Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

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Hazardous materials data from business and industrial chemical information and incident databases were analyzed to study the types of chemicals located in Linn, Benton, and Lincoln Counties, Oregon. Federal and Oregon Department of Transportation data were analyzed to study traffic patterns and truck and railroad traffic levels. Results indicate more than 2,000 chemical products are reported by businesses and industries in the three counties, with about 1,000 hazardous ingredients. The primary hazard Classes for these chemicals are flammable fuels, corrosives, and poisonous materials. Diesel, heating fuel, gasoline, and related fuels comprised more than 50% of the materials transported in the study area. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to input industrial and business locations of hazardous materials, historic hazardous materials incidents, traffic densities, population centers, and traffic network intersections. These metrics were modeled as risk factors for potential hazardous materials transportation risks. For Benton County, these factors were combined with population density and critical facilities themes to provide the basis for overlay and proximity analysis for the purpose of facilitating emergency planning and to foster public awareness. Located on the Interstate 5 corridor, Linn County uses and transports a greater variety of hazardous materials than Benton or Lincoln Counties. For example, fifty-one of fifty-five extremely hazardous substances found in the three county area were reported in Linn County, with 24 reported in Benton County, and 6 reported in Lincoln County. Data from Oregon Department of Transportation were extracted to assess accident and traffic patterns and integrate these risk factors with hazardous materials information. One federal and one state database reporting hazardous materials incidents were analyzed. Although traffic increased on study area roads more than 25% in the last decade, two hazardous materials incidents databases did not indicate an increasing number of emergency spill responses. The Oregon State Fire Marshall's incident database indicated an average of 34 per year between 1988-1997. Linn County averaged 18 per year during this time period, Benton County averaged 13, and Lincoln County averaged 3. Fuels were the primary chemical type responded to. The federal Hazardous Materials Information Reporting System database reported 40 incidents in the highway category and 11 railway incidents. Both types of incidents were dominated by corrosive materials in this database, which does not include fuels as defined hazardous materials. Traffic data on the roads used for hazardous materials transport show much higher traffic densities near intersections with other major roadways and in urban areas. Incident reports followed this pattern, primarily occurring in the major cities and towns of the three counties. Estimated daily numbers of trucks carrying hazardous materials ranged from 6 per day on the coastal portion of Oregon 34, to almost 700 on the section of I-5/99E between Albany and the Linn-Marion County border. Rail data studied indicate the highest quantities of materials designated hazardous were also transported on the main north-south corridor of Linn County, implicating this central area in the three counties has the highest density of the risk factors studied. / Graduation date: 2000

An examination of the history of transportation in Umatilla County, Oregon, will provide an understanding of its role in the colonization and economic development of this remote and arid reg10n. This study begins with a description of the movement of Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse Indians in the Umatilla Country to establish the patterns of transportation at the beginning of the nineteenth century. From this basis, significant changes in transportation technology and patterns of movement can be identified and analyzed. Primary sources are reviewed to establish existing routes and conditions of travel. Immigrant accounts and pioneer reminiscences reveal that difficulties with transportation were identified very early as the major obstacle to the development of an agriculture-based market economy. Umatilla County archives provide a clear record of the actions taken by the county government to lay out and maintain wagon roads. Three significant changes are identified in nineteenth century transportation in Umatilla County: introduction of the horse, introduction of wheeled vehicles, and the coming of steampowered vessels and trains. Each of these three developments were revolutionary, adding to the capacity and range of the existing transportation system. The sudden demands for transportation as a result of gold strikes east and south of Umatilla County created the need to expand the regional transportation system. That expanded system was then available to new settlers. As the dominant land use was transformed from livestock grazing to dryland wheat farming, the need for railroads, in addition to Columbia River steamboats, became clearly evident. Feeder roads remained very important, as did animal traction to pull the wagons to the warehouses and loading docks along the rail lines. The location of major routes of travel across the Umatilla Indian Reservation resulted in significant problems for the transportation system. The system to establish and maintain county roads, mandated by state law, involved direct participation of individuals residing adjacent to the roads. Throughout the nineteenth century, the patterns of movement remained remarkably unchanged. Based on ancient Indian trails, the transportation system was the crucial element m the economic development of Umatilla County.

This study aims to explore the relationship between the objective (actual) environment and people's perceptions of the environment, and their relative effects on active travel behavior, particularly bicycling behavior. This is an important research gap in the current literature linking the built environment and active travel. Better understanding this relationship will help to explore the mechanism underlying the built environment- behavior relationship and identify potential interventions to promote active travel. Relying on the data from Portland, OR, this study investigated the following four research questions: (1) How does the objectively measured environment correspond to the perceived environment? And what factors contribute to the mismatch between the objective and perceived environment? (2) What are the different effects of the perceived and objective environment on active travel behavior? (3) Do perceptions mediate the effects of the objective environment on active travel behavior? (4) Do changes in the built environment change perceptions, and in turn change travel behavior? Through various statistical methods, this study found that there was a mismatch between perceptions and objectively measured environment, and such factors as socio-demographics, attitudes, social environment, and behavior could contribute to this mismatch. This study also found the perceived environment and objective environment had independent effects on bicycling. Further, this study found the objectively measured bicycling environment had only an indirect effect on bicycling behavior through influencing one's perceptions of the environment. Finally, this study found changes in the actual built environment may change the perceptions of the walking environment, but not the perceptions of the bicycling environment, at least in the short term.

Research in urban transportation has been of many facets. Some have emphasized modes and routes while others have attempted to isolate and look at small segments of the transportation market with specific demands. Such segments include workers, recreation riders, and to a less extent, students. In the "journey-to-work" studies, a major finding has been that as income of workers increases, the distance between residence and work-place also increases. This thesis starts with a series of hypotheses generated as a result of the findings of other studies reviewed in the literature. In testing the hypotheses, variables that are likely to influence student transportation cost and mode-choice in the Portland State situation were identified and included in a survey questionnaire administered among Portland State University students. The identified variables include, among others, student income, course load, duration of occupancy of dwelling unit, distance from school, time taken to cover that distance, and type of mode commonly used. In addition to the questionnaire survey, informal interviews were held with school and public transit authorities.

This dissertation examines unequal outcomes of urban transportation policies in the neoliberal era. It focuses on inequalities in the Portland, Oregon metro area between 1994 and 2011 as measured in three key areas: 1) access to public transit; 2) the journey-to-work; and 3) "household-serving" trips. Growing concern over the harmful impacts from an increasing dependence on cars has led planners in the U.S. to encourage a modal shift from private car to public transit, bicycling, and walking. The required policies to make this modal shift possible, however, might inadvertently be benefiting "choice" riders at the cost of transport disadvantaged groups. Other contributing factors to this unequal benefit appear to be the suburbanization of poverty, an ongoing gentrification of central areas, and market forces that make it difficult for low income groups to afford housing in transit-rich neighborhoods. The Oregon Household Activity and Travel surveys are used to answer the three major research questions in this dissertation: what has been the effect of neoliberalism on access to public transit?, how do gender, race/ethnicity, and income inequality affect the journey-to-work in Portland?, and how do household-serving trips vary by gender in Portland? Six hypothesis are tested in answering these questions. Those related to access to transit draw on Fred Block's theory of the capitalist state and the "urban growth machine" concept, both of which predict spatially unequal outcomes from neoliberal ideology. Hypotheses about the journey to work draw on a rich body of literature around social relations in the household and the job market, as well as residential location. The final question, about household-serving trips, draws on theories of gender socialization. Findings showed that: (i) individuals in the Portland metro area had less access overall to bus public transit in 2011 than in 1994; (ii) impoverished dependent riders have lost access to transit service over time, whereas choice dependent riders increased their access to public transit; (iii) low income groups have been "forced" into greater car-ownership, in part due to the lower access to public transit; (iv) women in Portland have shorter journey-to-work trips than men; (v) Blacks have longer journey-to-work trips than Whites and Latinos; (vi) low-income individuals have shorter journey-to-work trips than higher income individuals; and (vii) women with children make more household-serving trips than men in similar family structures.

American urban neighborhoods are a patchwork; the spatial arrangement of types is a reflection of the dominant transportation technology at the time of their development. The earliest suburban areas were made accessible by fixed route systems such as the electric streetcar, followed by the widespread adoption of the automobile; each transportation epoch resulted in characteristic patterns of land use. This study uses aerial photographic coverage of Portland, Oregon from the years 1925, 1936, and 1945, a time of decline for the once popular trolley lines and dramatic increase in automobile usage, to monitor change within the residential areas of Portland's east side over a twenty year period. Classic economic models of the time acknowledged transportation as a force shaping the city; modem ideas in urban planning such as Traditional Neighborhood Design and Transit Oriented Development look to pre-automobile urban form as a means to reduce automobile use and its negative implications. This study uses variables of housing density and street connectivity derived from the aerial photography; the measured values of these variables are then considered for their spatial and temporal distribution using statistical comparisons. The results are compared to ideas within the urban models and current thinking about urban morphology. While generally consistent with the expected patterns, deviations and differences between the two variables are considered for their implications. Models offer a simplified version of the growth of American cities, considering only a few of the many aspects of a dynamic environment. By isolating on these variables of density and connectivity, a greater understanding of their role in arriving at the modem residential urban environment may be reached, and this understanding can add to the discourse in current planning debates.

Transportation availability and land use intensity demonstrate a strong relationship, with intense development concentrated near significant transportation investment. Transportation networks evolved in response to emergent transportation technologies and changing urban land uses. The irregular distribution of transportation systems reinforced patterns of land use development, shaping urban form. Understanding the relationships between transportation and the intensity of land uses allows urban geographers and city planners to explain the urbanization processes, as well as to identify areas historically susceptible to future development. The goal of this research is to develop a quantitative framework for the analysis of the development of urban form and its relationship to urban transportation systems. This research focuses on transportation accessibility, building density, and the structural massing as the basic metrics in the categorization of urban form. Portland, Oregon serves as the case study environment, while the research methodology examines the spatial and statistical relationship between these metrics for much of the city's urban area. Applying geographic information systems (GIS) and k-means cluster analysis, urban form metrics are compared within the ADaM (Accessibility, Density, and Massing) cube, a model demonstrating comparative relationships, as well as the geographic distribution and patterns of urban form in Portland, Oregon's neighborhoods. A finalized urban form catalog describes existing urban environments, but also indicates areas of impending transition, places having the strong potential for reorganization with respect to higher levels of transportation accessibility. The ADaM Cube is a tool for characterizing Portland's existing urban form, and describing the vulnerabilities of urban neighborhoods to the pressure of redevelopment.

Geographic Information System (GIS) address-matching combined with other GIS processing offers new analytical opportunities in the area of transportation planning and analysis. Address-matching, an automated method for generating geographically-referenced (geocoded) point locations on a map from common tabular databases, can facilitate transportation analysis by providing a planning tool based on individual rather than aggregated spatial distributions more common to transportation issues.