The key is for transport engineers to use analytical thinking and combining it with the

training they receive at college so that they can help plan the transport systems of any
city or country to its maximum potential. If you are someone who is a tech buff then
transport engineering is the perfect career for you.

Knowledge of intelligent transportation and traffic management systems technology and

applications. Knowledge of traffic operations theory and practice. Knowledge of engineering
office practices and procedures. Ability to make mathematical computations and design
engineering projects.

Definition and Nature of the Work

Transportation engineers are civil engineers who design highways, airports, and railway and bus
systems. They work for governmental agencies; for consulting firms that troubleshoot for the
government; and for private firms that produce materials and equipment used in transportation.
Engineers are also teachers and researchers at colleges and universities.

Some transportation engineers specialize. For example, traffic engineers plan new roads or traffic
patterns, while railroad engineers plan for high-speed rail service. Some engineers develop entire
transportation systems, including roads, subways, commuter trains, and buses. Engineers also
supervise the construction or repair of transportation systems.

Municipal, county, or state officials hire engineers to develop new transportation systems or to
find alternative routes to relieve congestion on existing highways. Sometimes the engineers draw
up plans for new multilane highways to be built in places where only local roads exist. In other
cities they may decide whether buses or trains can best provide commuter service.

In planning projects, engineers consider costs, the needs of the town or state, and the availability
of land. They determine whether the land is good for building—marshland may have to be filled
or treated before construction begins—and how the projects could affect the environment. Once
these factors have been analyzed, engineers make detailed proposals.

Some transportation engineers oversee construction. They invite contractors to submit bids and
then choose the best bid. Once work begins, engineers make sure that schedules are met and
building standards are followed. When a highway is being constructed, for example, engineers
check the building materials to

Transportation engineers often specialize. Some plan new roads, while others develop or
restructure public transit systems. (© Martha Tabor/Working Images Photographs. Reproduced
by permission.)
make sure the contractors are following highway department standards. Engineers also inspect
the completed road to make sure it is safe for drivers.

Education and Training Requirements

Transportation engineers must have bachelor's degrees in civil engineering. Nearly half of those
working today hold master's degrees or doctorates, which may be required for teaching and
research positions.

Prospective transportation engineers should take high school courses in mathematics and science.
Courses in computer-aided design are also helpful. College courses in English and the natural
and social sciences, including political science, can be as important as specialized courses in
surveying, specifications writing, traffic control, and the mechanics of fluids and materials. Some
engineers get graduate degrees in business administration to improve their chances for
advancement.

Transportation engineers continue their education by reading technical publications and

attending seminars and conferences.

Getting the Job

College placement offices may be able to help graduates find employment. Job seekers can also
apply directly to construction companies and to consulting firms that do engineering work. Civil
service commissions have information about civil service tests and job openings in government
agencies. Other good sources of job leads are newspaper classified ads, Internet job sites, and
engineering journals.

Advancement Possibilities and Employment Outlook

With experience and ability transportation engineers can advance to a number of positions, such
as construction supervisor, project engineer, or designer of transportation systems. In addition,
they may become supervisors of engineering departments, chief engineers for construction firms,
or consulting engineers.

Employment of transportation engineers is expected to grow as fast as the average for all
occupations through 2014. Many new roads need to be built and existing roads need to be
redesigned. Demand should also be strong over the next decade for engineers who can design
better public transportation systems.

Working Conditions
Transportation engineers work in offices or at construction sites in all kinds of weather. They
generally work forty hours per week, although overtime may be necessary if construction
deadlines must be met.

Because their work affects public behavior and policy, transportation engineers must be able to
communicate effectively with diverse groups of people—from government officials to machine
operators to the general public. They must be willing to make and advocate unpopular decisions.

Civil engineering is one of the major branches of engineering and, as its name implies, is
related to engineering for civilian applications.  Civil engineering improves quality of life
through the provision of infrastructure such as:

 Buildings, bridges, and other structures

 Highways
 Dams and levees
 Water treatment and waste disposal plants

Transportation engineering is a branch of civil engineering that is involved in the

planning, design, operation, and maintenance of safe and efficient
transportation systems. These systems include roadways, railways, waterways, and
intermodal operations. Typically, the demand is the amount of traffic (people, cars,
railcars, barges) that is expected to use a particular transportation facility, while the
supply is the quantity and type of infrastructure components (roadways, bridges,
pavements, etc.). These systems are typically large and expensive.

There are a number of attributes of transportation engineering that affect the types of

statistical theory that are used in the profession. One important aspect of transportation
engineering is that the transportation engineer is not only interested in the
infrastructure (e.g., bridges, rails, etc.) and the individual units (cars, trucks, railcars) that
use the infrastructure, but also the user. Often it is necessary to understand the
interaction of all three of these entities—infrastructure, individual units, and user—to
understand the system as a whole. Typically the infrastructure and units are considered
the supply side of the equation, while the users are identified with demand.

Experimental studies, or designed experiments, are the mainstay of many standard

statistics books. They are used extensively in many engineering disciplines, including
pavement engineering, that are not necessarily applicable to transportation systems
engineering.  For example, consider an engineer who is interested in the various factors
that affect skid resistance and the relationship to crash rate. From an ethical standpoint,
she cannot place various types of pavement surfacing on different sections of highway,
observe what types of accidents occur, and then choose the best type of pavement
based on the empirical accident results. Instead, most transportation studies are
observational in nature, and as a result, the statistics used by transportation engineers
reflect this characteristic. In addition, it is sometimes very difficult to obtain certain data
from the transportation system, so statistical techniques that can handle missing data or
use a priori knowledge are needed. Lastly, much of the data are correlated and
interdependent. For example, the travel time on a given link is often correlated to the
travel time on the immediate downstream link. Sometimes this correlation is negative:
Consider, for example, a driver stopped at a traffic signal that is red. If the signal system
is coordinated properly, the driver will have a lower probability of being stopped at the
traffic signal on the next link. At other times, however, the correlation is positive: If one
link is experiencing high travel times because of excessive demand, then other links also
will experience high travel times because of the same demand. Regardless, as this
example demonstrates, the assumption that different transportation phenomena are
independent is not always valid.

In the United States transportation is estimated as representing 10% of the nation’s

gross domestic product (USDOT, 2009), and a well- maintained and comprehensive
system is considered by many to be a necessary condition for a successful economy.
However, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in their annual report card gave
a grade of D– to the U.S. roadway system. As the report notes, “One-third of America’s
major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 45 percent of major urban
highways are congested. Current spending of $70.3 billion per year for highway
capital improvements is well below the estimated $186 billion needed annually
to substantially improve conditions.” Given the environment of inadequate funding and
critical maintenance needs, it is crucial that transportation engineers be able to
understand the demands (e.g., goods and people movement) on the system as well as
the characteristics of the supply (pavement, roadway geometrics, etc.). It is the premise
of this book that a knowledge of statistics is critical to understanding the trade-offs so
that our limited resources can be used as effectively and as efficiently as possible.

Transportation engineering or transport 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, efficient, rapid, comfortable, convenient,
economical, and environmentally compatible movement of people and goods transport.
The planning aspects of transportation engineering relate to elements of urban planning, and involve
technical forecasting decisions and political factors. Technical forecasting of passenger travel
usually involves an urban transportation planning model, requiring the estimation of trip
generation (number of purposeful trips), trip distribution (destination choice, where the traveler is
going), mode choice (mode that is being taken), and route assignment (the streets or routes that are
being used). More sophisticated forecasting can include other aspects of traveler decisions,
including auto ownership, trip chaining (the decision to link individual trips together in a tour) and the
choice of residential or business location (known as land use forecasting). Passenger trips are the
focus of transportation engineering because they often represent the peak of demand on any
transportation system.
A review of descriptions of the scope of various committees indicates that while facility planning and
design continue to be the core of the transportation engineering field, such areas as operations
planning, logistics, network analysis, financing, and policy analysis are also important, particularly to
those working in highway and urban transportation. The National Council of Examiners for
Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) list online the safety protocols, geometric design requirements,
and signal timing.
Transportation engineering, primarily involves planning, design, construction, maintenance, and
operation of transportation facilities. The facilities support air, highway, railroad, pipeline, water, and
even space transportation. The design aspects of transportation engineering include the sizing of
transportation facilities (how many lanes or how much capacity the facility has), determining the
materials and thickness used in pavement designing the geometry (vertical and horizontal
alignment) of the roadway (or track).
Before any planning occurs an engineer must take what is known as an inventory of the area or, if it
is appropriate, the previous system in place. This inventory or database must include information on
population, land use, economic activity, transportation facilities and services, travel patterns and
volumes, laws and ordinances, regional financial resources, and community values and
expectations. These inventories help the engineer create business models to complete accurate
forecasts of the future conditions of the system.
Operations and management involve traffic engineering, so that vehicles move smoothly on the road
or track. Older techniques include signs, signals, markings, and tolling. Newer technologies
involve intelligent transportation systems, including advanced traveler information systems (such
as variable message signs), advanced traffic control systems (such as ramp meters), and vehicle
infrastructure integration. Human factors are an aspect of transportation engineering, particularly
concerning driver-vehicle interface and user interface of road signs, signals, and markings.

Highway engineering
Engineers in this specialization:

 Handle the planning, design, construction, and operation of highways, roads, and other
vehicular facilities as well as their related bicycle and pedestrian realms
 Estimate the transportation needs of the public and then secure the funding for projects
 Analyze locations of high traffic volumes and high collisions for safety and capacity
 Use engineering principles to improve the transportation system
 Utilize the three design controls, which are the drivers, the vehicles, and the roadways
themselves

Railroad engineering
Railway engineers handle the design, construction, and operation of railroads and mass transit
systems that use a fixed guideway (such as light rail or monorails). Typical tasks include determining
horizontal and vertical alignment design, station location and design, and construction cost
estimating. Railroad engineers can also move into the specialized field of train dispatching which
focuses on train movement control.
Railway engineers also work to build a cleaner and safer transportation network by reinvesting and
revitalizing the rail system to meet future demands. In the United States, railway engineers work with
elected officials in Washington, D.C. on rail transportation issues to make sure that the rail system
meets the country's transportation needs. "Association of American Railroads". AAR. Retrieved 30
June 2011.

Port and harbor engineering

Port and harbor engineers handle the design, construction, and operation of ports, harbors, canals,
and other maritime facilities.

Airport engineering

Airport engineers design and construct airports. Airport engineers must account for the impacts and
demands of aircraft in their design of airport facilities. These engineers must use the analysis of
predominant wind direction to determine runway orientation, determine the size of runway border
and safety areas, different wing tip to wing tip clearances for all gates and must designate the clear
zones in the entire port.