News Tagged: Walking
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U.S. DOT assistant secretary tours Portland
Bicycle and pedestrian safety has emerged as a top priority for U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and the Department of Transportation. With this in mind, the department’s top research official visited Portland State University, home to the U.S. DOT-designated national center for livable communities.
Greg Winfree, the assistant secretary for research and technology, visited Portland State’s transportation research and education center June 13. Center Director Jennifer Dill and researcher Christopher Monsere gave Winfree a tour of the center’s living laboratory: Portland’s active transportation infrastructure.
Winfree, an advocate for improving safety for vulnerable road users, explored the city’s various bicycle safety efforts, including bike boulevards, protected bike lanes, bike boxes, bike-specific signals and signage. He also learned of pedestrian research involving traffic signals, crossings and modeling.
The tour highlighted research projects funded through U.S. DOT’s University Transportation Centers program, including “Lessons from the Green Lane,” “Evaluation of Bike Boxes at Signalized Intersections,” and “Improved Pedestrian Safety at Signalized Intersections Operating the Flashing Yellow Arrow.”
Tags: bike boulevards, bike boxes, e-bikes, greg winfree, office of the assistant secretary for research and technology, pedestrian signals, protected bike lanes, south waterfront, walking
Study examines racial bias at crosswalks
In a pilot study funded by the NITC Small Starts program, researchers explored whether drivers behave differently toward pedestrians waiting to use a crosswalk based on the pedestrian’s race. The study – the first examining the effects of race on pedestrian crossing experiences – found that black pedestrians were passed by twice as many cars and waited nearly a third longer to cross than white pedestrians.
Minorities are disproportionately represented among pedestrian fatalities in the United States. The Center for Disease Control reported in 2013 that in the first decade of this century, the fatality rates for black and Hispanic men were twice as high as they were for white men.
Researchers Kimberly Barsamian Kahn and Tara Goddard of Portland State University, and Arlie Adkins, of the University of Arizona, hypothesized that if minority pedestrians experience more delay at crosswalks, they might take greater risks when crossing – risks that could contribute to the disparate fatality rates.
Tags: active transportation, livability, nitc, portland state university, research, social equity, walking
New modeling tools better represent the pedestrian environment
Tags: active transportation, kelly clifton, livability, metro, otrec, portland state university, transportation modeling, walking
Video: OTREC researcher details bike-ped data collection methods
OTREC researcher Miguel Figliozzi details some of the work on an Oregon Department of Transportation project, "Design and Implementation of Pedestrian and Bicycle Specific Data Collection Methods in Oregon," in this video produced by the Federal Highway Administration.
The project reviewed collection methods such as tube counters and loop detectors for accuracy and looked at using count numbers to deterimine average annual pedestrian and bicycle traffic at intersections.
Figliozzi was lead researcher on the project, with Christopher Monsere. Both are associate professors of civil and environmental engineering at Portland State University.
OTREC's Krista Nordback was also involved in the project, as were graduate students Pamela Johnson and Bryan Blanc. More information on the project is at:
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TP_RES/pages/activeprojects.aspx#SPR_754
Tags: bicycle counting, bicycling, count programs, counting, pedestrian counting, walking
IBPI unveils 2014 professional development courses
The Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation has unveiled the most ambitious year of professional development offerings in its history.
For the first time, the schedule includes Webinars, with the first taking place Feb. 27. Offerings also include courses and workshops geared toward practitioners and university faculty members. There’s also a two-week study abroad opportunity to learn about sustainable transportation in the Netherlands.
The course offerings include a newly added advanced bicycle design and engineering workshop. The workshop is geared toward professionals who have taken the original IBPI course or who serve communities with a developed bicycle network.
“More than 120 professionals have taken the course since 2008,” said Hau Hagedorn, who manages the IBPI program. “We’ve reached the threshold of educating professionals where there’s the need to take this to the next level of expertise.”
Continuing education credits are available for each workshop and Webinar. Click here for details on the individual course pages.
Registration is now open for IBPI’s inaugural Webinar on Feb. 27: “We are Traffic: Creating Robust Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Programs.” As agencies looking to improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure have learned, it doesn’t count if it’s not counted. This Webinar explains how to create a robust count program based on new Federal Highway Administration guidance.
Register for this Webinar here:
http://www.pdx.edu/ibpi/we-are-traffic-creating-robust-bicycle-and-pedestrian-count-programs
Tags: bicycle design, bicycling, count programs, hau hagedorn, ibpi, professional development, walking
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