CHAPTER 1

Introduction
1.1TRANSPORTATION 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.
1.2CIVIL ENGINEERING INVOLVEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
If viewed in functional terms the transportation system includes the following components:
Physical facilities, including streets, roads, and highways; railroads, airports, sea
and river ports, pipelines, and canals.
Fleets of vehicles, vessels and aircraft.
Operating bases and facilities, including vehicle maintenance facilities and office
space.
Organizations
Facility-oriented organizations primarily involved in planning, constructing,
maintaining, and operating fixed facilities.
Operating Organizations also known as carriers, are primarily concerned with
operating fleets to provide transportation services.
Operating strategies, including vehicle routing, scheduling and traffic control.
The primary involvement of civil engineers in transportation has been in the provision of
physical facilities and the devising of operating strategies for them.
Physical civil engineering includes the design, construction and maintenance of
fixed transportation facilities and involves the full spectrum of civil engineering
specialties.
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.
1.3MODES OF TRANSPORTATION
1. 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
Freight
Urban
Truck (highway)

Intercity

Truck (highway)
Rail
Ocean shipping
Inland water
Pipeline
Air

Passenger
Private auto
(highway)
Transit
(highway/rail)
Private auto
(highway)
Bus (highway)
Rail
Air

Special
Purpose

Conveyor belt
Cable systems

2. 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 hau 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.
3. 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 are 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.
4. Rail
The intercity rail system consists of the private railroads, which operates
most intercity passenger rail service.
The rail system provides moderate speeds and levels of accessibility, but
traditional operating practices lead to high and unreliable door-to-door travel times.
5. 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 provides low speed and relatively low
accessibility, but extremely high capacities.
6. Pipelines
Pipeline constitutes 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.
7. 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.
Reference:
James H. Banks, Introduction to Transportation Engineering
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, manufacturers 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.
Prepared by: Engr. Jennifer C. Cacal