Trail Planning & Community Service Curriculum

Objective: This proposal seeks one year of funding to develop a new trail planning curriculum for a community-service based, University Capstone course at Portland State University, with Metro (regional government) as the community course partner and to conduct a regional trail research project. The goals of this project include: 1. Expanding opportunities for undergraduate students to study trail design and planning for transportation and recreational walking and bicycling; 2. Providing practical application of knowledge apply to a trail planning project through research and data collection on trail use; 3. Raising awareness of bicycle and pedestrian travel among students in disciplines…

Objective:  This proposal seeks one year of funding to develop a new trail planning curriculum for a community-service based, University Capstone course at Portland State University, with Metro (regional government) as the community course partner and to conduct a regional trail research project.  The goals of this project include:
1. Expanding opportunities for undergraduate students to study trail design and planning for transportation and recreational walking and bicycling;
2. Providing practical application of knowledge apply to a trail planning project through research and data collection on trail use;
3. Raising awareness of bicycle and pedestrian travel among students in disciplines other than planning and engineering; and
4. Fostering continuing involvement and interest in regional bicycle and pedestrian travel and trail development;
5.  Conducting research on the amount and type of use of identified regional trails to demonstrate their value in the regional transportation network.
6. Providing a model for trail planning and research curriculum.

Background: The Senior Capstone at Portland State integrates academic goals with a community-based learning experience.  Each Capstone course has a community partner (public or nonprofit agency) that is an active participant in the course development and student experience. This course builds on an existing relationship with Metro as a community partner for Capstone courses.  Metro manages a regional trail system and needs data on trail use, specifically the number of pedestrians and cyclists that use the trails for transportation and functional uses. 

Scope: The proposed course content will focus on trail planning and design to encourage bicycle and pedestrian travel within the region with the Metro Greenspaces program as the community partner.  The project will include curriculum development, teaching, evaluation and curriculum revision.  The course will include a significant field project in which the students work with Metro staff to collect trail use data, including use counts and intercept surveys to determine the amount, type and motivation for trail use. 

Student Learning Objectives
- learn principles of transportation planning for bicycles and pedestrians;
- understand trail design and integration into the transportation system;
- learn and apply basic data collection methods; and
- apply course materials and research methods to collect data on trail use, analyze data and write a research report for the community partner (Metro).

Methods: The PI (Lynn Weigand, Ph.D., adjunct faculty member) will work with a graduate research assistant (GRA) and Metro staff to develop the course.  This will involve refining the course learning objectives; developing a course outline; researching and selecting resource and reading materials; creating course assignments and developing a field data collection project; and developing student evaluation methods and criteria.  They will work with Dr. Dill (co-PI) to design the research component, develop data collection methods and oversee data analysis. The course is scheduled for spring term, 2009 and will be taught by the PI and Metro staff members, assisted by the GRA.  The PI will collaborate with Metro staff in course development, share teaching responsibilities with the staff, manage the student research project, conduct the course evaluation, and revise the curriculum.

Results: This project will provide curriculum for a trail planning and research Capstone course at Portland State and will provide a model for trail planning and design course for undergraduate and graduate studies in planning and engineering programs at Portland State University, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. The student project will give Metro data on trail use that will aid the development of the regional trail system and more fully integrate trails with other routes and modes of travel.  The resulting curriculum and project work will be disseminated through the IBPI and Metro websites.  In addition, the curriculum will be distributed to faculty at partner institutions within Oregon, and also to transportation faculty in planning and engineering schools nationwide.