Portland State Magazine Fall 2015

FALL 2015 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 11 The Portland Streetcar was extended to the South Water- front in 2006, and is now one of the primary ways PSU students get to the Collaborative Life Sciences Building, which sits at the west end of Tilikum Crossing. The new building is a state-of-the-art laboratory, research and classroom facility that PSU shares with Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University. Portland State is a national research center for sustainable transportation, and the city’s transit system is a living labora- tory for people such as Jennifer Dill, director of the Transpor- tation Research and Education Consortium and the National Institute for Transportation and Communities. “It’s very easy to just look outside and gather data,” she says. “We get people from all over the country who come here to learn about bike transportation. We give them a hands-on view of what pedestrian design is all about.” In 2013, PSU urban design students created a detailed vision plan for the neighborhoods and industrial areas at the east end of the Tilikum Crossing, examining the characteristics of the area and anticipating how they could change with the opening of the Orange Line. TriMet used some of their ideas, including creating better pedestrian access and moving the planned location of a service building in order to allow more business development. The students’ work also influenced the way TriMet created public art in the Clinton neighborhood and provided inspiration for a private company to create a giant mural on the side of an industrial building. “The students’ work had the effect of dropping a pebble in a thought-pond. It created ripples of awareness that is heralding a new kind of vitality in the area,” says Bob Hastings, TriMet’s agency architect. PSU’s influence can be seen on the bridge itself. The School of the Environment owns water-monitoring equipment, which produces data that TriMet is artfully using to control LED lights on the bridge. The lights are programmed to translate the water height, flow speed and temperature of the Willamette River into colors and motion effects on the bridge. Essentially, it’s river mood lighting. The real-time data from the equipment is displayed on the first floor of the PSU Science Research and Teaching Center, 1719 SW 10th. PSU researchers have measured passenger riding habits for TriMet for years, which have helped give planners ideas on transit improvements. They also collected data on the pro- tected bike lane created along SW Broadway, in which street parking was moved away from the curb, providing a protected lane for cyclists. Dill and her colleagues will be studying how the new Tilikum Crossing will affect traffic. “It will make it a lot easier to get downtown on a bike from a lot of areas,” Dill says. “It’s an incredible addition to the city. It seems very ‘Portland’ to have a no-car bridge.”  John Kirkland is a staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications. Tilikum Crossing makes it easier for bicyclists, pedestrians and MAX Orange Line riders to get to campus from southeast Portland. Photo by Edis Jurcys The University’s Urban Center Plaza is Portland’s busiest transit hub.