KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

2021/2022 ACADEMIC YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER

CE 367 TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

(IDL)

INTRODUCTION TO
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

DR. KENNETH A. TUTU

FEBRUARY – MARCH, 2022
 INTRODUCTION TO
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

Transportation: movement of people, goods and services in a safe and efficient manner.

Transportation engineering: application of technological and scientific principles to the

planning, functional design, operation and management of transportation facilities to
provide for the safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical and environmentally
compatible movement of people and goods (Institute of Transportation Engineers,1987)

Traffic engineering: a discipline of transportation engineering that focuses on the

planning, design and operation of roadways and their interaction with other transportation
modes (ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook, 2016)

Is Transportation Important?
• It contributes to safety, security and economic prosperity. Countries with advanced and
high-quality transportation systems are most often economically successful.
• Without good transportation, a nation fails to achieve maximum use of its natural
resources or maximum productivity of its people.
• Transportation facilities provide options for work, shopping, trading, education, health,
recreation, social interaction, war, production, etc.
• It provides accessibility to attract new industries and spur local economies.
• Bottomline: transportation improves quality of life; it is an integral part of our lives
• Goal: Transportation must be affordable, accessible and sustainable.

Some Major Progress in Transportation

1783 - First successful steamboat
1813 - First steamship crosses Atlantic Ocean
1817 - Bicycle invented in Germany
1837 - Electric locomotive train built
1860 - Commercial internal combustion engine
1865 - First successful petroleum pipeline laid in the U.S.
1886 - Automobile built by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz
1903 - Wright brothers fly first airplane for 37 minutes in the U.S.
1927 - Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic Ocean to Europe
1938 - Diesel engine buses
1956 - U.S. Interstate Highway System construction begins
1958 - First commercial jet plane
1969 - Astronauts landed on moon
1998 - Electric vehicles alternate to internal combustion engines in U.S
2005 - Hybrid vehicles gaining popularity in the U.S.
2005 - Largest passenger airliner (Airbus A380) made first test flight

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 Transportation Engineering Profession
Transportation engineering professionals serve as planners, designers and operators of
transportation systems.
• Planning
o Selection of projects for design and construction
o Forecast of demand, project impact assessment
o Data collection, analysis and evaluation of design alternatives

• Infrastructure Design
o Geometric design
o Pavement design
o Terminals, parking facilities
o Bridges and drainage structures
o Traffic control devices (e.g., traffic signs, markings, signals)

• Construction
o Implementation of infrastructure designs

• Operations Management
o Integration of system and user characteristics to improve safety and efficient flow
o Performance evaluation and system improvement
o Incident management and prevention

• Maintenance Operations
o All work necessary to ensure the transportation system works effectively
o Transportation asset inventory and condition evaluation
o Evaluation of maintenance activities to ensure cost-effectiveness
o Effective planning to ensure optimal timing of maintenance activities

Modes of Transportation
• Roadways (includes bicycles and walking)
• Airways
• Railways
• Waterways
• Continuous flow systems (pipelines)

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 Land Use–Transportation Cycle (Khisty and Lall, 2003)

Land Use

Land
Trips
Value

Transport
Accessibility
Needs

Transport
Facilities

• Land use influences movement and activities, and hence generates trips.
• Trip generation dictates transportation needs and these will, in turn, dictate
transportation facilities (e.g., roads, cars, buses) needed to move traffic
• The additional transportation facilities increase land accessibility and value
• Increased land value affects land use, and the cycle is repeated.

Components of Transportation Systems

• System - transportation facilities and modes in a region that provide mobility.
• Most transportation systems consist of four basic components (elements):
o Links: roadways or tracks that connect points. Pipes, sea-lanes and airways are
considered as links. It is the stationary component of the transportation system.
o Vehicles: means of moving people and goods along a link (e.g., cars, ships,
aircraft). They are the dynamic component of the transportation system.
o Terminals: the nodes where travel and shipment begins or ends. Examples are
parking facilities, bus stops, airports, bus terminals, harbors.
o Management: people who develop, operate, maintain and manage the links,
vehicles and terminals.

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 Evaluation of Transportation Systems
Transportation systems can be evaluated in terms of three attributes:
• Ubiquity: degree of accessibility to the system, directness of route between access
points, and flexibility of the system to accommodate various traffic conditions.
o Highways are more ubiquitous than railways (railways lack flexibility)
o Highways are less ubiquitous than local roads
 Highways do not provide sufficient accessibility to adjoining property
 Local roads offer the maximum accessibility

• Mobility: quantity of travel a system can handle. Two variables relate to mobility:
traffic volume and speed.
o Highways have higher mobility than local roads
 Highways allow high speeds
 Load roads provide low speeds
o Water transport may have low speed, but high capacity per vehicle
o Rail system may have high speed and capacity

• Efficiency: cost of a transportation system versus its productivity

o Direct costs refer to capital and operating costs
o Indirect costs comprise adverse impacts and unquantifiable costs such as safety.

Overview of Transportation Systems (Homburger and Kell, 1988)

Mode Ubiquity Mobility Efficiency
• Very high due to direct • Speeds are limited by • Not high due to safety
access to roads human factors and speed and energy costs
Highways • Direct routing limited by limits
terrain and land use • Vehicle capacity is low
• Limited by large investment • Speed and capacity can be • Generally high, but
Rail transport required for route structures higher compared to labor costs may result
• Constrained by terrain highway mode in low cost efficiency
• Airport costs reduce • Speeds are highest, but • Fairly low due to high
Air transport accessibility capacity per vehicle is energy and operating
• Direct routing limited costs
• Direct routing and • Low speed • Very high due to low
accessibility limited by • Very high capacity per cost, low energy use
Water transport
availability of navigable vehicle • Safety varies
waterways and safe ports
Continuous • Limited to few routes and • Low speeds • Generally high due to
flow systems access points • High capacity low-cost energy use

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Transportation Problems
• Traffic congestion
o Increased travel time
o Driver and passenger frustration
o Environmental pollution
o Increased vehicle operating cost (e.g., fuel, wear and tear)

• Safety issues
o WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety (2015)
 About 1.3 million people die each year from road traffic crashes.
 Road crashes cost most countries 3% of their GDP.
 Over 50% of road fatalities involve pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
 93% of road fatalities occur in low- and middle-income countries; these
countries have approximately 60% of the world's vehicles.
 Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-29 years
o Ghana National Road Safety Authority - responsible for road safety management

[Data sources: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1197163/road-traffic-deaths-and-injuries-in-ghana/#statisticContainer

http://nrsa.gov.gh/images/statistics/ROAD-TRAFFIC-CRASH-STATISTICS-2016.pdf]

• Insufficient public transport; pedestrian and parking facilities

• Fuel price increases
• Equity problems (e.g., the poor perceive that public funds unduly benefit the rich)

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• Environmental impacts
o Fumes may contain carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and volatile organic
compounds, which affect global warming (climate change)
o Climate change affects transportation system design, operation and safety.
 Extreme weather events, rising temperature and rising sea level
o Noise and water pollution; waste generation (e.g., tyres, engine oil)

• Priority should not only be on infrastructure provision, but also on maintenance,

operational efficiency, safety and environmental mitigation.

Emerging Transportation Technologies

• Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) –advanced technologies ranging from in-
vehicle components to traffic management systems that minimize traffic congestion,
facilitate navigation and improve safety.
• Examples of ITS applications:
o Smart traffic signal control systems sense heavy traffic flows at road intersections
and adjust the timing of signals automatically to accommodate the flows.
o Incident management systems detect and manage non-recurrent traffic congestion
caused by random unpredictable incidents, such as traffic accidents, lane blockages,
and hazardous material spills.
o Electronic toll collection systems.
o Emergency response allows emergency vehicle to control traffic signals.
o Traffic information systems provide information to users travel plan adjustment.
o Route guidance systems are based on GPS technology and assist motorists with
distance and direction information to selected destinations.

• Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)

o Connected vehicles send and receive information from other vehicles and central
controls, and potentially from infrastructure sensors that may transmit pavement
conditions and other factors relevant to vehicle operation.
o Autonomous vehicles: driver abilities (e.g., reaction times, sight distances,
detection of changing road conditions due to weather, prediction of other drivers’
actions) and driver decisions (vehicle-following distances, speed, route and lane
choices, traffic signal compliance, etc.) are software- and sensor-controlled.
o CAVs may increase highway capacity, improve safety and reduce energy use.
o Mixture of autonomous vehicles and human drivers may be challenging as sensors
must detect and software must respond to a wide-range of human-driver behaviors.