Enhancing Bicycle and Pedestrian Education through Curriculum and Faculty Development

Lynn Weigand, Portland State University

Summary:

This project was intended to provide relevant curriculum on bicycle and pedestrian transportation that can be used by planning and engineering faculty to integrate these topics into their course offerings. We developed a module-based curriculum for bicycle and pedestrian planning and design that is current, relevant to practice, and adaptable for use in a variety of course offerings in engineering and planning departments. We also procured 33 new publications for the Millar Library to support coursework on this topic. In addition, a proposal to pilot a faculty development workshop was funded, allowing us to provide training and resources to transportation engineering and planning faculty in 2012 with the goal of helping them integrate more pedestrian and bicycle topics into their curriculum. This project advances the quality of education and, in turn, the practice of bicycle and pedestrian planning and design by providing an up-to-date curriculum for teaching the topics that can be presented both as an entire class or modules that can be used by faculty as part of other courses. The faculty development workshop promoted interest in teaching bicycle and pedestrian topics as part of transportation planning and engineering courses. Both the pilot course and curriculum will enhance the quality of courses and expand the amount of time devoted to these topics in courses across the country. This will raise the level of student interest and knowledge in bicycle and pedestrian planning and design, and better prepare them to work in the field and meet the growing demand for professionals with expertise in this field.

Project Details

Project Type:
Education
Project Status:
Completed
End Date:
June 30,2012
UTC Grant Cycle:
OTREC 2011
UTC Funding:
$64,435
TRB RIP:
26866