If
so, you should consider becoming a transportation professional. Transportation
is a growing profession with opportunities for people with a wide variety
of backgrounds and strengths.
What degrees are offered?
There are currently
six graduate-level degrees within which students can specialize in
transportation:
Our students are
both full- and part-time.
About
Transportation at PSU
Transportation education
and research at PSU focuses on transportation systems, infrastructure,
policy, and planning. We cover all modes of transport and the relationships
and interactions of transportation systems with land use, the economy,
the environment, institutions, and people. Our programs are multidisciplinary.
Faculty conduct research on a wide range of topics, including: transit
operations; relationships between urban form, travel behavior and health;
intelligent transportation systems; safety; transportation finance; transportation
and environmental planning; and land use planning and transportation infrastructure.
Dual
Master's Degree Program
The
Center for Transportation Studies is developing a dual
master's degree program in Urban and Regional Planning
and Civil and Environmental Engineering. Students may currently obtain
a second master's degree using the Dual Degree option. Click
for more information.
What
would I do with one of these degrees?
Graduates with masters
degrees (MURP or MSCE) work in a variety of places, including cities,
counties, state agencies, private consultants, and non-profit organizations.
You can browse some profiles of current students and alumni by following
these links:
- Transportation
Students and Alumni, School of Urban Studies and Planning (currently updating page)
- Research
Assistants and Alumni,
Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory
Graduates of PSU's
degree programs include:
- Transit Service
Planner, TriMet
- Transportation
Planner, Wenatchee Valley Transportation Council
- Transportation
Planner, CH2MHill
- Transportation
Analyst, DKS Associates
- Transportation
Modeler - Metropolitan Transportation Commission
(Oakland, CA)
- ITS Engineer,
Oregon Department of Transportation
- Transportation
Planning Manager, Metro
- Assistant Planner,
Fregonese Calthorpe Associates
- Transportation
Advocate, 1000 Friends of Oregon
- And More!!
What
opportunities are there during my degree program outside of the classroom?
 PSU
faculty are involved in a variety of transportation research projects
and often hire students as graduate research assistants, including a
stipend and tuition remission. See Dr. Bertini's list of positions available
in the Intelligent Transportation Systems
Laboratory for examples. Most students
also find a wide variety of paid internships as places such as the City
of Portland, Fregonese Calthorpe Associates, Kittelson & Associates,
DKS Associates, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and 1000 Friends of Oregon. The
School of Urban Studies and Planning offers a limited number of assistantships
to students each year, which pay full tuition and a small stipend. In
addition, the Center for Urban Studies has fellowship funds available
for top transportation students.
Students in the
MURP program participate the Planning
Workshop, where they work in small teams to develop and complete
a project for a community client of their choice. Recent transportation-related
projects included a guidebook for wildlife crossings and transportation
facilities, a plan for creating a safe bicycle route in Southeast Portland,
a feasibility study and guide for a new bicycle rail-trail, and a plan
for a shuttle for Sherwood, OR.
MURP students also
have an option to complete a Field Area
Paper, which can be a research paper or project on a transportation
topic. Recent transportation FAPs include:
- Bicycle Planning
in the City of Portland: Evaluation of the City's Bicycle Master Plan
and Statistical Analysis of the Relationship between the City's Bicycle
Network and Bicycle Commute
- Transportation
& Work: Exploring Car Usage and Employment Outcomes in the LSAL
Data
- The Mobility
of Elderly Persons in the Portland Metropolitan Region
- Street Connectivity,
Land use and Transportation, and the Master Street Plans in Portland
- Capping I-405:
Testing the Vision
- Increasing Access
to Jobs through Ridesharing
Students
in the MSCE program are responsible for preparing either a Project Report
or Thesis, and this research is connected to projects conducted in the
ITS Lab, which involve strong partnerships with local, regional and
statewide transportation agencies including the City of Portland, Metro,
TriMet and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Graduate
Certificate in Transportation
The
Center for Transportation Studies offers a campuswide graduate certificate
program in Transportation.
For more information, see the Graduate
Certificate page.
What
if I'm not interested in a degree program right now?
There are several
opportunities to attend seminars and classes:
Email
Lists
: Students can join the Center for Transportation
Studies "Transportation" email list (https://www.lists.pdx.edu/lists/listinfo/transportation)
and the Portland State University STEP (Students in Transportation Engineering
and Planning) email list (https://www.lists.pdx.edu/lists/listinfo/step).
Transportation
Seminar Series: free
and open to the public
 The
Center for Transportation Studies, in cooperation with the Center for
Urban Studies, School of Urban Studies and Planning and Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering, offers a Transportation Seminar Series.
The seminars are presented each Friday during the academic year in the
Distance Learning Center. Students, transportation professionals and community
members are welcome to participate in person and via live streaming video.
Remote participants are invited to submit questions by email during the
seminars, and all seminars are archived in streaming video format for
future viewing. We have seen some substantial growth in the on-line access
of our archived seminars, as shown in this chart.
PSU students may enroll in the seminar for one unit.
Transportation
Short Courses and Workshops
The Center for Transportation
Studies will be sponsoring lifelong learning opportunities through short
courses and workshops.
Current
Courses
Here is a listing
of transportation related courses offered through the School of Urban
Studies and Planning and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Non-degree students can enroll in up to 8 units of PSU courses via Quick Entry.
USP/CE 407/507 Transportation Seminar (1 credit hour) Weekly seminar series where students,
faculty, practitioners, community members and invited visitors discuss
a wide variety of subjects related to current transportation research,
education, policy and community issues. For credit, students must either
present a seminar or submit a paper summarizing one seminar topic area.
USP
456/556 Urban Transportation: Problems and Policies (3 credit hours)
A survey of the historical, political, and economic forces shaping metropolitan
area transportation problems and policies. Topics will include: the
relationship of urban transportation systems to energy, environmental,
and land development problems; relations between the various transport
modes and technologies; current issues in transportation planning and
finance, especially the fiscal crisis of public transit; and labor,
social, and equity concerns in the supply of transportation services.
The focus throughout will be on the nature and determinants of public
policy in the transport sector. Graduate students undertake a substantial
independent project in addition to other course requirements.
USP 465/565 Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning (3 credit hours)
Course will discuss
the need for pedestrian/bicycle mobility, developing a bikeway network,
off-street paths/trails, and developing a pedestrian network. Both worldwide
and nationwide contexts will be considered. This class will also cover
state and local policies; national, state, and local standards/guidelines;
retrofitting existing bridges/roadways; trail-roadway intersections;
and development codes, incentives.
USP 537/637 Economics of urban Transportation (3 credit hours) The transportation
system is critical to the functioning of an urban area. The movement
of people and goods affects both the productivity and livability of
the region. Transportation systems also affect and are affected by land
use and location decisions. This course presents the economic analysis
of urbantransportation. This will include analysis of the effects of
transportation systems on land use and location as well as the evaluation
of transportation investments. These methods will then be applied to
evaluation of various proposals to improve the urban transportation
system. Recommended prerequisite: USP 515 or 615.
USP 543 Geography
Applications in Planning (4 credit hours) Principles and models of spatial
organization, behavior, and location in geographic space. Major conceptual
models of urban structure and form, urban regional hierarchy, transportation
flows and other forms of spatial interaction, and their applications
to modern planning and other disciplines. Spatial data models (rasters,
TINs, LRSs, other) and advanced analytical and modeling capabilities
of GIS (surface, 3-D, and network analyses). Discussion of real-life
GIS applications to transportation, land use, environmental planning,
community development, and related areas.
USP 544 Urban
Transportation Planning (3 credit hours) Principles of urban transportation
planning. Urban transportation problems and policy formation. Techniques
used in transportation planning.
USP 570/670 Transportation
and Land Use (3 credit hours) An analysis of transportation and land
use interactions in urban areas. The impact of highway and transit changes
on travel behavior and locational decisions are examined. Prerequisites:
USP 515 and 544.
USP 587 Travel Demand Modeling (3 credit hours)
To provide the student
with the tools and methods necessary to understand, analyze, and apply
travel demand forecasting models. The student will be exposed to transportation
modeling principally from an applied or practical perspective. However,
the underlying theoretical basis of model components will also be covered.
Upon completion of the course, the student will be familiar with the
traditional four-step travel forecasting process, the EMME/2 model application
software package, and interpretation of model output. The course involves
hands-on use of EMME/2 transportation modeling software.
CE 351 Transportation
Systems (4 credit hours) A study of engineering problems associated
with the planning and design of urban and intercity transportation with
emphasis on systems approach to problems definition and solution. Vehicle
operation characteristics and traffic control devices for land, air,
and water, data collection methods and development of transportation
models for the establishment of design criteria for transportation structures.
Prerequisite: junior standing in engineering.
CE 407/507 Benefit-Cost Analysis for Transportation Engineering Seminar (1 credit
hour) Public investment in transportation infrastructure is significant
– nearly $64 billion dollars was spent by all levels of government
on capital outlays for highway projects alone. It is imperative that
investment be made in an economical manner. This course will provide
students with a basic understanding of the concepts. Students desiring
a more complete consideration of the topic should consider USP 537.
CE 410/510 Traffic
Engineering Applications (3 credit hours) Advanced theory and application
of traffic signal timing in urban settings. Basic theories are presented
and applied to real-world problems with the aid of traffic signal evaluation
methodologies.
CE 410/510 Introduction to Transportation Engineering Research Methods (2 credit hours): This course will introduce first year transportation graduate students to appropriate research methods. The course content includes an overview of literature reviews, techniques for analyzing and presenting data, an introduction to academic journal writing and technical presentations, and a brief exposure to common software and statistical tools (postgreSQL, MySQL, R, Matlab, advanced Excel, and GIS).
CE 450/550 Transportation
Safety Analysis (4 credit hours) Incorporating safety in highway engineering
and transportation planning. Includes highway design, operation, and
maintenance, as well as human factors, statistical analysis, traffic
control and public policy. Design concepts of intersections, interchanges,
signals, signs and pavement markings; analyzing data sets for recommendations
and prioritization; principles of driver and vehicle characteristics
in relation to the roadway.
CE 451/551 Traffic Control and Analysis (4 credit hours) Traffic control principles;
maintenance and responsibility for traffic control devices; choice of
traffic control; signs, markings and signals; low-volume roads, temporary
control and school areas; traffic control for highway-rail grade crossing,
bicycles and transit; warrants for control; control techniques and analysis,
advanced technologies. Prerequisite: CE 351.
CE 453/553 Freight Transportation and Logistics (4 credit hours) Components and
performance characteristics of the U.S. freight transportation system,
with emphasis on data needs, planning, design and operation of the entire
supply chain. Discussion of impact of freight on passenger transportation
system and economy. Modal emphasis includes freight rail, motor freight,
ocean freight and air freight. Terminal operations. Roles of public
and private actors in freight system.
CE 454 Urban
Transportation Systems (4 credit hours) Urban street patterns and transportation
demand, highway capacity analysis, process of urban transport planning,
travel-demand forecasting and its application to traffic studies. Development
of transport models, multiple regression analysis, models of land use
and trip generations, stochastic trip distribution models, applications
and case studies. Route assignment analysis and traffic flow theory.
Prerequisite: CE 351.
CE 455/555 Intelligent Transportation Systems (4 credit hours) Introduction to
intelligent transportation systems, including enabling surveillance,
navigation, communications, and computer technologies. Application of
technologies for monitoring, analysis, evaluation, and prediction of
transportation system performance. Intervention strategies, costs and
benefits, safety, human factors, institutional issues, and case studies.
CE 456/556 Traffic Engineering (4 credit hours) Traffic system components, traffic
stream characteristics, traffic studies and data collection, volume
studies, speed, travel-time, delay and pedestrian studies, capacity
analysis, freeway systems, weaving sections, ramp junctions, rural highways,
signalized and unsignalized intersections, signal coordination, arterial
operations, and access management. Prerequisite: CE 454.
CE 457/557 Pavement Design (4 credit hours) Pavement structure classification and
components, wheel loads and design fac0tors, stresses in flexible pavements,
subgrade strength and evaluation, design methods, material characteristics,
stresses in rigid pavements, design of concrete pavements, joints and
reinforcement, condition surveys. Prerequisite: CE 351.
CE 458/558 Public Transportation Systems (4 credit hours) Performance characteristics
of public transportation systems, with emphasis on urban systems. Planning,
design, and operational issues related to public transportation systems.
Emerging technologies.
CE 459/559 Transportation Operations (4 credit hours) Operation, modeling and control
of unscheduled and scheduled transportation modes; elementary traffic
flow concepts; flow, density and speed; scheduling; route and bottleneck
capacities; networks; data interpretation; analysis techniques: diagrams;
simulation; queuing; optimization.
CE 460/560 Access Management (4 credit hours) Access management issues; geometric
design, roadway operation and access; safety and other benefits; access
design concepts; functional integrity of highway; driveway and intersection
spacing; functional area of intersection, turn lanes; median openings;
access.
CE 552/662 Highway Design for Capacity (4 credit hours) Principles of highway capacity,
traffic characteristics, operational analysis, design and planning of
freeways, multi-lane and two-lane rural highways, intersections and
arterials, transit facilities. Prerequisite: CE 454. |
