Joint Subcommittee on Pedestrian and Bicycle University Education

Subcommittee Purpose

Pedestrian and Bicycle University Education is a joint subcommittee of the Bicycle (ANF20) and Pedestrian (ANF10) Committees. It has three main responsibilities:

• Identify core competencies. The subcommittee is responsible for identifying core competencies for pedestrian and bicycle planning and engineering being taught in university and community college pedestrian and bicycle transportation courses or integrated into other broader courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It will share this information with educators and other users through the subcommittee web page, professional meetings, and other outlets. The subcommittee will also work with stakeholders to identify needs for additional or different core competencies as the field matures.
• Facilitate a network. The subcommittee will provide a base for a national network of faculty and professionals who currently teach or are interested in teaching courses or modules on bicycle and pedestrian transportation. This network will facilitate information-sharing and assist individuals and institutions in creating and updating curricula to best meet educational objectives and knowledge needs for future practice. It will also facilitate identification of barriers to curriculum integration and potential solutions to those barriers.
• Monitor research. The subcommittee will monitor research and evaluation related to curriculum development and implementation for bicycle and pedestrian transportation topics. The subcommittee will encourage and track evaluations and other research on teaching methods, topics, and other instructional methods on bicycle and pedestrian transportation.

Subcommittee Members

Participation in the subcommittee is open to any interested individuals. The best way to get involved is to attend the subcommittee meeting at the TRB Annual Meeting in January or email one of the co-chairs and ask to be added to the email list. The subcommittee is co-chaired by Meghan Wieters of the University of Oklahoma, (kmeghanwieters@ou.edu) and Kristen Brookshire of the UNC Highway Safety Research Center (brookshire@hsrc.unc.edu). Other subcommittee organizers include Bob Schneider of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (rjschnei@uwm.edu) and Laura Sandt of the UNC Highway Safety Research Center (sandt@hsrc.unc.edu).

Activities to Date

Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation Education Workshops

A series of workshops were held at conferences, focusing on Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation Education at the university level. The first was held at ProWalk/ProBike in 2008, followed by a Sunday workshop at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in January 2010, and again at ProWalk/ProBike in 2010. The following are notes from those early meetings and subsequent TRB subcommittee meetings:

• February 2019 Virtual Panel Discussion: Teaching AVs and Impacts on Pedestrian and Bicycle Travel
• January 2018 Subcommittee Meeting Summary
• 2017 Survey Summary: Barriers for bicycle/pedestrian content to be included in engineering programs
• January 2015 TRB Subcommittee Meeting Summary
• January 2015 TRB Subcommittee Presentation—PBIC Course Materials Survey
• January 2014 TRB Subcommittee Meeting Summary
• September 2010 ProWalk/ProBike Committee Session Notes on Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation Education

Listing of University Course Providers

In effort to facilitate a network of course instructors and monitor the number of pedestrian and bicycle courses being taught, the subcommittee has assembled a listing of course providers it has been made aware of; this list may not be complete and some information may have changed. Additionally, many course instructors have shared course materials (such as course syllabus, websites), which can be found at the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center website. Please contact Kristen Brookshire (brookshire@hsrc.unc.edu) to be added to this list or to share course materials on the site.

For More Information

For more information on subcommittee activities or to join the subcommittee, please contact one of the co-chairs: Meghan Wieters (kmeghanwieters@ou.edu) or Kristen Brookshire (brookshire@hsrc.unc.edu). For questions or concerns with the website, please contact Kristen Brookshire.