Transportation Engineering

• The necessity for transportation arises from various human activities.
• Analysis and design of transportation systems is central to transportation engineering.
• Traffic engineers and planners address planning, designing, and maintaining high-quality transportation systems alongside livable communities.
• Transportation engineering involves planning, design, operations, control, management, maintenance, and rehabilitation of transportation systems, services, and their components.

Transportation Problems

• Congestion stems from traffic.
• Pollution is a transport problem.
• Accidents are a traffic issue.
• Financial deficits are related to a lack of budget.
• Access can be a transportation issue.

Modeling vs. Planning

• Transport modeling supports planning but doesn't replace it, playing a crucial role.
• Transport modeling assists planning and implementation if used effectively for decision-making.

Travel Demand Modeling

• Developed in the late 1950s
• Travel Demand Modeling aids decisions on future (urban) transport systems' development.
• Travel Demand Modeling forecasts travel patterns, typically 15-25 years ahead.
• The travel Demand model is predictive and used prescriptively.
• Understanding the modeling process and its assumptions is key to understanding transportation plans.

How Models Fit into Transport Planning

• Models fit into the process by:
  • Defining the problem
  • Defining goals and criteria
  • Collecting Data
  • Forecasting (modeling)
  • Developing alternatives
  • Evaluation
  • Finalizing an implementation plan
• Forecasting (modeling) should reflect real-life situations.

How Travel is Modeled

• Travel is Modeled by asking:
  • What will the community look like in the future?
    • How many people (population forecasts)
    • What will they do (economic forecasts)
    • Where will they do it (land use pattern)
  • What are the travel patterns in the future?
    • How many trips (trip generation)
    • Where will the trips go (trip distribution)
    • What modes will they use (mode split)
    • What routes will they take (traffic assignment)
    • What will be the effects of this travel (impact analysis)
• Population forecasts consider:
  • Birth rates
  • Death rates
  • Migration rates
  • Ages
  • Often relying on forecasts from other agencies

Land Use Forecasts

• Land Use Forecasts involves allocating population and economic growth.
• Land Use Forecasts establishes land use goals and rates.
• Land Use Forecasts allocates to specific locations.
  • Models predict non-basic and residential areas from basic data.

Land-Use Planning

• Land use refers to agricultural economics.
• Land use is a parcel of land an the economic use it was then put to - grazing to growing crops, mining or building.
• Land-use planning includes all forms of planning.
  • Transportation planning is land-use planning to allocate land for transportation.
  • Land-use planning is a discipline with its own theories and practices.

Concepts and Definitions

• Urban Form: The spatial pattern or "arrangement" of individual elements.
  • Buildings, streets, parks and other land uses, collectively called the built environment.
  • Includes social groups, economic activities, and public institutions within an urban area.
• Urban Interaction: The collective interrelationships, linkages, and flows that integrate individual land uses.
  • Groups and activities integrating into functionalities.
  • The highway or street network is one of the most important subsystems.
• Urban Spatial Structure: Combines urban form through urban interaction with organizational rules into a city system.
  • Includes the competitive rent within the urban area
  • Produces an "ordering" of activities based on location requirements and affordable rent.
• Comprehensive Plans: These are master or general plans.
  • It's a geographic unit's official statement of policies and intentions for physical development.
• Guidelines: Sets of guidelines for development that serve as recommended alternatives in land-use plans.
  • Implementation may need legislation.
• Legislation: Recommendations transform into bills for possible enactment into law.
• Codes: Housing and building codes implement land-use management, ensuring community growth quality via standards.
• Zoning: Is the most common legal device for implementing local land use plans.
  • Zoning ensures that land use in geographic units are compatible with one another
• Subdivision Regulations: Controls development and change within the community, encouraging efficient and desirable local services.
• Infrastructures: Life-support facilities of a geographic unit.
• Traffic flow is the movement of people and goods in a city.
  • It is the product of land activity (demand) and the transportation system's capacity (supply).
  • It is measured by, how much can the land handle, why is it needed.
• Land Use and Transportation connection:
  • Land use produces trips.
  • Transport facilities serve travel demand.
  • Improved transportation enhances accessibility. Land value increases, leading to land use changes, reflecting the land market.
  • The cycle continues.