Module 1 - Introduction to Transportation Engineering PDF

MODULE I : INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING By: Engr. Mark Joren Crisologo What is Transportation Engineering ? Transportation Engineering is a branch of Civil Engineering that is involved in the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of safe and efficient transportation s...

MODULE I : INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING By: Engr. Mark Joren Crisologo What is Transportation Engineering ? Transportation Engineering is a branch of Civil Engineering that is involved in the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of safe and efficient transportation systems. Transportation engineers are required to possess a long-term vision of the future. They must remain steadfast, patient, and persistent in guiding a transportation project to completion. The transportation engineer works in an environment where change is gradual and sometimes imperceptible. Transportation ensures time and place utility. It results in the movement of goods from one place to another place thus making the product available through the customer at the right time. To develop the economy of certain nation, good transportation is one of the key elements. Without good transportation, a nation or region cannot achieve the maximum use of its natural resources or the maximum productivity of its people. Progress in transportation is not without its costs, both in human lives and environmental damage, and it is the responsibility of the transportation engineer working with the public to develop high- quality transportation consistent with available funds and social policy and to minimize damage.  Different Modes of Transportation 1. Road Transportation A road is an identifiable route way or path between two or more places. This mode of transport helps to transfer the goods from one place to another place by road through various methods like auto, buses, trucks, cargos, and other suitable factors. In road transport, the chances of an accident are very high and it is also very risky.  Different Modes of Transportation 2. Railway Transportation It is preferred due to high speed. Invariance to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat road or surface, Rail vehicles are directionally managed by the rail tracks on which they run. Within the confines of the railway system, the rail vehicle is not influenced by traffic, points of diversion, and switch offs between modes. This makes the rail the most dependable mode for making long hauls across land with minimal damage. Trains commonly carry bulk cargo items such as coal, corn, iron, ore, and wheat, items that would be uneconomical to ship by truck.  Different Modes of Transportation 3. Maritime Transportation It involves the movement of goods through oceans and seas. Cargo ships travel on almost every major body of water and have capacity to transport the highest volume of freight of any mode of transportation at the lowest cost. The greatest disadvantage of maritime cargo ships is the speed at which they operate. By far, maritime is the slowest mode of transportation. Additionally, the carbon emissions produced by one cargo ship are equivalent to the emissions produced by 50 million cars.  Different Modes of Transportation 4. Air Transportation Airplanes are becoming increasingly important in domestic and international trade. As air travel has become increasingly advanced and dependable, more companies are trusting airplanes with high value freight and goods. The increasing popularity of flight as a preferred way to travel also makes shipping by air more convenient as shipments regularly piggyback on passenger planes, further making air an economic way to transport goods.  Different Modes of Transportation 5. Pipelines Pipeline shipping is not a formal mode of transportation in the traditional sense. However, it is important to acknowledge for its importance in the current fossil fuel market. Pipe-lines are the specialized means of transportation designed to move the items like crude-oil, petroleum, chemicals, coal, lime-stone, iron- ore, copper concentrates and gas.  Different Modes of Transportation 6. Cable Transportation Cable transportation is a broad class of transport modes that have cables. They transport passengers and goods, often in vehicles called cable cars. The cable may be driven or passive, and items may be moved by pulling, sliding, sailing or by drives with object moved on cableways. The use of pulleys and balancing of loads moving up and down are common elements of cable transport. They are often used in mountainous area where cable haulage can overcome large differences in elevation.  Different Modes of Transportation 7. Space Transportation Space transportation, or sometimes called Spaceflight, is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit.