DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Transport Engineering (CENG 3101)

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION
ENGINEERING
Historical Background and Future
1.
Trends of Transportation
At the end of this
2. Modes of Transport
chapter, students will be
able to
 Explain Transport
system
By Haile G. October 2023
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Overview
What is transportation?
 Transportation is all about moving goods and people from one place to another

 It is also Safe, efficient, reliable, and sustainable movement of persons and

goods over time and space

What is Transportation Engineering?

 Transportation Engineering is the application of technology and scientific
principles to the planning, functional design, operation and management of
facilities for any mode of transportation in order to provide for the
 Safe,

 Rapid,

 Comfortable,

 Convenient,

 Economical, and

 Environmentally compatible movement of people and goods.

Introduction to Transportation Engineering

 In Addition
 Transportation engineering is a type of civil engineering which
focuses on
 The infrastructure of transportation:
 All the elements which support the movement of goods and
people.
 Transportation engineers design
 Runways, build bridges, layout roads and plan docking facilities.
 They look at traffic patterns, determine when new transport
facilities are needed and come up with better ways to get from
point a to point b.
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

 Mobility is a basic human need. From the times immemorial, everyone

travels either for food or leisure.
 A closely associated need is the transport of raw materials to a
manufacturing unit or finished goods for consumption. Transportation
fulfils these basic needs of humanity. Transportation plays a major role
in the development of the human civilization
 For instance, one could easily observe the strong correlation between the evolution
of human settlement and the proximity of transport facilities. Also, there is a strong
correlation between the quality of transport facilities and standard of living, because
of which society places a great expectation from transportation facilities. In other
words, the solution to transportation problems must be
 Analytically based,
 Economically sound,
 Socially credible and environmentally sensitive.
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Alternatively
 The Transportation Solution Should Be
 Safe,

 Rapid,

 Comfortable,

 Convenient,

 Economical, and eco friendly for both men and

material
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

The characteristics of transportation system

 The characteristics of transportation system that makes it diverse and complex are
1. Multi-modal: Covering all modes of transport; air, land, and sea for both
passenger and freight.
2. Multi-sector: Encompassing the problems and viewpoints of government, private
industry, and public.
3. Multi-problem: Ranging across a spectrum of issues that includes national and
international policy, planning of regional system, the location and design of specific
facilities, carrier management issues, regulatory, institutional and financial policies
4. Multi-objective: Aiming at national and regional economic development, urban
development, environment quality, and social quality, as well as service to users and
financial and economic feasibility.
5. Multi-disciplinary: Drawing on the theories and methods of engineering, economics,
operations research, political science, psychology, other natural, and social sciences,
management and law
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

The context in which transportation system is studied is also

very diverse and are mentioned below.

1. Planning range: Urban transportation planning, producing long

range plans for 5-25 years for multimodal transportation systems in
urban areas as well as short range programs of action for less than
five years.
2. Passenger transport: Regional passenger transportation, dealing
with inter-city passenger transport by air, rail, and highway and
possible with new modes.
3. Freight transport: Routing and management, choice of different
modes of rail and truck.
4. International transport: Issues such as containerization, inter-modal
co-ordination
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Generally a transportation system has three elements:-

1. Infrastructure: which includes Road, canal, rail, air
Transfer points Supporting elements (signs, signals,
safety)
2. Vehicles: which includes Planes, trains, autos, buses,
ships, trucks
3. Operators/Content : which includes Drivers, pilots,
freight, passengers
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

History of Transportation Engineering

 Humans had migrated by their feet
 Use domesticated animals to carry goods
 Built machines and devices, like sleds and travois, to help
them carry more.
 Establishing trading routes
 Well-used paths became more and more permanent.
 These paths became the first roads
 Maintain the roads and look at ways in which they
could be made easier to travel
 The first transportation engineers
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Travois
 In some parts of the world, they began using the wheel and axle to build
carts and carriages
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

slow moving car.

 Fast and luxury cars.

 Historical Background and Future Trends of Transportation

12
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

 Major disciplines of transportation

 Transportation engineering can be broadly consisting
of the four major parts:
1. Transportation Planning
2. Geometric Design
3. Pavement Design
4. Traffic Engineering
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

1.Transportation planning
 Transportation planning essentially involves the development of a
transport model which will accurately represent both the current as well
as future transportation system.
2. Geometric design
 Geometric design deals with physical proportioning of other transportation facilities.
 It include the cross-sectional features, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment and
intersections.
3. Pavement analysis and design
 Pavement design deals with the structural design of roads, both
(bituminous and concrete),. It deals with the
 Design of paving materials,

 Determination of the layer thickness,

 And construction and maintenance procedures.

 The design mainly covers structural aspects, functional aspects, drainage.

 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

4. Traffic engineering
 Traffic engineering covers a broad range of engineering applications with a focus on
 the safety of the public,
 the efficient use of transportation resources, and
 the mobility of people and goods.

5. Other important disciplines

 In addition to the four major disciplines of transportation, there are several other important
disciplines that are being evolved in the past few decades
1. Public transportation: Public transportation or mass transportation deals with study of the
transportation system that meets the travel need of several people by sharing a vehicle.
Generally this focuses on the urban travel by bus and rail transit transportation.
2. Financial and economic analysis: Transportation facilities require large capital investments.
Therefore it is imperative that whoever invests money should get the returns. When
government invests in transportation, its objective is not often monetary returns; but social
benefits
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

3. Environmental impact assessment :

 The depletion of fossil fuels and the degradation of the environment has
been a severe concern of the planners in the past few decades.
4. Accident analysis and reduction:
 One of the silent killers of humanity is transportation.
 Several statistics evaluates that more people are killed due to
transportation than great wars and natural disasters.
 This discipline of transportation looks at the causes of accidents, from the
perspective of human, road, and vehicle and formulate plans for the
reduction.
5. Intelligent transport system:
 With advent to computers, communication, and vehicle technology, it is
possible in these days to operate transportation system much effectively
with significant reduction in the adverse impacts of transportation.
 Intelligent transportation system offers better mobility, efficiency, and safety
with the help of the state-of-the-art-technology.
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Factors in Transportation Development

 Transportation develops because of several and frequently overlapping
factors. From the many, the following are important:
1. Economic Factors
 Almost all transport development is economic in origin.
 The chief preoccupation of the first human was the procurement of food, shelter and
sometimes clothing.
 As they become more highly developed their needs increased, often beyond what their
local economy could supply.
 Means of transporting goods from distant places had to be devised, adding to the
costs of the goods thereby secured.
2. Geographical Factor
 Geography is closely related to economics.
 The geographical location of natural resources determines the transport routes that
gives access to those resources and create economic utility, that is, time and place
utility.
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

5. Political Polices
 Political polices frequently play a deciding role in transport
development.
6. Military
 The military might of a nation is primarily intended to support its

political polices. Consequently, often it has direct influence on

transport development.
7. Technological Factors:
 Progress in direct and supporting technologies has played an
obvious role in transportation, for instance introduction of new
economical transportation mode to the exist system calls for the
development of transportation
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

8. Competition :
 The competitive urges have given a powerful impetus to transport
development. Railroads compete with trucks, barges, pipelines and
airlines. Airlines have counted heavily on speed but have also been
forced to greater safety and dependability to meet ground
transport competition.
9. Urbanization :
 The rapid growth of urban areas by an even more rapidly

expanding population is a phenomenon that cannot be overlooked

among transport development factors. Accessibility to land and the
intensity of land use are closely related to transport availability
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Role of transportation in society

 Transportation is a non separable part of any society. It exhibits a very close
relation to the style of life, the range and location of activities and the goods
and services which will be available for consumption. the main roles are:-
1. Economic role of transportation
 Economics involves production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
 People depend upon the natural resources to satisfy the needs of life but due to non
uniform surface of earth and due to difference in local resources, there is a lot of
difference in standard of living in different societies.
 So there is an immense requirement of transport of resources from one particular society
to other.
 These resources can range from material things to knowledge and skills like movement of
doctors and technicians to the places where there is need of them. Without the ability to
transport manufactured goods, raw materials, and technical know-how, a country is simply
unable to maximize the comparative advantage it may have in the form of natural or
human resources.
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering
Role of transportation in society
 Transportation is a non separable part of any society. It exhibits a very close relation to the
style of life, the range and location of activities and the goods and services which will be
available for consumption. the main roles are:-
1. Economic role of transportation
 Goods have little values unless given utility, that is, the capacity for being useful and
satisfying wants.
 Transportation contributes two kinds of utilities: place and time utility, economic terms that
simply mean having goods where they are wanted when they are needed, essential
functions that can also be applied to the movement of people.
 An example is given to evaluate the relationship between place, time and cost of a
particular commodity.
 If a commodity is produced at point A and wanted by people of another community at any
point B distant x from A, then the price of the commodity is dependent on the distance
between two centers and the system of transportation between two points. With improved
system the commodity will be made less costly at B.
 In urban areas especially, transportation provides the connecting link between dwelling-
units to their corresponding activities.
Introduction to Transportation Engineering
2. Social role of transportation
Transportation has always played an important role in influencing the formation of
urban societies. Although other facilities like availability of food and water,
played a major role, the contribution of transportation can be seen clearly from
the formation, size and pattern, and the development of societies, especially
urban centers.

3. Formation of settlements: From the beginning of civilization, the man is living in

settlements which existed near banks of major river junctions, a port, or an
intersection of trade routes.
 Size and Pattern of Settlement: the initial settlements were relatively small
developments but with due course of time, they grew in population and
developed into big cities and major trade centers..
3. Growth of Urban Centers: When the cities grow beyond normal walking
distance, then transportation technology plays a role in the formation of the
city. For example, many cities in the plains developed as a circular city with
radial routes, where as the cities beside a river developed linearly.
 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Environmental role of transportation

The negative effects of transportation are :-
 Safety

 Growth of transportation has a very unfortunate impact on the

society in terms of accidents. Worldwide death and injuries from
road accidents have reached epidemic proportions. Present
indications are that about half a million killed and about 15 million
injured on the road accidents annually.
Introduction to Transportation Engineering

 Air Pollution
 All transport modes consume energy and the most common source of
energy is from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, petrol, diesel, etc.
 The combustion of the fuels releases several contaminants into the
atmosphere, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, oxides of
nitrogen, and other particulate matter
 Noise pollution
 Sound is acoustical energy released into atmosphere by
vibrating or moving bodies where as noise is unwanted
sound produced.
 Transportation is a major contributor of noise pollution,
especially in urban areas.
 Noise is generated during both construction and
operation.
 Modes of Transportation

Transport modes are the means by which people and

freight achieve mobility. They fall into one of three basic
types, depending on over what surface they travel –
 Land (road, rail and pipelines),

 water (shipping), and

 Air

Each mode is characterized by a set of technical,

operational and commercial characteristics.
 Modes of Transportation

1. Road transportation
• Road infrastructures are large consumers of space with the lowest
level of physical constraints among transportation modes.
• Road transport systems have high maintenance costs, both for the
vehicles and infrastructures
 Modes of Transportation
2. Rail transportation
 Railways are composed of traced
paths on which are bound vehicles.
 They have an average level of physical

constrains linked to the types of

Locomotives and a low gradient
is required, particularly for freight
3. Pipelines
 Pipeline routes are practically unlimited as they can be laid on land or
under water.
 The longest gas pipeline links Alberta to Sarnia (Canada), which is 2,911 km
in length. The longest oil pipeline is the Transiberian, extending over 9,344
km from the Russian arctic oilfields in eastern Siberia to Western Europe.
 Modes of Transportation

4. Maritime transportation
Because of the physical properties of water conferring buoyancy and
limited friction, maritime transportation is the most effective mode to
move large quantities of cargo over long distances. Main maritime
routes are composed of oceans, coasts, seas, lakes, rivers and channels.

5. Air transportation
Air routes are practically unlimited,
but they are denser over the North Atlantic,
inside North America and Europe and over
the North Pacific. Air transport constraints
are multidimensional and include the site
(a commercial plane needs about 3,300 meters
of runway for landing and take off), the climate, fog and aerial currents.
Intermodal transportation. It transported by various means. Concerns a variety of modes used
in combination so that the respective advantages of each mode are better exploited.
Modes of Transportation
Modes of Transportation
Thank you!