quickly visualize the potential outcomes of an electric vehicle incentive program made up of several vehicle types. The tool estimates the cost efficiency of a proposed program in terms of the cost per kg CO2 avoided by each mode over the course of one year. It also takes the proposed budget into consideration to calculate the potential number of incentives to be made available and the amount of total CO2 that would be avoided due to internal combustion engine automobile VMT displacement.

Deployment of Electric Buses Considering Cost and Environmental Equity

Encouraged by the urgent need for cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels, vehicle electrification has been advancing at an unprecedented pace. The transit industry is rapidly transitioning to battery-electric fleets because of the direct environmental and financial benefits they can offer. They are quieter, have lower maintenance costs, and produce significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than diesel, diesel hybrid and natural gas-powered buses, which is good news for tackling our climate crisis.

Cathy Liu of the University of Utah, with PSU's Aaron Golub and Ran Wei of UC Riverside, 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. 

The project doesn’t focus solely on climate goals and lowering costs for transit agencies: The modeling tool also allows agencies to prioritize environmental equity.

People with lower incomes tend to suffer more from health conditions caused by air pollution. It’s a result of historically inequitable planning processes, with lower-income neighborhoods often placed close to industrial land uses and freeways with high emissions. As a way of addressing this problem in tandem with environmental goals, researchers developed the tool to help transit agencies replace their current fleets with electric buses that is both cost-effective and prioritizes deployment near low-income populations that suffer most from unhealthy air quality.

This research set the foundation for transit agencies to develop optimal deployment strategies for BEB systems when multiple goals need to be considered, allowing planners and decision-makers to create a transportation ecosystem that better serves livable and sustainable communities.

"Bi-Objective Optimization for Battery Electric Bus Deployment Considering Cost and Environmental Equity," a paper published in Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Journal, highlights several subsequent requests to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)'s low or no-emission grant that have been built upon that NITC research effort.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of seven U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers. NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. This PSU-led research partnership also includes the Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Utah. We pursue our theme — improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities — through research, education and technology transfer.