This class will focus on equitable traffic and transportation design and planning for our communities and infrastructures in the City of Portland. Students will prepare a vision plan or class project-addressing community planning for the transportation systems (e.g., roads, bridges, transit, parks, urban centers, etc.). Students are encouraged to research current design trends in the traffic and transportation industry, including new developments in connectivity, green technologies, and changing populations. Students will be engaged in assignments/project coursework using written and oral communication. This course will be taught using guest speakers and discussion combined with individual and team-centered project-based learning.
2023 Schedule - Topics and speakers are subject to change. Thursdays, 6:40pm – 8:40pm in-person, Portland State University (Fariborz Masseh Hall, Room 234)
Week 1, Sept. 28th: Foundations in Transportation
Week 2, Oct. 5th: Planning and Policy at the Regional and Local Levels
Week 3, Oct. 12th: Portland’s Racist History and its Impact on Transportation Planning
Week 4, Oct. 19th: Transit in Portland - TriMet and Portland Streetcar
Week 5, Oct. 26th: Transportation Engineering & Equity
Week 6, Nov. 2nd: Interstate Bridge Project: Its impact to the Region
Week 7, Nov. 9th: Public Health & Transportation
Week 8, Nov. 16th: Rebuilding Albina
Week 9, Nov. 23rd – Thanksgiving: No Class
Week 10, Nov. 30th: Class Project Presentations
In-person Field Trip, Date and Location TBD
Watch Online Option - Everyone is welcome to watch and learn from the content. Thursdays this Fall, 6:40pm – 8:40pm. A registration is required.
View Past Classes:
Anyone is welcome to watch the class recordings and learn from the content.
Course Learning Objectives
Learn and understand the current challenges and barriers to transportation planning;
Recognize stakeholder perspectives and explore mutually beneficial solutions;
Apply a system thinking approach to central concepts, technologies, and practices of resiliency planning and sustainable systems;
Critique and develop traffic and transportation planning and sustainability metrics;
Communicate and persuade the need for planning and sustainable infrastructure for a nontechnical audience;
Develop skills for continued learning on planning and sustainable infrastructure as the field evolves.
Instructor Bio
The instructor, Ms. Thuy Tu, has over twenty-five years of experience as a Senior Transportation Planner and Civil Engineering Project Manager. She is an innovative collaborator, progressive communicator, educator and believes in people-focused urban design concepts and methods.
She graduated from Benson Polytechnic High School and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Portland where her studies were focused on traffic and transportation.
Now the principal and founder of her own consulting firm, she has been an adjunct professor at the University of Portland, at the Portland Campus of the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, and a mentor of project management and civil engineering for the Portland State University Student Chapter of Engineers without Borders. Thuy has also led a course on Master Planning for Resiliency for the Lents Community and Vision Planning for 82nd Avenue.
You can read more about Thuy Tu here.