PTE 413 Principles of Transportation Engineering Module 1 PDF

Republic of the Philippines DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE UNIVERSITY Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE...

Republic of the Philippines DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE UNIVERSITY Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE Department of Civil Engineering A. Course Code / Title : PTE 413 – Principles of Transportation Engineering B. Module Number : Module 1 – Introduction to Transportation Planning & Engineering C. Time Frame : Week 1-2 D. Description : This module describes the importance of Transportation Engineering to the Civil Engineering profession E. Objectives : At the end of this module, the learner should be able to: 1. Have an overview of the scope of Transportation Engineering 2. Understand and appreciate the importance and development of Transportation. 3. Learn about the modes of transport and the factors affecting its developments. F. Contents: INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING 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 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. Also, 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 1 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM The characteristics of transportation system that makes it diverse and complex are listed below: 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. 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. Therefore, as we understand from above Transportation engineering is a very diverse and multidisciplinary field, which deals with the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems. Good transportation is that which provides safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical, and environmentally compatible movement of both goods and people. This profession carries a distinct societal responsibility. Transportation planners and engineers recognize the fact that transportation systems constitute a potent force in shaping the course of regional development. Planning and development of transportation facilities generally raises living standards and enhances the aggregate of community values. Generally, a transportation system has three elements this are:  Infrastructure: which includes Road, canal, rail, air Transfer points Supporting elements  (Signs, signals, safety)  Vehicles: which includes Planes, trains, autos, buses, ships, trucks  Operators/Content: which includes Drivers, pilots, freight, passengers 2 MAJOR DISCIPLINES OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING Transportation engineering can be broadly consisting of the four major parts: 1. Transportation Planning 2. Geometric Design 3. Pavement Design 4. Traffic Engineering 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. Geometric Design Geometric design deals with physical proportioning of other transportation facilities, in contrast with the structural design of the facilities. The topics include the cross-sectional features, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment and intersections. Although there are several modes of travel like road, rail, air, etc. the underlying principles are common to a great extent. Therefore, emphasis will be normally given for the geometric design of roads. Pavement Analysis and Design Pavement design deals with the structural design of roads, both (bituminous and concrete), commonly known as (flexible pavements and rigid pavements) respectively. 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. Structural design ensures the pavement has enough strength to withstand the impact of loads, functional design emphasizes on the riding quality, and the drainage design protects the pavement from damage due to water infiltration. 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. Traffic engineering involves a variety of engineering and management skills, including design, operation, and system optimization. In order to address the above requirement, the traffic engineer must first understand the traffic flow behavior and characteristics by extensive collection of traffic flow data and analysis. Based on this analysis, flow is controlled so that the transport infrastructure is used optimally as well as with good service quality. In short, the role of traffic engineer is to protect the environment while providing mobility, to preserve scarce resources while assuring economic activity, and to assure safety and security to people and vehicles, through both acceptable practices and high-tech communications. 3 FACTORS IN TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT Transportation develops because of several and frequently overlapping factors. From the many, the following are important: 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. The need for transporting individuals over wider areas also arose. Increasing transportation productivity and lower unit costs have occurred over the years as the system of transportation becomes more highly developed and complex. 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, by taking them from a location where they have little values to processing and consuming areas where their values is vastly increased. Political Polices Political polices frequently play a deciding role in transport development. Basically, is in a way to form integrated political system and control. Military The military might of a nation is primarily intended to support its political polices and to provide for national defense. Consequently, often it has direct influence on transport development. Technological Factor 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 Competition The competitive urges have given a powerful impetus to transport development. Railroads compete with railroad also 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. No less real is the competition between products and industries tributary to transport. Bituminous material competes with concrete as the road surface. Diesel won steam but may face competition with electricity. 4 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 is closely related to transport availability. 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. Road transportation Road infrastructures are large consumers of space with the lowest level of physical constraints among transportation modes. However, physiographical constraints are significant in road construction with substantial additional costs to overcome features such as rivers or rugged terrain. Road transportation has an average operational flexibility as vehicles can serve several purposes but are rarely able to move outside roads. Road transport systems have high maintenance costs, both for the vehicles and infrastructures. They are mainly linked to light industries where rapid movements of freight in small batches are the norm. Yet, with containerization, road transportation has become a crucial link in freight distribution. 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. Heavy industries are traditionally linked with rail transport systems, although containerization has improved the flexibility of rail transportation by linking it with road and maritime modes. Rail is by far the land transportation mode offering the highest capacity with a 23,000 tons fully loaded coal unit train being the heaviest load ever carried. 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 Trans-Siberian, extending over 9,344 km from the Russian arctic oilfields in eastern Siberia to Western Europe. Physical constraints are low and include the landscape and pergelic in arctic or subarctic environments. Pipeline construction costs vary according to the diameter and increase proportionally with the distance and with the viscosity of fluids (from gas, low viscosity, to oil, high viscosity). Maritime Transportation 5 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. However, due to the location of economic activities maritime circulation takes place on specific parts of the maritime space, particularly over the North Atlantic and the North Pacific. The construction of channels, locks, and dredging are attempts to facilitate maritime circulation by reducing discontinuity. Comprehensive inland waterway systems include Western Europe, the Volga / Don system, St. Lawrence / Great Lakes system, the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Amazon,the Panama / Paraguay and the interior of China. Maritime transportation has high terminal costs, since port infrastructures are among the most expensive to build, maintain and improve. High inventory costs also characterize maritime transportation. More than any other mode, maritime transportation is linked to heavy industries, such as steel and petrochemical facilities adjacent to port sites. 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. Air activities are linked to the tertiary and quaternary sectors, notably finance and tourism, which lean on the long-distance mobility of people. More recently, air transportation has been accommodating growing quantities of high value freight and is playing a growing role in global logistics. Intermodal transportation Concerns a variety of modes used in combination so that the respective advantages of each mode are better exploited. Although intermodal transportation applies for passenger movements, such as the usage of the different, but interconnected modes of a public transit system, it is over freight transportation that the most significant impacts have been observed. Containerization has been a powerful vector of intermodal integration, enabling maritime and land transportation modes to interconnect more effectively. Introduction to the Transport Planning Process Transport planning has evolved over the last 40 years, but with no clear theoretical foundations. Everyone is aware of the problems created by the increased demand for transport and most effort has been directed at finding methods of analysis with a practical, usually quantitative, output. This has meant that analysis has been empirical and positivist in its approach. Initial developments were concerned with aggregate analysis and the efficiency of overall movement of people and goods. It was in the 1960s that the transport planning process evolved as a systematic method for ‘solving’ the urban transport problem. The classic deductive approach was adopted with the future state of the system being synthesized from a series of laws, equations and models. The transport planning process was intended to be comprehensive with the 6 collection, analysis and interpretation of relevant data concerned with existing conditions and historical growth. The aim was to establish goals and objectives, to synthesize the ‘current patterns of movement’ within the city, and to forecast future demand patterns either with trend-based changes or with a range of investment options. These alternative packages would be evaluated against the ‘do nothing’ situation and the goals and objectives set at the beginning of the process. The structure of the transport planning process followed the systems approach to analysis and marked the move towards an analytical approach rather than decisions being based on intuition and experience. The broad structure of the approach followed that of the Chicago Area Transportation Study (1960), one of the first classic aggregate studies (Figure 2.1). This is the basic structure, which is still used, albeit with many modifications. Expected vehicle and passenger volumes in the main travel corridors were estimated and increases in road and public transport capacities were proposed to accommodate those expected increases over the following 20 years. As itemized by Thomson (1974) the basic process can be summarized in eight stages. Problem Definition: what is the problem and what are the planning objectives? Diagnosis: how did the problem originate with views from different perspectives (for example engineering and economic)? Projection: forecast of what is likely to happen in the future. This is often the most difficult stage. Constraints: three main types of constraints limit the choice of alternatives (financial, political and environmental). Options: what are the range of options which can be used to achieve the planning objectives stated in the first stage? Formulation of Plans: a set of different packages covering road and public transport alternatives. Testing of Alternatives: usually through a modelling process to see whether each alternative can achieve the stated objectives and how each compare with other alternatives. Trip generation, trip distribution, modal split and traffic assignment studies. Evaluation: to assess the value for money usually through some form of cost benefit analysis or financial appraisal. 7  This structure took several years to evolve, but variations on the basic format have been applied to hundreds of transport studies that have been carried out all over the world (Bruton, 1985; Hutchinson, 1974). The Transport Planning Model (TPM) formed the central part of the transport planning process and was the testing of alternatives in Thomson’s categorization. Conventionally the TPM is divided into four sequential, linked sub models:  Trip generation is the number of trips associated with a zone or unit and consists of trips produced and trips attracted to that zone.  Trip distribution is the allocation of trips between each pair of zones in the study area.  Modal split determines the number of trips by each mode of transport between each pair of zones.  Trip assignment allocates all trips by origin and destination zone to the actual road network. Separate allocations normally take place for each mode. Other factors such as land-use and population changes are input exogenously to the TPM once it has been calibrated for the existing situation. It is sequential in that the output from one sub model is the input to the next. Information about transport networks, about the location of facilities and about the characteristics of households (for example car ownership and income) are all introduced into the model sequences at the appropriate stages. The output represents the transport system, and this is used as the basis against which to evaluate alternative plans. The implicit conceptual foundations of the TPM are that the decisions made by each traveler follow this simple sequence – whether to make a trip, where to go, what mode to use, and which route to take. The model does not conform exactly to this decision process as the data are collected for zones and the TPM is carried out for the city as a whole. It is an aggregate model. 8