Information Session on Transportation Applications in the Netherlands - March 5, 5 PM - Study Abroad this Summer in Delft!

We'll be hosting an information sharing session on the program, next Monday, March 5th at 5 to 6 PM. The purpose of the meeting is to describe the details of the course. In order to do this we'll start off with a brief presentation by your instructors followed by a short summary of actual students who attended the course and lived to tell about it. Kirk Paulsen and Brian Davis will share their experiences of spending time in Amsterdam, while based in Delft all the while touring the nearby suburbs of Delft and communities (such as Rotterdam) that present an introduction to the multimodal transportation applications in the Netherlands.

A few questions I have received:

1. Do I have to be an engineer to participate?

Absolutely not. While the 7 students that participated last year were, their knowledge of thermodynamics and structural analysis did not provide them keener insights on the transportation elements common in Dutch communities. Working in teams as we did last year, any engineering skills you might need will be part of your group projects. 

2.  The course mentions efforts in Portland after the in country period, is that flexible?

Yes. The number of credits dictates the extent of the effort required for class projects. Last year, some of the students chose to finish the project before they left for the U.S. Others wanted more time to edit their class projects 

Here's a sample of some of the work that was completed. Brian's post summarizing his experience in "Bike Heaven" the community of Houten. The post actually was commented on by our host in Houten, community engineer Herbert Tiemens. Here's Kirk Paulsen's group's final project analyzing Houten as a community. 

3. Is financial aid available for this? 

Yes.  Financial aid is available for the program. The course costs are fairly reasonable compared to typical tuition and by taking the 6 credit option or an additional summer class you can easily be full time. Depending on your situation, I would encourage looking into this. The course doesn't have the overhead that normal classes do and the University wants the exposure for its students. The costs of housing are part of the program and staying in a dorm is an inexpensive place to stay relatively speaking. We complete all of our travel via bicycle and short train trips, so the biggest cost is the airfare.

4. Do I need to speak Dutch to take part in the trip?

No. I have been to the Netherlands five times and I don't speak a word of the language. 

5. Is it true that they don't have stop signs anywhere in the country?

No, I found three stop signs during my extensive travels, but it does take a couple of minutes to get used to. 

6. How do you deal with Post Travel and Carfree Bliss Disorder? 

I think Brian Davis covered this best in his blog post here, but Sunday Parkways is a good place to start.

7. Is this all about bikes?

No, but bicycles are a part of the Dutch culture and with a 30+% mode split for people travelling by bike, it is hard to avoid. Freight and transit will be part of the program as well and there's interest in having a conversation with the Utrecht Traffic Engineer Ronald Tamse who visited Portland and presented at PSU this past October. We define group project subjects that fit into the curriculum. Here's the final report that was a joint effort of Northeastern University and Portland State participants from last year. 

The session will be in the Engineering Building in the ITS Lab which is in Room 315. 

If you have any questions, feel free to send Dr. Bertini or I an email at your convenience. Looking forward to seeing some of you on Monday. 

The second annual summer course on multimodal transportation in the Netherlands:

http://oia.pdx.edu/ea/details/transportation_engineering_applications_in_netherlands/

2011 reflections

http://koonceportland.blogspot.com/2011/07/follow-up-actions-from-trip-for-signals.html?m=1

PSU Delft Experience highlights

Taking the students on this adventure was a great experience. The program achieved its objective of presenting an introduction into transportation engineering applications in the European context. It built on earlier courses with a special emphasis on differences between U.S. and Dutch standards. The course curriculum featured material that shows the contrast between engineering principles and policies focusing on the standards presented in both the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the Highway Capacity Manual. More on the PSU website:

The last full day in Delft is marked with heavy rains and wind that will soak cyclists to the core on even the shortest trips. The woman helping me check out of the place I was staying chalked it up to climate change. Climate change is a serious issue for the Dutch considering that a good percentage of them live below sea level. It's going to rain 55 mm today, just over 2 inches.

I am pleased with the rain because it is giving me a chance to catch up on the students' projects and blog posts.

So here's my Top 5 things that happened on the trip (not in rank order, sorry Brian).

1. Jane Jacobs and her Influence - How European Cities Have Social Networks (no not Facebook)
My favorite post to date was a psuedo assignment related to the book I assigned for the class: Death and Life of American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Brian Davis provided this insightful blast related to how communities can be organized to provide social support. It's not something I ever learned in a transportation engineering course, but creating a transportation system that allows a place to play seems as important as any effort I would produce in my profession. Recognizing the importance of a local community is key to the success of city planning. The density of the City allows this easily in Delft, but I wonder if the combination of the Farmers Market, local businesses, and interactions surrounding Llewllyn Elementary will contribute to the sort of community that will make Sellwood like this.

2. Education of the Future Users of the Transportation System
I really enjoyed the lectures that were part of the program. I learned a lot that I am looking forward to taking back to the City of Portland to apply in our community. One of the most important elements in the Netherlands is their education of future users of the transportation system. It is mandatory that each student take a test on navigating the City by bicycle in the 7th grade. This is all part of the sustainable safety program. They get police involved during the test and the students go through a course that is on city streets. This is after a detailed program on an off-street course.

3. It's All About the Bike (in Urban Planning)

It's often debated of whether there is a bike culture here. I would argue there is, yet it is not a subculture. Everyone has a bicycle. Most use it on occasion which results in them appreciating the vulnerability you feel when one is cycling. This results in a fairly courteous driving population overall and everyone concerned with the safety of each other. They also appreciate the importance of mobility, so the streets carefully discriminate between those that are for cars and freight and ones that are community oriented. They have support for the bike oriented streets because most people cycle. The City of Houten was an extreme example for making it irresistible to cycle to most destinations as highlighted in Sam's post on the community. Kirk and Pam from the class have also done an amazing report that shows some of the bike vs. car routing. Kirk summarized his visit with some more pictures. We also saw the ring road that seemed to work really well for freight and other traffic movements that were longer than just a few miles.

4. What's Wrong with the U.S. - Getting the Little Things Right

I borrowed the last part of the title from Marc Schlossberg Most of the concepts common in the Netherlands are considered radical in the U.S. It seems that working with some of the principles will take time but that incorporating small items like bicycle signal heads that are 10 cm are worth moving the industry towards design at a human scale. It is also clear from this trip that many of the things I have been introducing at the City are consistent with practice here. It is very interesting to consider how the public and the press will take to these ideas. The Portland Mercury followed some of the work here, but they are also the newspaper that post the Pedalpalooza schedule (not exactly on the coffee table of every home in Portland).


Traffic Signal Timing for Cyclists from Peter Koonce on Vimeo.


Here's another one that we did for Broadway/Williams. This is important for the Broadway bicycle traffic that we're trying to make safer. There's a slight tradeoff currently for motorist traffic that we will improve when we make the modification at Victoria associated with the streetcar.

5. Creating the Transportation Leaders of the Future

Lastly, I had a great time getting to know the students of PSU, Peter Furth, and Tom Bertulis. Their energy and excitement about the future of transportation was an inspiration during the trip.

So, in all a great experience. Now, it will be great if it will just stop raining.

Last Field Trip for PSU Netherlands Trip - Rotterdam

Fietsenstalling is bike parking. It is a bike shop where we got our day rentals.  

We started out meeting at Delft the train station. There was a little confusion about the train station, but the good news is that Delft provides better train service than Delft Zuid (south).

We got off at Rotterdam Centraal which was under construction. We would come back there after an orientation at Rotterdam University. Our topic today: Sustainable Safety.

Excellent ramp down into the parking garage at the University!

The bike parking was under the garage and amazing welcome mat the University lays out for its students every day!
Hogeschool Rotterdam or the University is establishing an exchange with Northeastern University. There was interest in setting up a similar arrangement with Portland State. I think it would be an amazing opportunity for students if you can swing the tuitiion arrangements. The housing costs might be a bit challenging, but what a pheonomenal opportunity for exposure to another culture, especially one that has such amazing experience with construction techniques with below sea level and flood control.

It was a great day with a great topic and a fun city to explore. Sustainable safety is a fantastic topic and the Dutch seem to have it figured out. That is, until I got back to the Delftse Hout and as I was making the 50 meters to the house there were two kids that ended up crashing on their bikes because one of the kids wasn't looking. I hope that doesn't disuade them for riding their bikes, they are much better off on two wheels.

Rotterdam Part 2

Entering the Maas Tunnel, we enjoyed the elevator that took us down below the river. Kirk Paulsen, Tom Bertulis, Kate Petak, and several Northeastern University students (in the background) were amazed by the infrastructure and the 1,070 meter length of the tunnel.
As I was taking this picture, I was thinking "Welcome to Rotterdam, now get underground".
For the next picture it was, " Welcome to Rotterdam, there's traffic behind you!"  Rotterdam is a bustling metropolis, very busy with traffic and freight as it hosts the second busiest port in the world. Not known for its cycling infrastructure there are parts of the City where you feel like you're in the U.S.


One of the most impressive sites in Rotterdam outside of the wide range of modernist architecture and buildings is the Erasumus Bridge. This engineering marvel was completed in 1996. The 802 metre long bridge has a 139 metre-high asymmetrical pylon, earning the bridge its nickname of "The Swan".

Portland State Student Blogs for the Study Abroad Course

Updated to bring this to the front of the page. I continue to use this to keep track of the students and their work. I am expecting the students on the Portland State University Study Abroad course to produce all of their information electronically via their blog. We have a number of assignements prepared. Here's the list of blogs.

Brian: http://halfthefun.net/
Will: http://wrfarley.blogspot.com/
Pam: http://eurobikegeek.blogspot.com/

Sam: http://smonsef.blogspot.com/
Kirk: http://www.pedalportland.org/blog/
Kate: http://katepetak.wordpress.com/
Ian: http://eotrout.blogspot.com/

We're not the only Oregonians in the Netherlands studying this summer. Marc Scholossberg has a group of students from the University of Oregon and Portland State. Their blogs are online at: http://2011bikesabroad.blogspot.com/

PSU Delft Blog Entry on Jane Jacobs

Wow! Worth a read.

PSU Delft Day 3 Net Zero Buildings, Greenhouses, and the North Sea

Untitled by pkoonce99 at Garmin Connect - Details

Bicycle Signals Moving Forward in Oregon Senate

One of the many unique tasks I have enjoyed while working at the City has included the chance to testify in front of the Senate and House Committees on Transportation related to Bicycle Signals. SB 130 has moved forward due to my testimony and response to questions. The last round was very contentious and there were several pointed questions related to the following topics:

1. Compliance (we have some sense of this based on the early studies), 
2. Delay to motorists (there's the potential for some, but we have kept it as low as possible without compromising safety), 
3. Costs (they are truly minimal since we're adding signals where we already have a lot of infrastructure), and
4.  Safety (our records have been very good in this regard).

The City has six now and we're in the process of developing some additional sites currently where it can improve the performance of the street network or we have bicycle only movements where it is intuitive. 

To address #1, #2, and #4 we need to get Portland State involved more to study the issue. 

Making the Portland Streetcar Faster

I have had a great time working with two capstone classes at Portland State University on transportation applications. This is one of the efforts. Implementation is coming soon.

Update (5/22/11): The vimeo page has been viewed almost 1,000 times. It's no internet sensation, but I have enjoyed watching it.

Transportation Research Board Meeting 2011

Woodley Park is the home to two of the three hotels
(Marriott and Omni Shoreham) that hosts the
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in January.
Washington DC in January, a great place to be. 

I attended my 14th Transportation Research Board Meeting (the last one I missed was in 2000) and my 11th in a row. I am counting the 2004 meeting where I had a spontaneous pneumothorax (lung collapse) that is legendary among my friends and colleagues. It is an experience I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

The TRB Annual Meeting provides an opportunity to hear from so many different people. That's part of the allure of the meeting is the people and the relationships you can renew. It is also like any experience where you can look back on past meetings with nostalgia. Oh remember the snow storm of 1996 (that was the year before I started attending), and how about the snow of 2011! Yes, there was snow and the flights shut down from 1 PM on Wednesday to first thing Thursday night as the DC area had trouble with the 6-10 inches that fell. I was lucky to have a flight on Thursday night that didn't change. I did have a meeting on Thursday that was cancelled.

The experiences I have collected at TRB has been very positive. I have learned of the challenges that are facing our transportation system and the biases that people have towards traffic. I have strengthened my resolve to work towards a balanced transportation system.

I enjoy providing advice to new attendees to TRB. In this era of thinking out loud on the web through twitter, facebook, and blogs, I came across Brian Davis' post about his experience at the meeting that has been so much of my professional life. Here's the post: http://briandavispdx.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/lessons-learned-from-trb/

Reflecting on Brian's post, I was impressed with the insights he offers. I am happy to have had the opportunity to work with Brian and other students at PSU and hope that messages like these propel the students to enjoy the same sort of success and interest I have sustained at TRB through these many years.

Portland Bike Tour with IBPI

The IBPI Bike Tour features several prominent bicycle facilties throughout the City. The features include bike boxes, bike signals, neighborhood greenways (formerly bike boulevards), and other things that we have pioneered in Portland. SE Hawthorne was repaved this past week and the fresh markings from the bike box were a nice site to see.   The crews were installing a bike box at SE 39th & Clinton when we arrived, which was great to see the thermoplastic before it was applied and the foreman carefully inspecting the work of his staff.


I invited Jenna, one of the Signals, Street Lighting, & ITS interns out to see some of the intersections that she is studying as a part of her work. It was good to see her talking with fellow professionals about bicycle treatments and having her gather ideas from people that haven't seen either a HAWK or a Half Signal. We are continuing to study the safety of the Half signals at the City to determine whether we should make changes to the intersections that allow pedestrians to cross busier streets.
We ended up near the Steel Bridge with Roger describing a treatment that was used on N Weidler to provide a jughandle for people desiring to make the left turn from Weilder to Williams. It was fun to see him share the ideas with the participants. Special thanks to Jamie Parks and Hermanus Steyn who helped put the presentations together.
As one of the participants pointed out to me during the Tour, Portland has a lot of great facilities and serves as a national model in a lot of ways. The visit is a bit like an immersion program with all of the various aspects that we have tried over time.

View IBPI- Bike Tour in a larger map