CHAPTER 1

Introduction
1.1 TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

■ Transportation Engineering is the application of scientific principles to the

planning, design, operation, and management of transportation systems. As
commonly used, however, the term refers to a subspecialty of civil
engineering.
■ This breadth of material presents a challenge, especially in an introductory
course. Any such course needs to serve at least three purposes:
a) To provide general information about the practice of transportation
engineering for students who will practice other civil engineering
specialties,
b) To prepare students who will practice in transportation-related jobs
immediately upon graduation, and
c) To provide the necessary background for students who wish to pursue
graduate studies in transportation engineering.
1.2 CIVIL ENGINEERING INVOLVEMENT IN
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
■ If viewed in functional terms the transportation system includes the following
components:
1. Physical facilities, including streets, roads, and highways; railroads, airports,
sea and river ports, pipelines, and canals.
2. Fleets of vehicles, vessels and aircraft.
3. Operating bases and facilities, including vehicle maintenance facilities and
office space.
4. Organizations
a) Facility-oriented organizations – primarily involved in planning, constructing,
maintaining, and operating fixed facilities.
b) Operating Organizations – also known as carriers, are primarily concerned with
operating fleets to provide transportation services.
5. Operating strategies, including vehicle routing, scheduling and traffic control.
CIVIL ENGINEERING INVOLVEMENT IN
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING (contd.)
■ The primary involvement of civil engineers in transportation
has been in the provision of physical facilities and the
devising of operating strategies for them.
1. Physical civil engineering – includes the design,
construction and maintenance of fixed transportation
facilities and involves the full spectrum of civil engineering
specialties.
2. System engineering – this involves transportation planning,
including the analysis of transportation demand; analysis of
system capacity and operating characteristics; and the
design of traffic control and operating strategies.
1.3 MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

■ Highways
■ Urban Transit
■ Air
■ Rail
■ Water
■ Pipelines
■ Other Modes
Highways
■ The highway system is the most
dominant transportation mode.
■ The major service characteristics of the
highways system include very high
accessibility to almost all potential
destinations, direct service with very
low door-to-door travel times, moderate
line haul speeds, and moderate
capacities.
Mode classification scheme of
Highways Freight Passenger
Urban Truck (highway) Private auto (highway)
Transit (highway/rail)

Intercity Truck (highway) Private auto (highway)

Rail Bus (highway)
Ocean shipping Rail
Inland water Air
Pipeline
Air
Special Purpose Conveyor belt
Cable systems
Urban Transit
■ Urban Transit is a highly specialized mode. It
includes traditional mass transit modes such as
buses, streetcars, and light rail and rapid rail transit,
as well as paratransit modes such as jitneys and
dial-a-ride services.
■ Line haul speeds vary a great deal. In the case of
local bus transit services, they tend to be
considerably lower than those of automobiles on the
same streets. Accessibility depends on the route and
stop/station spacing, but is generally less than for
private autos.
Air
■ The air transportation system includes commercial
airlines, airfreight carriers, and general aviation
(private aircraft). The major market is intercity
passenger travel, particularly long-distance travel.
■ The primary service characteristics of air
transportation is its high line haul speed.
Accessibility is limited, but this is of relatively little
importance because of great length of most of the
trips are made by air.
Rail
■ The intercity rail system consists of the private
railroads, which operates most intercity
passenger rail service.
■ The rail system provide moderate speeds and
levels of accessibility, but traditional operating
practices lead to high and unreliable door-to-
door travel times.
Water
■ The domestic water transportation system consists
of ocean shipping and barge lines operating on
inland waterways. Vessel includes barges and
towboats on the inland waterways and various types
of ships. Major types of oceangoing freighters
include container ships, bulk cargo carriers, and oil
tankers.
■ The water transportation system provide low speed
and relatively low accessibility, but extremely high
capacities.
Pipelines

■ Pipeline constitutes a highly specialized freight

transportation systems. Their market is almost
entirely crude oil, petroleum products, and
natural gas. They provide very low speed, high
capacity continuous flow transportation and
involve a large amount of working storage.
Other modes
■ A variety of other modes exist, although none of
them plays major role in the overall transportation
system at present. Cable and belt systems are
extensively for transportation of freight within
industrial complexes. In addition, these are used for
specialized passenger transportation systems such
as ski lifts and moving belts in airports. There are
also several novel modes which are under
development or which have been proposed from
time to time.
Exercise No. 1
■ The class will be divided into groups of seven students each. In each group,
each student will choose one of the seven transportation modes discussed
in this chapter. Each student will be responsible for identifying and
discussing three specific examples of vehicles, vessels, aircraft, or the like
representing the mode chosen. Each student will prepare a one-page
summary of the characteristics of each of the three examples of his or her
mode. These summaries should discuss the systems in terms of their
mobility (routes, vehicles, speed, and capacity), accessibility (amount of
accessibility and types of interfaces), type of service, and cost (capital and
operating). Specific information should be supplied for each category; this
information may be gathered from technical articles, books,
manufacturer’s data, government reports, personal contacts or other
appropriate sources. In addition, each group will prepare a one-page
tabular summary of all examples investigated by members of the group.