Framing Transportation Planning Pedagogy for Sustainability Generalists

Authors

Beth Sweeney, University of Oregon
Ann Scheerer, University of Oregon
Vicki Elmer, University of Oregon

Sponsor

This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, or NITC, a program of TREC at Portland State University.

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

1-2014

Subjects

Transportation -- Planning -- Study and teaching, University of Oregon -- Curricula, Sustainability

Abstract

This paper describes a pilot graduate sustainable transportation course developed at the University of Oregon to provide hands-on project experience for students studying sustainability. New approaches to sustainability and transportation pedagogies will provide a galvanizing force for tomorrow’s graduates, who must respond to concerns about climate change and the environment, social equity, and an uncertain economy. They will require an aptitude for both technical skills and collaborative leadership and communication skills. The course was guided by a framework founded in five themes from the literature on sustainability education and transportation planning and engineering education: leading with sustainability’s cornerstones of people, prosperity and planet, sponsoring a systems thinking approach to analyze transportation issues and potential solutions, incorporating knowledge from interdisciplinary resources, promoting “softer” skills including communication and leadership, and emphasizing applied learning. The themes aim to overcome institutional barriers and to better prepare students for the rapidly evolving challenges they will encounter in the sustainability and transportation fields. Although the purpose of the project was to develop a framework and institutionalize a sustainable transportation class at the graduate level, the student projects had unforeseen impacts upon the community in furthering innovative technologies and policies. Ultimately, the class was featured in the local progressive weekly newspaper as starting a "sustainable transit revolution.” This paper documents the process, the projects, and puts the experience in the context of literature on the framework themes and sustainability and transportation education.

Description

This is a final report, OTREC-ED-556, from the NITC program of TREC at Portland State University, and can be found online at: http://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/556

The final report was delivered at the 2014 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.

Several additional reports, presentations and syllabi are included in the links below.

DOI

10.15760/trec.49

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/16817

Recommended Citation

Elmer, Vicki, Beth Sweeney, and Ann Scheerer. Framing Transportation Planning Pedagogy for Sustainability Generalists. OTREC-ED-556. Portland, OR: Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), 2014. https://doi.org/10.15760/trec.49