his partner Lydia Rich have established
a scholarship to promote bike/ped research.
(Photo J. Maus)
BTA co-founder and Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder and his partner Lydia Rich (a public school teacher in North Portland) have made a commitment to Portland State University’s growing reputation as a hub for livable cities research.
In 2007, the couple established the The Rex Burkholder and Lydia Rich Scholarship. The $5,000 prize is awarded to a graduate student who “intends to be active in developing a future where bicyclists and pedestrians play a major role in the livability of urban areas.”
According to the annual report of PSU’s Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI) (you can download it here), the first recipient of the award was Dana Dickman. Dickman is studying the relationship of proximity to pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities with household transportation costs.
In an email over the weekend, Mr. Burkholder wrote that he and Ms. Rich started the scholarship, “as a challenge to PSU”. Burkholder said he wants PSU to boldly claim that they are the premier place to study biking and walking in the U.S. He also hopes that scholars take their knowledge beyond Portland’s borders, writing that, “it does us no good to be a livable place if the rest continues to sprawl and be car dependent, right?”
One PSU researcher, Jennifer Dill, has already made headlines for her pioneering work on using GPS to analyze route choices made by people who ride bikes.