The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a $3.5 million grant for transportation research and education to a group of universities late last week, comprising the University, the Oregon Institute of Technology and Portland State University@@http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-engineering-and-carnegie-mellon-university-receive-35-million-transportation-research@@.
The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium @@http://www.otrec.us/@@will manage the administration of the grant to the universities, and the University of Utah will join the coalition in place of Oregon State.
OTREC works with each university’s individual transportation programs in order to advance transportation research.
The grant challenges each university’s transportation center to produce the most advanced and innovative transportation research and education. OTREC and the University have already made progress toward being one of the premier programs in the nation.
“The U.S. Department of Transportation has recognized the incredible work being done by this University Transportation Center,” said U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)@@http://www.defazio.house.gov/@@. “This grant will continue the UTC’s work to improve the transportation infrastructure which is vital to our economic competitiveness here in Oregon and across the country.”
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)@@http://merkley.senate.gov/@@ also expressed excitement toward the funding and believes this research is an important focal point for the state.
The University’s portion of the grant will go toward academic and student programs, including the student group Live Move. Live Move’s goal is to bring students together to concentrate on the planning and design of transportation systems and how they function within their communities. Live Move receives about $20,000 per year to hold events regarding transportation research.
“They do things like bring national speakers to the campus to engage with students. They host events, they engage in research projects and they help send students to conferences around the country,” Live Move faculty adviser Marc Schlossberg said.@@http://sustainability.uoregon.edu/faculty@@
Schlossberg, an associate professor (planning public policy and management) and assistant director at OTREC, said the grant will also help fund scholarships for students — graduate and undergraduate — focusing on transportation research. The University will receive $30,000 for these scholarships.
The areas of focus for the transportation grant include health and safety; efficiency of cycling and pedestrian traffic; land use and long-term endeavors for transportation emissions and climate change. Transportation research programs at each university will pay special attention to these issues.