With transportation models increasingly used to inform policy decisions at all levels, OTREC is pleased to offer a free educational series designed to help decision makers, transportation officials and others understand these important tools. The series was organized with OTREC’s Oregon Modeling Collaborative and presented during the weekly transportation seminars at Portland State University’s Center for Transportation Studies.

Archived video of the entire eight-week series is now available. Each seminar lasts one hour. Click here for a description of each seminar and links to the video.

While the Friday seminar series has showcased transportation issues for years, the modeling series marks the first time that eight seminars focused on a single theme. Modeling is a timely topic, as policy makers come to rely increasingly on models, whether or not they have a background in modeling.

The series demonstrates how modeling can support better decision-making and explains the tools and the process to a nontechnical audience, said Kelly Clifton, director of the Oregon Modeling Collaborative. Oregon’s discussions regarding modeling tools have helped inform the national discussion, she said.

The final seminar in the series recapped some of the earlier lessons...

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Dr. Peter Stopher, Professor of Transport Planning at the University of Sydney, was the OTREC visiting scholar at the CTS Seminar on May 18, 2007. Dr. Stopher's teaching and research is in transport policy and planning, survey methods, travel demand modeling, and environmental analysis, and he is pioneering the use of GPS devices in transport surveys. Current research has focused on using personal GPS devices to collect travel behavior data of individuals. Dr. Stopherís seminar, "Using a GPS Panel to Evaluate Travel Behavior Changes," described projects that have been conducted and are currently underway using GPS. He described survey procedures and provided an overview of early results from data collection. The seminar was followed by a luncheon with faculty, students and members of the Oregon Modeling Steering Committee (OMSC).