A bus on the street

Five "Small Starts" Transportation Projects Receive $100,000 in NITC Funding

Dec 04, 2019
Photo by Andrei Stanescu/iStock

Our National Institute for Transportation & Communities (NITC) research program has awarded grant funding for a new series of Small Starts projects.

The latest Small Starts Grant projects, evaluated by the NITC Advisory Board and selected by NITC's Executive Committee, will explore mobility impacts of construction workzones, transportation equity and barriers for low-income travelers, and the widespread impacts of emerging technologies like e-scooters and ride hailing.

This annual NITC funding program is a unique opportunity to tackle small-scale ($20,000 or less in scope) research projects. In contrast to our larger, annual flagship program ($30–150K), Small Starts enables us to include researchers who:

  • Bring a diverse, interdisciplinary perspective

  • Offer a new voice in the field, whether they’re untenured faculty or a researcher who has not received a NITC grant before

  • Want to kick-start a larger project by first tackling an exploratory study smaller in scope

THE...

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Webinar: Assessing the Impacts of New Mobility on Cities

Nov 25, 2019

OVERVIEW

Autonomous vehicles (AVs), e-commerce and the sharing economy are rapidly changing land use and transportation in cities. City leaders and professional planners are wondering how these technologies will change how they plan and operate cities. For the past year, the University of Oregon’s Urbanism Next Center and Sustainable Year Program focused staff and students on helping the cities of Gresham and Eugene better understand the potential impacts of a wide-range of topics and  study a variety of potential responses to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities. These topics include issues related to safety, social equity, active transportation, sustainability and environmental impacts, design and management of the right-of-way, and the metropolitan footprint. In addition, the cities thought about city operations and budgeting and how they can inform decision-making, manage innovation, and consider the fiscal impacts and new mobility revenue.

During this webinar, the Urbanism Next researchers will discuss the research they conducted to help the cities navigate new mobility and emerging technologies. Researchers will discuss how cities are preparing for new mobility and autonomous vehicles in a way that supports goals around land use, active transportation, more equitable forms of travel, and greenhouse gas emissions.

KEY LEARNING TAKEAWAYS

Audience will learn:

  • The potential...
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A worker measures the distance from a bike light to the ground

Riding the Green Wave: Researchers Test "Green Light Optimized Speed" App for Bicyclists

Oct 09, 2019
Stephen Fickas and Marc Schlossberg, University of Oregon

NITC researchers Stephen Fickas and Marc Schlossberg of the University of Oregon are on a mission: bring the benefits of V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure communication) to bicycling. Earlier this year they published their proof-of-concept of a DIY vehicle-to-infrastructure "bike box" in Oregon for communicating with traffic signal controllers. In the most recent round of NITC grants awarded...

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A view of the ballroom with attendees eating lunch during the Summit keynote

Another Year, Another Summit! Prioritizing Housing, Multimodal Data, and Access to Active Mobility

Oct 09, 2019

The 11th annual Transportation and Communities Summit 2019, held at Portland State University (PSU) on September 19–20, drew attendees from 14 states across the U.S. Over 250 people joined us for the Summit day, and nearly 60 took part in the deep-dive workshop day. We hope the event offered new opportunities for collaboration and synergy between researchers, practitioners, and community members.

Peter DeFazio, the U.S. Representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district, kicked off the day with a video welcome message for the summit attendees, followed on the main stage by TREC director and urban planning faculty Jennifer Dill. 

At lunchtime Ben Wellington, the data storyteller behind the popular quantitative analysis blog...

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Webinar: Letting Bike Riders Catch the Green Wave

Oct 07, 2019

The date and time for this webinar has changed. It has been rescheduled to Thursday, Dec 12th at 11 AM. If you had already registered, you are still registered and do not need to do anything more.

OVERVIEW

The "Fast Track" project at the University of Oregon focuses on a mode of transportation that is sometimes left out of vehicle-to-infrastructure, or V2I, conversations: Bicycling. NITC researchers developed an app based on a new technology being integrated into modern cars: GLOSA, or Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory. GLOSA allows motorists to set their speed along corridors to maximize their chances of catching a "green wave" so they won't have to stop at red lights.

This project demonstrates how GLOSA can be used by bicyclists in the same way it is used by motorists, with a test site on a busy car and bike corridor feeding the University of Oregon campus: 13th Avenue in Eugene, Oregon. Researchers developed a smartphone app that tells a cyclist whether they should adjust their speed to stay in tune with the signals and catch the next green. The project demonstrates how university researchers, city traffic engineers, and signal-controller manufacturers can come together to help bicyclists be active participants in a smart transportation system.

THE RESEARCH

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Three people stand waiting for a train

Advancing Transportation Equity through Inclusive Travel Survey Data Methods

Sep 11, 2019
Photo by santypan

Amy Lubitow and Julius McGee, Portland State University;  Raoul Liévanos, University of Oregon

What is the quality of travel data for underrepresented, marginalized populations? The issues go deeper than creating slicker algorithms: In a world with...

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NITC Student Spotlight: Catherine Rohan, University of Oregon

Student Spotlight: Catherine Rohan, University of Oregon

Aug 14, 2019

Catherine Rohan, University of Oregon

Catherine Rohan is a masters student at the University of Oregon. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Texas at Austin, has worked as an environmental inspector, a ground truth surveyor, a GIS technician and a Fleet Response Specialist, and is now working toward a masters in community and regional planning. In July 2019 she studied abroad - see her blog about bicycle-focused planning in the Netherlands - and this September, Catherine will present her work on "Planning for New Mobility in Gresham, Oregon" in a poster session at the 2019 Transportation & Communities Summit in Portland, Oregon.

LinkedIn

Tell us about yourself?

I am a community and regional planning masters student at the University of Oregon. Born and raised in Houston, I came to Oregon via Austin, Texas, where I completed my undergrad in environmental science. While I love Eugene I do miss the Tex-Mex and live music in Austin (unfortunately Oregon-Mex is not a thing). In my free time I like to get outdoors, read, and hunt through vintage and thrift stores. I just finished up an amazing...

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People on e-scooters

Over $1M in Research Funding for New Projects on Micromobility, TOD’s, and Equity in Transportation Access

Jul 10, 2019

The National Institute for Transportation & Communities (NITC) research consortium, led by Portland State University, has awarded $1.035 million in total funding for ten research projects spanning five universities. This year we focused funding on micromobility, traffic, meeting the transportation needs of underserved populations and people with disabilities, and the intersection of transportation and housing.

Led by Reid Ewing of the University of Utah, Nicole Iroz-Elardo and Arlie Adkins of the University of Arizona
 
Led by Yao-Jan Wu of the University of Arizona, Xianfeng Yang of the University of Utah and Sirisha Kothuri of Portland State University
This multi-university collaboration builds upon previous research led by Yao-Jan Wu in multi-modal traffic monitoring, as well as...
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Cars parked along the curb of a street

Preparing Cities For an Automated Future: Parking, Curb Zones, and City Services

May 01, 2019
Photo by JJFarquitectos
Benjamin Clark, University of Oregon

Automobile travel is evolving fast. Transportation network companies (TNCs) like Lyft and Uber are already changing ...

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NITC Webinar featuring Anne Brown and Ben Clark of University of Oregon

Webinar: The Effects of Ride-hailing on Parking Demand and Revenues

May 01, 2019

PRESENTATION ARCHIVE

Miss the webinar or want a look back? 

OVERVIEW

For the past century, cars—and even more so, the storage of cars—have dictated urban form. With cities dedicating more space to parking than even streets and roads, parking has become baked into city land use, regulations, codes, ordinances, master plans, and even finances. So what happens when a car trip no longer ends in a parking space? Both ride-hailing (such as Uber and Lyft) and, eventually, autonomous vehicles (AVs), enable personal auto-mobility without parking. As such, these new mobility services have broad implications for parking demand and city revenues. This webinar presents findings from Seattle and the connections between ride-hailing and on-street parking demand and revenue between 2012 and 2017.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Changing patterns of ride-hail use and parking occupancy over time.
  • The association between ride-hail use and parking occupancy.
  • Implications of new transportation technologies for future parking policy.
... Read more

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