Portland State Magazine Fall 2007

AROUND THE PARK BLOCKS The riding habits of hundreds of cyclists were part of a PSU Center for Transportation Studies project. Cycling habits study MIKE DONALD RIDES his bike from his Mc. Tabor home co his job in down– town Pordand three or four rimes a week, depending on what he has planned after work. Weather is rarely a consideration for the 52-year-old software engineer. How– ever, car traffic dictates his rime and route. For a week, Donald volunteered co clip a GPS tracking device on his bike for a bicycling behavior study conducted by Jennifer Dill, director of the Center for Transportation Studies at PSU. "Mike is fairly typical of the active and regular cyclists who volunteered for the second phase of our study," says Dill. More than 100 regular cyclists were tracked by satellite, allowing Dill and her researchers co see where they ride, how far, how fast, and for how long. Before each trip rhe cyclists logged into their GPS device giving a destination category and weather conditions. Another group of cyclists, occasional riders, were tracked in an additional study u ing rhe devices. The GPS studies are adding co rhe information Dill gained about bicycle use from an ear– lier telephone survey of 566 Pordand-area residents. Dill, a cyclist herself, hopes rhe proj– ect's findings will help Pordand further promote biking as a fun , healthy, safe, and environmentally friendly means of trans– portation. City bike planners cou ld use the data, says Dill, ro locate bike pad1s, bike lanes, and d irectional signs helping bike riders find their way. 4 PORTLA ND STATE M AGAZI NE FA LL 2007 This summer, students evaluated the health needs of seasonal workers at migrant camps in Oregon. ... Gaining 'field' experience AS A MIGRANT worker pruning and harvesting Christmas trees in Oregon, Eusebio Herrera showed a talent for helping other Mexicans in his camp. He could navigate rhe social service agencies with his berrer-rhan– average English skills. Now a social work graduate student ar Porrland Scare, Herrera rook on a similar task chis past summer as students and faculty from PSU and a university in Puebla, Mexico, looked at the health needs of seasonal workers at migrant camps in Washington County. The students worked alongside staff from the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, interviewing seasonal workers on their health needs and reaching basic health skills. The nonprofit Garcia Center provides medi- cal treatment and health education co migrant workers from May through August. The information gathered by the students will help shape the center's health programs, and it gives medical professionals from Mexico-part of the Puebla university group-an understanding of workers' needs once they return co Mexico. Seasonal workers' living conditions and hard work shocked some of the students. Nor Herrera. His father and six brothers have worked on Oregon farms for decades. He left char life once he earned a GED and bachelor's degree in Oregon. Today he works full rime as a substance abuse counselor in Yamhill County while pursing a master' degree. "This was invigorating for me," says Herrera. "I want co serve this population." Students found depression and tooth decay were rhe biggest problems of the workers-concerns char need intervention here and in Mexico.