Enhancing Bicycle and Pedestrian Education through Curriculum and Faculty Development

Since the passage of ISTEA in 1991, the amount of funding for and attention to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure has increased significantly (Federal Highway Administration, 2009) and communities are focusing more attention on these modes of travel. These factors have increased the need for planners and engineers to possess more skills and knowledge related to bicycle and pedestrian planning and design. However, there is a lack of relevant curriculum, faculty interest and faculty support to teach these subjects. This project intends to address these deficiencies by: - developing a module-based curriculum for bicycle and pedestrian planning and design that is…

Since the passage of ISTEA in 1991, the amount of funding for and attention to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure has increased significantly (Federal Highway Administration, 2009) and communities are focusing more attention on these modes of travel.  These factors have increased the need for planners and engineers to possess more skills and knowledge related to bicycle and pedestrian planning and design.  However, there is a lack of relevant curriculum, faculty interest and faculty support to teach these subjects.

This project intends to address these deficiencies by:
- developing 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; and
- encouraging faculty interest in teaching bicycle and pedestrian subjects, enhancing faculty knowledge on these topics and providing resources for faculty members to integrate bicycle and pedestrian topics into existing courses by offering a pilot faculty development workshop in Portland.

The PI and Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) will develop the course curriculum by reviewing existing course curricula and documents, summarizing needs and deficiencies in bicycle and pedestrian curriculum, and developing a priority list of topics and course outline.  They will develop curriculum modules for each topic that will include a powerpoint presentation, instructor notes, a relevant student activity or assignment, and a reading list.  The PI and GRA also will create student evaluation criteria and a course evaluation to supplement the departmental evaluation and provide specific feedback on each module.  The PI will teach the course with assistance from the GRA in the fall of 2010 and conduct evaluations.  Based on their experience and the results of the evaluation, the PI and GRA will revise the course outline and modules, and disseminate them. The PI and GRA also will share the identified reading list with the reference librarian for urban and public affairs at PSU’s Millar Library to identify and prioritize resources that should be acquired and work with the library to procure the top-priority items that will support student and faculty learning on bicycle and pedestrian transportation and provide reference materials for course offerings.

The PI and the GRA will developing the pilot faculty development course by first review existing documents, survey results and workshop proceedings that describe barriers to teaching bicycle and pedestrian curriculum and identified teaching support requested by faculty and prepare a summary of priority needs and common barriers to address through a faculty development workshop.  The PI will continue existing work with regional and national foundations to obtain funding to support the creation of a faculty development center and pilot the proposed workshop.  They will work with engineering and planning faculty at PSU, OSU and U of O to identify interest in leading workshop sessions, develop the agenda of the faculty development workshop and review the model curriculum and make revisions.  The PI and GRA will prepare a workshop announcement and solicit applications to participate in the workshop.  The PI and GRA will coordinate the logistics and agenda for the pilot workshop in summer 2011, and will identify faculty to assist with teaching and facilitation. They will hold the workshop and conduct an evaluation of the course both to inform future courses and to report to the funders.  In addition, they will continue to follow up with workshop participants to obtain information on how they used the course materials and recommendations for revisions both to the curriculum and the course.

This project will advance 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 will promote 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 in turn 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.