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Chayil Love V. Miscreola BSCE-4A

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

PA – 1 (Homework)

1. What is Transportation Engineering?

Transportation Engineering is a branch of civil engineering that deals with building

transportation systems for the benefit of developing productive, efficient, safe, and livable

communities. It involves planning, designing, construction operation and maintenance of

highways, roads, railways, waterways, airway systems, oil pipelines, public transportation

systems, traffic control systems and space transport systems (Michigan State University, 2021).

2. Explain the importance of Transportation Engineering.

Transportation Engineering is important because it is a major contributor to the

economic, industrial, social and cultural development of a country. Every product or service

provided by businesses needs transport facilities for production and distribution. People travel

from time to time from one place to another to go their work, schools, market or homes.

Transportation therefore connects not only businesses but people together (Branded Civil, 2020).

3. Discuss the following:

a. The importance of Transportation Engineering

Transportation Engineering contributes to economic, social, and commercial

development of a country. It helps also in cultural and political development. It is not only

beneficial for urban areas, but it is a vital factor for developing rural areas and connecting them

to cities. They also improve production of employees and increasing employment opportunities,
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improves living standard of citizens, helps improve science and technology, and enhances the

import and export of a country (Branded Civil, 2020).

b. The history of transportation

The first mode of transportation of humans was human foot. Then people discovered that

logs of trees float on water, so they cut out logs and shape it to form simple logboats to traverse

on water bodies (BYJU, 2020). The Pesse canoe was the oldest logboat that was discovered

which dates back from 7600 BCE. Also, rafts are also the next oldest mode of waterway

transportation (Nguyen, 2020).

Next to waterway transportation, people discovered how to ride horses which was around

4000 BCE based from genetic evidences from horses, including musculature and cognitive

function of horses. Around 3500 BCE, first wheeled vehicles were used which had historic

evidences found in Mesopotamia, Northern Caucuses, and Central Europe (Nguyen, 2020).

By 1769, Watt steam engine was invented by James Watt. It paved the way to developing

steam-engine powered boats. In 1783, Claude de Jouffroy built the world’s first steamship.

Though many tried to make steamships that are practical for mass transportation, but it was

Robert Fulton who made it commercially open and usable. In 1807, the Clermont made a trip

from New Orleans to Albany which is a 150-mile and 32 hours long trip. From then, steamships

it became a huge part of mass transportation in major cities. By 1867, the world’s first steam-

powered motorcycle was invented. Though this was not the first time that a land transportation

vehicle was invented to be run by steam power, but it was the first to be made practical and

lightweight enough to run at a decent speed (Nguyen, 2020).

By 1801, the first locomotive was invented by Richard Trevithick which he named

“Puffing Devil” and used it to give a ride for six passengers. After three years, Trevithick

invented a locomotive that ran on rails. By 1814, the “Father of Railways” George Stephenson

designed an eight-wagon locomotive which hauls 30 tons of coal uphill at a speed of four miles

per hour which was used for mass transportation. He was also the one who opened the Liverpool

and Manchester Railway which was the first public inter-city locomotive railway line (Nguyen,

2020). By 1957, the Soviet Union where the first to send a satellite to the outer space. 4 years

after that, they were the first to send man to space who was Yuri Gagarin riding their spacecraft

named Vostok 1. By 1969, United States was the first to set foot at the moon (Nguyen, 2020).

By 1620, Cornelis Drebbel invented the first navigable submarine. On 1776, “Turtle”

which was the first military submarine was used in battle. By 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright

was able to fly the world’s first airplane. British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Brown flew from

Canada to Ireland in 1919 to accomplish the first transatlantic flight. That year, passengers were

able to take international flight for the first time. By 1907, Paul Cornu invented the first

helicopter and took flight successfully (Nguyen, 2020).

4. How does transportation impact people’s daily lives?

Transportation plays a huge role in transporting people who are working at places far

from their homes, students who are studying at schools far from their homes, transporting raw

materials and agricultural goods from rural areas to industrial factories and manufacturers. It also

helpful in distributing the goods ad products manufactured from the factories into market areas in

urban cities (Branded Civil, 2020). Transportation also connects people socially, culturally, and

political.
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5. What can you say about the transportation in our country?

The transportation in our country needs to be improved since it tends to be built for cars

only. It was just lately that they tried to incorporate bikes, but I still doubt the safety of bike lanes

since jeepneys and motors tend to pass through the bike lanes. Also, as we can see in

metropolitan cities like in NCR, Cebu, and Davao City, subways are not yet prevalent. Only

metro railways are used but it is still lacking. Many people still tend to ride jeepneys and bus

which would then contribute to traffic. If subway systems and more metro railways where

developed, there would be less public vehicles and even private vehicles on the roads which

would then result to less traffic. But due to lacking and old metro railway systems, people tend to

buy cars just to get to work faster and not go with the crowd and wait on the line just to ride a

train. We must invest of improving public transportation to lessen private cars and which would

then lessen carbon emission and not just invest on roads alone. We must also eliminate

corruption in DPWH since corruption is still prevalent in that department which would

negatively affect the quality of transportation projects they produce for the community.

6. How do you see this course can help you in your future profession

I believe that this course will help me understand more transportation engineering in the

bigger picture and as well as in the microscopic level. I believe that this subject would be able to

prepare me in developing skills in planning, designing, construction operation and maintaining

different transport systems both for private and public use.

References:

Michigan State University. (2021, October 25). What is transportation engineering? Online

Engineering Master's Programs. Retrieved July 21, 2022, from

https://online.egr.msu.edu/articles/what-is-transportation-engineering/

Branded Civil. (2020, February 4). Transportation Engineering -Definition,Importance & Modes

of Transportation. https://www.brandedcivil.com/2020/01/transportation-

engineering.html

BYJU. (2021, March 22). History of Transportation. BYJUS.

https://byjus.com/physics/transportation-

history/#:%7E:text=Around%203500%20BC%2C%20the%20first,oars%20to%20direct

%20the%20vehicle.

Nguyen, T. (2020, January 10). From Horses to Rocket Ships: A Brief History of Getting Around.

ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-transportation-4067885