Portland State Study Abroad Day 1 - Introduction to TU Delft

The following is a summary from Day 1 of the PSU program at TU Delft.

Introductions of TU Delft Hosts
Paul Wiggenraad is our Department host and is a Professor in Transit Facility and Geometric Design

Introductions of Students
One of the great things about the program is the diversity of students that are involved. There is a wide variety of background for the Northeastern University students throughout the world from China to Spain and within the U.S from New York to Washington, Hawaii, and even an Oregonian. One student lived in Amsterdam for several years, so it will be very interesting to get perspective from someone that grew up in the Netherlands. The students ranged from Art majors to environmental studies, Architecture students. A lot of interest in bicycle facilities overall and sustainability

PSU Students
The group from Portland State is six students from the Masters of Urban & Regional Planning and two from Civil Engineering.
Zef is from Iowa interested in public transit. His blog is Transit Authority
Derek Abe is interested in bicycle infrastructure.
Ryan Farncomb is Washington State (Seattle area) interested in a wide variety of planning aspects.
Jake Warr is from Salt Lake City interested in planning/transportation efficiency and how to apply in U.S.
Jeremy Dalton is interested in smart cities and the interaction between different modes and neighborhoods
Kathryn Doherty-Chapman and wants to focus on getting people out of their cars and in public health.
JoAnna is studying engineering and wants some of the practical applications related to what she used to experience during her four years living in Holland.
Tommy Edlen is an environmental engineering student that wants to learn about "bikes".

Presentations from TU Delft
Our introduction included three presentations. Piet Opstal from TU Delft presented about the Netherlands and Problems and Challenges and finally Studying at Delft

Zef wrote the blog of the day (Hyperlink here)

We discussed national transport policy and the Dutch focus on promotion of public transport. Competition between modes is carefully considered. There are key differences related to rail between the U.S. and the Netherlands is that the rail lines are publicly owned here and the private freight uses the rails as opposed to in America passenger rail is a guest. In this sort of framework, passenger transport is a priority because of the ownership and management of the system.

Peter Knoppers from TU Delft presented on surviving the Dutch. His presentation is online here.

All in all, a good day starting the students off for the two week adventure.