Transportation Engineering
Chapter 1: introduction to transportation engineering
1.1 Overview
TRANSPORTATION
- Is all about moving goods and people from one place to another.
- It is a safe, efficient, reliable, and sustainable movement of persons and goods over
time and space.
Transportation Engineering or Transport Engineering is the application of technology and
scientific principles to the planning, functional design, operation and management of facilities
for any mode of transportation in order to provide for the safe, efficient, rapid, comfortable,
convenient, economical, and environmentally compatible movement of people and goods
transport.
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
- One of the specialty areas of civil engineering
Development of facilities for the movement of goods and people
Planning, design, operation and maintenance
- An interesting or exciting area
Transportation has always played an essential role in the development of society, originally
with regard to trade routes and harbors, but more recently with recently with regard to land-
and air- based systems as well.
It is the transportation engineer’s responsibility to plan, design, build, operate, and maintain
these systems of transport, in such a way as to provide for the safe, efficient and convenient
movement of people and goods.
The planning aspects of transportation engineering relate to elements of urban planning, and
involve technical forecasting decisions and political factors.
Technical forecasting of passenger travel usually involves an urban, transportation planning
model requiring the estimation of:
1. Trip generation
2. Trip distribution
3. Mode choice, and
4. Route Assignment
More sophisticated forecasting can include other aspects of traveler decisions, including:
Auto ownership
Trip Chaining (the decision to link individual trips together in a tour) and
The choice of residential or business location (known as land use forecasting).
TRANSPORTATION-LAND USE INTERACTIONS
Transportation
Landscapes
Economic Processes
Demographic Processes Activity Accessibility
Technological changes Patterns
Public Policy
Land Use
Passenger trips are the focus of transportation engineering because they often represent the
peak of demand on any transportation system.
Transportation engineering primarily involves planning, design, construction, maintenance,
and operation of transportation facilities.
The facilities support air, highway, railroad, pipeline, water, and even space transportation.
The design aspects of transportation engineering include the sizing of transportation facilities
(how many lanes or how much capacity the facility has), determining the materials and
thickness used in pavement designing the geometry (vertical and horizontal alignment) of the
railway (or track).
Before any planning occurs, an engineer must take what is known as an inventory of the area
or, if it is appropriate, the previous system in place. This inventory or database must include
information on:
1. Population
2. Land use,
3. Economic activity,
4. Transportation facilities and services,
5. Travel patterns and volumes
6. Laws and ordinances
7. Regional financial resources, and
8. Community values and expectations.
These inventories help the engineer create business models to complete accurate forecast of
the future conditions of the system. Operations and management involve traffic engineering,
so that vehicles move smoothly on the road or track.
Older techniques include:
1. Signs,
2. Signals,
3. Markings, and
4. Tolling.
NEWER TECHNOLOGIES
Involve:
1. Intelligent Transportation Systems
Including advanced traveler information systems (such as variable message
signs),
Advanced traffic control systems (such as ramp meters)
Vehicle infrastructure integration
Human Factors are an aspect of transportation engineering, particularly concerning driver-
vehicle interface of road signs, signals, and markings.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
The characteristics of transportation system that makes it diverse and complex are:
1. Multi-modal: Covering all modes of transport; air, land and sea for both passenger
and freight.
2. Multi-sector: Encompassing the problems and viewpoints of government, private
industry, and public.
TASK PLAYERS IN TRANSPORTATION
STAKE HOLDERS
Not customers/ suppliers
SUPPLY INDUSTRY
but are concerned, for e.g.
FINANCIAL environmentalists, the
COMMUNITY & Vehicle providers, etc.
public concerned with
DONORS economic development,
quality of life, etc.
Banks, debt
TRANSPORTATION
COMPETITION SYSTEM
THE CUSTOMER
Intra-modal (other taxies),
inter-modal (taxes vs. buses), Their needs (travel time,
the consumers money (buy a price, reliability, should be
house/car?), etc. recognized.
GOVERNMENT GENERAL PUBLIC
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