Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2-2010

Subjects

Bicycle commuting, Traffic safety, Pedestrian facilities design, Transportation -- Planning -- Curriculum

Abstract

This project broadened course offerings on bicycle and pedestrian transportation by redesigning and expanding an existing, three credit undergraduate/graduate course into a five-credit course that includes an applied lab component. The course was open to graduate and undergraduate students in planning and engineering programs. The PI (Lynn Weigand, Ph.D., adjunct faculty) and Mia Birk, adjunct faculty course instructor, developed the course with the following learning objectives:

  • learn principles of bicycle and pedestrian facility design;
  • understand integration of bicycle and pedestrian facilities within the right-of-way;
  • understand basic transportation research and data collection methods; and
  • apply course content through project work.

The lecture course was taught by the PI and the lab was taught by adjunct faculty member Mia Birk. The new course was developed and taught as a project-based course that focused on improving bicycle and pedestrian connects to the Portland State University campus. Students worked in teams to develop a problem statement, identify project stakeholders, recommend a public involvement process, develop evaluation criteria and alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives and select a preferred alternative, and create a package of recommendations in the form of a grant application, including cost estimates and implementation strategies.

The course received excellent reviews from the students, who felt it was useful to apply the principles of bicycle and pedestrian design and planning to a real project environment. The resulting curriculum expands the course content on bicycle and pedestrian travel, includes more academic literature and research, and provides the opportunity for students to participate in project-based learning. It provides a model for future course expansion on related transportation planning and policy topics. In addition, the curriculum can be shared and adapted for use in the planning and landscape architecture departments at the University of Oregon and the engineering department at Oregon State University.

Description

This is a final report, OTREC-ED-10-01, from the NITC program of TREC at Portland State University, and can be found online at http://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/279

The project brief can be viewed online at: http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/16730

DOI

10.15760/trec.11

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/16729

Download

Share

COinS