lecture 1 - intro & statistics

7/27/2019 Lecture 1 - Intro & Statistics

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CEE3604 INTRODUCTION TO

TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERINGKelly Donoughe

Graduate Student

Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University



It’s time to start thinking differently

about what you thought you knew…



Introduction toTransportation

Infrastructure

Pavement Design

Infrastructure Condition Assessment

Systems

Highway Geometric Design

Traffic Engineering Advanced Signal Control

Transportation Safety Highway Safety

Multi-modal Transportation Airport Design

Planning TransportationFacilities

Traffic Flow Theory

Planning

Planning of Mass Transit

Transportation and Land Use

Transportation SystemsPlanning

Human Factors

Transportation Safety

ISE Courses

T.I.S.E.



Course Goals and Objectives

• Goal: Provide a general background in surface

transportation

• Objectives:• Describe vehicle acceleration & deceleration behavior

• Design the geometric layout of a roadway

• Design a pavement structurally

• Evaluate the operation of roadways

• Conduct basic traffic flow & signal analysis• Forecast traffic growth



Course Layout

Driver andVehicle

Characteristics

HumanFactors

VehicleBraking and

Acceleration

GeometricDesign

HorizontalCurves

VerticalCurves

PavementDesign

FlexiblePavement

RigidPavement



Course Layout (cont.)

TrafficFlow

DataCollection:

Speed, Flow,Density

QueuingTheory

Level of Service

HighwayCapacity

Multi- andTwo-LaneHighways

TrafficSignals

SignalPhasing

Signal TimingPlans



Course Layout (cont.)

Planning

TravelDemand

TravelForecasting

BonusTopics

HumanFactors

Transport.Safety



What do Transportation Engineers do?



Why Study Transportation?

• You have been affected by transportation issues already

• You are guaranteed to make an impact on everybody’s life

• It’s the melting pot of many interesting fields

• Virtually every aspect of the US economy is tied directly or

indirectly to highways

• Movement of people & freight

• Interstate Highway System was the largest civil

engineering project (built primarily in the 1960s & 70s)

• Designed with a 20 year lifespan… now what?!



Modes of Transportation

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Transportation Facts

• 3.9 million miles of public roads

• 2 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines

• 120,000 miles of major railroads

• Over 25,000 miles of commercially navigable waterways• Over 5,000 public use airports

• Over 500 major urban public transit operators

• Over 300 ports on coasts, lakes, and inland waterways



Major Players

External Factors:



Important and Emerging Issues

• US highway fatalities exceeded 50,000 in the 1970s

• Just over 32,000 fatalities in 2011

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N

u m b e r o f F a t a l i t i e s

Ages of Fatally Injured Occupants



The Impact of Technology

• Advances in traffic signal timing

• Introduction of ITS



Human Behavior

• Dominance of private car usage

• Trips increased from 69% in 1960 to 90% now

• Occupancy within the vehicles has decreased from 1.22 to 1.09

• Strategies to increase car sharing• HOV, Toll Roads, HOT lanes

• Ride sharing

• Congestion!!!

• Fuel prices!!!



Human Behavior

• Many US metropolitan areas have experienced population

decline in central cities

• City sprawl to the suburbs

• Need for more highways and less efficient transit systems

• Employment has moved to suburbs

• Tendency toward low-density, private vehicle-based development



Using Fatality Statistics

• Fatality Analysis Recording System (NHTSA)• http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/QueryTool/QuerySection/selectyear.aspx

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/QueryTool/QuerySection/selectyear.aspx







• Select Year




• Pick Tables to Query (2010 - present)




• Pick variables to research




• Narrow down your field (hold down ctrl to select multiple

crash characteristics




• Build your table

• # fatalities, # vehicles, or # crashes




• Copy data table

lecture 1 - intro & statistics

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