UTC Best Practices
Robert L. Bertini, Ph.D., P.E.
Director, Oregon Transportation Research and Education
Consortium (OTREC)
June 30, 2009
UTC Best Practices
• What is your unusual partnership, and what makes it work so well?
• How does OTREC relate to Secretary LaHood’s priorities: safety,
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economic recovery, sustainability and livability
Why is the UTC grant important to our work?
What risks have we taken in pursuing this partnership/priority area
How do we define success?
We Are a Partnership
Portland State University, in partnership with the University of
Oregon, Oregon State University, and the Oregon Institute of
Technology
Collaboration Woven
Through Everything We Do
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Project selection criteria
High level (vice president) advocacy for inter-institutional
collaboration
Model for other statewide research centers
Associate director at each campus
OTREC by the Numbers 2009
Number of months since Strategic Plan approved: 32
Number of proposals received: 237
Total projects funded: 107
Number of multi-campus projects: 25
Number of multi-PI projects: 62
Number of research projects partnered with ODOT: 37
Number of faculty principal investigators: 82
Number of external sponsors participating in OTREC: 34
Number of disciplines participating in OTREC: 19
Number of graduate students involved in projects (estimate): 82
Number of undergraduate students involved in projects (estimate): 38
Theme
Advanced
Technology
Integration of
Transportation
and Land Use
Healthy
Communities
Sustainable Transportation Solutions
Research • Education • Technology Transfer
Consistent with Safety • Economic Recovery • Sustainability
• Livability
Collaborations
100 faculty ▪ 4 campuses ▪ Multidisciplinary (27) ▪
Multimodal ▪ VP Level Oversight ▪ Selection Criteria
planning, public policy and management
forest engineering
electrical engineering
geomatics
business administration
civil and environmental engineering
landscape architecture
geography
sociology
science
education
Sustainability Partnership
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09.08
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12.08
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01.09
06.09
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10.09
PSU receives $25 million grant from James F. and
Marion L. Miller Foundation for sustainability
capacity-building
OTREC receives Miller Grant to fund
Sustainable Transportation Program Manager
OTREC welcomes John MacArthur, STPM
Projects jointly funded with Miller Foundation:
2010-345: Development of a Model to Predict and
Mitigate Environmental and Public Health Impacts
of Traffic Flows and Traffic Management Policies in
Urban Transportation Microenvironments
2010-347: A Comprehensive Roadmap for the
Development of Low/No Emission Vehicle
Infrastructure in the Portland Metro Region
Partnership with ODOT, City of Portland and PGE
Region X Transportation
Consortium
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Four UTCs (Alaska UTC, NIATT, OTREC, &
TransNow)
Four DOTs (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, &
Washington), WSDOT Lead
Pooled-fund formed by DOTs in Region X
Oversee collaborative RFP of regional
significance and impact
Selected two topics of interest for 2009
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Climate Change Impact Assessment for Surface
Transportation in the Pacific Northwest and
Alaska
Low ADT Highway Storm Water Quality Data
Multidisciplinary/Multistate OTREC/AUTC team
selected for Climate Change project
UTC funds allocated through OTREC/AUTC
processes
Region X Transportation
Consortium
Regional Student of
the Year Award 2009
Annual Student Conferences Since 2002
Transportation
Education
Conference
and Teaching
Workshop
2009
Regular Meetings
OTREC/Rahall Institute Project
Application of WIM Data for Improved Modeling, Design, and Rating
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Collaboration between UTCs
• Monsere (PSU, OTREC) – Data Archive
• Nichols (Marshall, Rahall Institute) – WIM
Data Systems
• Higgins (OSU, OTREC) – Bridge health
Unique
• Leveraging existing ODOT data
• Comprehensive (42+ million
observations)
Uses of the archive
• Automatically monitor sensor health and
calibration
• Develop more efficient pavement and
bridge designs
• Extract freight system performance and
planning data
Sustainable Cities Initiative
sci.uoregon.edu
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Focus
– Re-design cities and communities for people
– Applied research with community impact
– Intersection of green buildings/green communities/green policies
Involved Disciplines
• City Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Public Policy
• Applied Research, Service Learning, Technology Transfer
National Issues
– Global climate change
– Automobile & oil dependency and associated costs
– Congestion problems
– Obesity epidemic and healthy communities
OTREC was the catalyst for this integration and helped create
the foundation for future work and opportunities.
Initiative for Bicycle & Pedestrian Innovation
Evaluation of Bike Boxes at Signalized Intersections
• Partnership with City of Portland
• Important aspect of FHWA
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approval of experiment (MUTCD)
Mitigate “right hook” collisions
Colored pavement markings
Video surveillance before and
after plus user survey
Anticipated Results:
• How does it work?
• When and where to apply?
• Does color matter?
• Improvements in application
Assist agency with quantitative
analysis
Community School Traffic
Safety Partnership
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Partnership with City of Portland
Funds portion of one faculty position and
two graduate students
Focus safety resources to reduce driver
errors, improve pedestrian and bicycle
safety, and enhance safer bicycling and
walking routes to school
Financed by an incremental increase in
traffic citation fines
PSU ITS Lab serving as technical
advisors, developing strategic action
plan, developing and recommending
performance measures
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
UTC Grant & Risks
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Why UTC grant is important to our work
• Research in OTREC’s theme all pillars of sustainable transportation
• OTREC’s thematic program areas are underfunded areas of research
• Focuses on aspects of transportation that is emerging to be very important and
redefining transportation from predominately car-based mobility to more climatefriendly options and approaches
What risks have we taken in pursuing this partnership/priority area?
• Funded disparate projects in early stages to figure out how theme would play out within
the unique four university consortium
• Priority theme area is less rooted in infrastructure which is an emphasis of the DOT
• Less overlap of research with DOT in more recent RFPs which means less cash
match for program
• Emerging with more cohesive sense of identity and recognized nationally as leaders in
sustainable transportation and cities
Success: OTREC
Research(ers) in the News
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Cutting edge research, nationally recognized professors
(Daily Vanguard, May 26, 2009) Catherine DeRivera , PSU
Car-Free in America?
(New York Times, May 12, 2009) Marc Schlossberg, UO
OSU Researchers Test New Wavemaker To Learn About Tsunami And
Hurricane Damage
(Oregon Public Broadcasting, April 29, 2009) Daniel Cox, OSU
Running on Empty
(Harvard Political Review, March 6, 2009) Tony Rufolo, PSU
Bike lanes work, PSU professor says
(Portland Tribune, October 16, 2008) Jennifer Dill, PSU
Realtors peddle real estate to bike-happy clients
(USA Today, August 29, 2008) Jennifer Dill, PSU
Suburban Housing Saga
(The Washington Diplomat, June 2008) Nico Larco, UO
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Success
• 34 Collaborative Partners
• 25 Multi Campus Projects
• 62 Multi-Investigator Projects
• 19 Disciplines
• 92 Seminars for 2789 Professionals
• 56 Papers
• 18 New Courses
• 1 New Degree Program
• One “Big Idea” Selected at UO
• New Sustainability Initiative Launched
• 70 Master’s Graduates
• 28 Projects Complete or in Peer Review
Success
Success
• On time and on budget
See you in Portland 2011!
Thank You!
www.otrec.us
bertini@otrec.us