1.0 Introduction to Transportation Engineering Flashcards
is the application of scientific principles to the planning, design, operation and management of transportation system.
Transportation Engineering
- A system is something that may be thought of as a whole consisting of parts or components.
- is a functional system that provides a service (the movement of goods and people from place to place.
- is one of the major functional systems of modern society.
The transportation system
including streets, roads, and highways, railroads, airports, sea and river ports, pipelines and canals.
Physical Facilities
of vehicles, vessels, and aircraft.
Fleets
including vehicle maintenance facilities and office space.
Operating bases and facilities
Facility-oriented organizations or Operating organizations
Organizations
including vehicle routing, scheduling, and traffic control.
Operating Strategies
is described in terms of the accessibility of the mode, the level of mobility it provides, and its productivity.
Effectiveness
refers to the cost of getting to and from a place to another and depends primarily on geographical extensiveness.
Accessibility
is described in terms of speed or travel time.
Mobility
refers to some measure of the total amount of transportation provided per unit time. The amount of transportation is usually thought of as the product of the volume of goods or passengers carried and distance.
Productivity
- is the most dominant transportation mode.
- Very high accessibility to almost all potential destinations; direct service with very low door-to-door travel time; moderate line-haul speeds and; moderate capacities.
- Environmental impacts of the system are high, particularly in the case of air pollution.
Highways
- It includes traditional mass transit modes such as buses, streetcars, and light rail and rail rapid transit, as well as paratransit modes such as jitneys and dial-a-ride services.
- Line-haul speeds and door-to-door travel time vary.
- Environmental impacts are less than those of private automobiles.
Urban Transit
making work trips into dense central business districts.
Commuters
those without access to automobiles.
Captive riders
- This transportation system includes commercial airlines, airfreight carriers, and general aviation (private aircraft).
- High line-haul speed; accessibility is limited; capacities of individual aircraft are moderate; capital and operating costs are both high but high productivity results in moderate costs per passenger carried.
- Environmental impacts are significant, especially the noise impacts of commercial aviation.
Air
- This 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 time.
- Capital costs of locomotives and railcars, and maintenance costs for track are also relatively high.
- Environmental impacts are comparatively low.
Rail
- This domestic transportation system consists of coastwise ocean shipping and barge lines operating on inland waterways.
- Provides low speed and relatively low accessibility, but extremely high capacities.
- Capital cost of vessels is high.
- 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.
Water
Scope of Highway Engineering
- Development, planning, and location
- Highway design, geometric, and structure
- Traffic performance and its control
- Materials, construction, and maintenance
- Economic, finance, and administration
- Roads are used by various types of road vehicles, like passenger cars, buses, trucks, pedal cycle, and animal drawn vehicle.
- It requires a relatively small investment for the government.
- It offers a complete freedom to road users to transfer the vehicle from one lane to another and from one road to another according to need and convenience.
- Speed and movement is directly related with the severity of accident.
- Road transport is the only means of transport that offers itself to the whole community alike.
Characteristics of Road Transport
exists wherever demand exceeds the capacity of the transportation system.
Traffic congestion
is a condition on transport networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queuing.
Traffic congestion
- Managing congestion
- Improving safety
- Providing equal access
- Protecting the environment
Performance of the transportation system
- Incorporating new technology
- Securing financial resources
- Developing adequate institutional arrangements
Performance of the transportation engineering profession, economic and political system