1 Introduction To Transportation Engineering 1

INTRODUCTION
Transportation Engineering
Transportation engineering is the application of scientific principles to the

planning, design, operation, and management of transportation systems
The Transportation System
Transportation is one of the major functional systems of modern society. A

system, in the sense intended here, is something that may be thought of as a
whole consisting of parts or components. The description of a system
involves identification of the system itself as distinct from its environment
(that is, the rest of the world), identification of its components, and a
description of how the components interact. In the case of the transportation
system, the components may be conceived of in various ways. For instance,
they may be thought of as entities that perform various functions in the
provision of transportation or as being the different modes of transportation.
The transportation system is a functional system in the context of society as

a whole because it provides a service-the movement of goods and people
from place to place-that is essential to the functioning of the community as a
whole. It is a major functional system because it is an essential feature in the
economy and the personnel lives of people everywhere.
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. These may be classified roughly as facility-oriented
organizations and operating organizations. Facility-oriented
organizations are primarily involved in planning, designing,
constructing, maintaining, and operating fixed facilities. Operating
organizations, also known as carriers, are primarily concerned with
operating fleets to provide transportation services. They include
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railroads, airlines, ship or barge lines, truck lines, transit operators,
and private individuals who operate automobiles, motorcycles, and
bicycles.
 Operating strategies include vehicle routing, scheduling, and traffic
control.
The provision of transportation service results when various organizations

construct physical facilities and deploy fleets in accordance with their
operating strategies. In order for the system to function effectively, the
interactions of the various components must be understood. For instance, in
order to design a highway effectively, it is necessary to know the
characteristics of both the vehicles and the drivers that will use it, and to be
aware of the traffic control strategies that will be employed.
Objectives and Constraints. From a historical point of view, there have been
several motives for public and private investment in transportation
systems. The most important of these have military, political, or
economic bases.
Examples of transportation systems motivated primarily by military

considerations include the road network by Romans and Napoleon, and the
German autobahns built by Hitler in the 1930s. Another traditional
motivation for establishing transportation systems is to ‘knit together’ the
inhabitants of a territory by providing mutual access and communication.
More commonly, transportation is thought of as an economic activity, and

decisions about transportation systems are motivated by economic concerns.
The most basic function of the transportation system is to create what is
called time or place utility through the physical transfer of persons or goods
from one location to another-in other words, the value of goods depends on
where they are and when they are there. Basic economic resources and
human population are scattered widely over the face of the earth; in order for
a complex economy to exist, raw materials must be extracted, brought
together in the form of manufacturing process, and then brought to market.
Normally, all steps in this process will require some form of transportation.
This leads to two major conclusions about the economic role of

transportation systems. First, an adequate transportation infrastructure is
necessary for a high level of economic activity to exist. Second, most
transportation is not something undertaken for its own sake, but is what is
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referred to as a secondary good, whose value depends on the value of the
goods transported or the service performed by passengers at their
destinations.
Modes of Transportation
Highways. The major service characteristics of the highway 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.
Capital costs of physical facilities vary a great deal depending on the type
and capacity of roadways, but on the whole are moderate. Vehicles are
relatively small, and hence individual vehicles tend to be cheaper and more
readily available than for most other modes. The total investment in vehicles
and facilities, of course, is quite high.
Operating costs tend to be relatively high; however, the cost of labor

involved in operating private vehicles is rarely recognized, and if this is
omitted, the cost of operating a private passenger vehicle is often lower than
that of competing public passenger modes.
Environmental impacts of the system as a whole are high, and are a major
social concern, particularly in the case of air pollution.
Urban Transit. 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. In the case of rail rapid transit
systems, they can be quite high where stations are spaced far enough
apart.
Door-to-door travel times, however, are almost always greater than those of
automobiles except in congested central business districts with rail transit or
busways (that is, special roadways used exclusively by buses. Accessibility
depends on route and stop/station spacing, but is generally less than for
private autos. Capacities are high.
Capital costs for rail systems are high, both for fixed facilities and vehicles.
Capital costs per seat for bus systems are comparable to those of other
highway modes. Operating costs for both bus and rail systems are moderate,
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but operating cost per trip is almost always higher than the fare.
Environmental impacts are generally regarded as being less than those of
private automobiles serving comparable trips.
Air. The primary service characteristic of air transportation is its high line-
haul speed. Accessibility is limited, but this is of relatively little importance
because of the great length of most of the trips made by air. Capacities of
individual aircraft are moderate, but productivity is high due to the very high
speeds. Capital and operating costs are both quite high for the commercial
air system, but once again, high productivity results in moderate costs per
passenger carried.
Costs of general aviation airports and aircraft are moderate, and are usually
in the same range as (although somewhat higher than) those of highway
facilities and vehicles of comparable capacity. Environmental impacts are
significant, especially the noise impacts of commercial aviation, but are of
much less concern than those of the highway system.
Rail. The rail system provides moderate speeds and levels of accessibility,
but traditional operating practices, which involve relatively short hauls
between rail yards, where trains are broken up and reassembled, lead to high
and unreliable door-to-door travel times. The industry has recently attempted
to improve the overall speed and reliability of service through innovations
such as unit trains, which run direct from point-to-point or containerized
freight services which reduce loading and unloading times.
Physical facilities for railways represent a heavy investment, but this is

mostly sunk by now and does not represent an ongoing expense. Capital
costs of locomotives and railcars are also relatively high, and productivity is
often low. Maintenance costs for track are relatively high. Operating costs
per ton-mile are low, but the efficiency of traditional operating strategies is
poor. Environmental impacts are comparatively low, and the energy
efficiency of rail per ton is comparatively high.
Water. The water transportation system provides low speed and relatively
low accessibility, but extremely high capacities. The capital cost of vessels is
high, but operating costs per ton-mile are extremely low. Environmental
impacts are relatively low, but water pollution from routine discharges of oil
and other pollutants, as well as from major oil spills involving tankers, is a
significant problem.
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Pipelines. They provide very low-speed, high capacity continuous flow
transportation, and involve a large amount of working storage. Costs are low.
Typically capital costs for the pipeline, pumping stations, and the like
account for 70 to 80 percent of total costs; operating costs are very low and
depend mostly on pumping costs. The environmental impact of pipelines is
normally quite low once they are built, but construction impacts have
sometimes been of major concern.

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INTRODUCTION

Transportation engineering is the application of scientific principles to the

The Transportation System

Transportation is one of the major functional systems of modern society. A

The transportation system is a functional system in the context of society as

If viewed in functional terms, the transportation system includes the

 Physical facilities, including streets, roads, and highways; railroads,

The provision of transportation service results when various organizations

Examples of transportation systems motivated primarily by military

More commonly, transportation is thought of as an economic activity, and

This leads to two major conclusions about the economic role of

Highways. The major service characteristics of the highway system include

Operating costs tend to be relatively high; however, the cost of labor

Physical facilities for railways represent a heavy investment, but this is

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