After Jennifer Dill received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001, she began a job search, and soon after, realized that Portland State was right for her.
“It certainly wasn’t the most money, or the most desirable teaching load, but coming to Portland was very appealing,” said Dill, associate professor and director of PSUs Center for Transportation Studies.
Her choice to come to PSU was the university’s reputation as a quality city-planning school.
“I had worked as a planner after getting my master’s degree, but I really wanted to become a member of the faculty at a planning school,” Dill said.
Dill’s education and planning background have helped her become a leader in the developing and transportation-centered Portland area. In addition to teaching classes on transportation policy and city planning methods, Dill is continuously conducting research related to transportation, travel behavior and air quality.
“Portland is great because planning is taken seriously here,” Dill said. “Plans actually get implemented here, and there is a strong effort to integrate transportation and land use into planning.”
The implementation of research is also one thing that sets Portland apart as an especially advanced planning city, Dill said. “Lots of other cities are starting to do that now, but Portland was kind of a pioneer in that sense.”
Dill said that her main research and educational goal is to help provide people with options so they can make a travel choice other than driving. One noteworthy project she undertook, which is currently in the data accumulation stage, involved mounting G.P.S. units on 150 bicyclists in Portland to get detailed information about the routes that they used.
“We are finding that cyclists are using the bike lanes, the trails and the bike boulevards, and in particular, women are using them,” Dill said. “This type of research can help city leaders plan because they know that certain things are working.”
Dill is also part of a group that is conducting research on transit-oriented developments such as Orenco Station, Beaverton Round and the Russellville Commons–all communities near MAX transit centers.
“We are finding that these developments are working. The people that live there are using the transit systems, and in particular, those on the Westside are using them,” Dill said.
In addition to those projects Dill is also conducting research on the effectiveness of the new green bike boxes popping up at intersections throughout the city and the usefulness of bike boulevards and bike trails.
Through her research Dill hopes to continue to provide information that will help provide transportation options to citizens.
“Most people really have only one reasonable choice, and that is to drive. If we give people a choice that is reasonable and affordable, where they can walk or use transit, generally people will choose not to drive,” Dill said. “But they have to have the choice.”
Even with a challenging schedule and heavy project load, Dill said she finds time to relax in her garden, hiking or “You could find me on a Saturday drinking a beer at a pub.”