Implementing a Community Transportation Academy

For over 25 years, the Portland Bureau of Transportation has partnered with Portland State University to offer the Portland Traffic and Transportation Course – a free 10-week course designed to provide local community members the skills and knowledge to participate in transportation decisions affecting their neighborhoods. This learning model has proven to be a success story in public agency-university partnership in community education, and in strengthening community conversations and advocacy around local priorities in transportation policy.

Building upon a 2015 project that documented the Portland course and developed a curriculum handbook, the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) provided more funding for a pilot community transportation class–the Wasatch Transportation Academy– in Salt Lake, City Utah from Jan - March, 2022.

In summer 2022 researchers at Portland State University (PSU) and University of Utah (UU) will be sharing in a report and other products:

• A case study of the first year sharing the takeaways from the experience of launching this community learning model in the Wasatch Front. And, a five year plan of how this particular class could evolve over time.
• An updated Community Transportation Academy Curriculum Handbook, addressing the differences of this class in a city versus one with a regional approach, as well as just the experience of having implemented one outside of Portland. What can be generalized to any location versus what might be specific to a city or region? The curriculum will also be updated to share how to address these transportation topics with a focus on equity.

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