# Fundamentals of Transportation/Introduction

!Transportation inputs and
outputs{width="500"}
Transport is the movement of humans,animals and goods from one location
to another.Transportation moves people and goods from one place to
another using a variety of vehicles across different infrastructure
systems. It does this using not only technology (namely vehicles,
energy, and infrastructure), but also people's time and eﬀort; producing
not only the desired outputs of passenger trips and freight shipments,
but also adverse outcomes such as air pollution, noise, congestion,
crashes, injuries, and fatalities.If agriculture and industries are
supposed to be the body of country,transport may be said to be the
nerves and veins of the economy.

Figure 1 illustrates the inputs, outputs, and outcomes of
transportation. In the upper left are traditional inputs (infrastructure
including pavements, bridges, etc.), labor required to produce
transportation, land consumed by infrastructure, energy inputs, and
vehicles). Infrastructure is the traditional preserve of civil
engineering, while vehicles are anchored in mechanical engineering.
Energy, to the extent it is powering existing vehicles is a mechanical
engineering question, but the design of systems to reduce or minimize
energy consumption require thinking beyond traditional disciplinary
boundaries.

On the top of the ﬁgure are Information, Operations, and Management, and
Travelers' Time and Eﬀort. Transportation systems serve people, and are
created by people, both the system owners and operators, who run,
manage, and maintain the system and travelers who use it. Travelers'
time depends both on freeﬂow time, which is a product of the
infrastructure design and on delay due to congestion, which is an
interaction of system capacity and its use. On the upper right side of
the ﬁgure are the adverse outcomes of transportation, in particular its
negative externalities:

-   by polluting, systems consume health and increase morbidity and
    mortality;
-   by being dangerous, they consume safety and produce injuries and
    fatalities;
-   by being loud they consume quiet and produce noise (decreasing
    quality of life and property values); and
-   by emitting carbon and other pollutants, they harm the environment.

All of these factors are increasingly being recognized as costs of
transportation, but the most notable are the environmental eﬀects,
particularly with concerns about global climate change. The bottom of
the ﬁgure shows the outputs of transportation. Transportation is central
to economic activity and to people's lives, it enables them to engage in
work, attend school, shop for food and other goods, and participate in
all of the activities that comprise human existence. More
transportation, by increasing accessibility to more destinations,
enables people to better meet their personal objectives, but entails
higher costs both individually and socially. While the "transportation
problem" is often posed in terms of congestion, that delay is but one
cost of a system that has many costs and even more benefits. Further, by
changing accessibility, transportation gives shape to the development of
land.

## Modalism and Intermodalism

Transportation is often divided into infrastructure modes: e.g. highway,
rail, water, pipeline and air. These can be further divided. Highways
include different vehicle types: cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles,
bicycles, and pedestrians. Transportation can be further separated into
freight and passenger, and urban and inter-city. Passenger
transportation is divided in public (or mass) transit (bus, rail,
commercial air) and private transportation (car, taxi, general
aviation).

These modes of course intersect and interconnect. At-grade crossings of
railroads and highways, inter-modal transfer facilities (ports,
airports, terminals, stations).

Different combinations of modes are often used on the same trip. I may
walk to my car, drive to a parking lot, walk to a shuttle bus, ride the
shuttle bus to a stop near my building, and walk into the building where
I take an elevator.

Transportation is usually considered to be between buildings (or from
one address to another), although many of the same concepts apply within
buildings. The operations of an elevator and bus have a lot in common,
as do a forklift in a warehouse and a crane at a port.

## Motivation

Transportation engineering is usually taken by undergraduate Civil
Engineering students. Not all aim to become transportation
professionals, though some do. Loosely, students in this course may
consider themselves in one of two categories: Students who intend to
specialize in transportation (or are considering it), and students who
don\'t. The remainder of civil engineering often divides into two
groups: \"Wet\" and \"Dry\". Wets include those studying water
resources, hydrology, and environmental engineering, Drys are those
involved in structures and geotechnical engineering.

### Transportation students

Transportation students have an obvious motivation in the course above
and beyond the fact that it is required for graduation. Transportation
Engineering is a pre-requisite to further study of Highway Design,
Traffic Engineering, Transportation Policy and Planning, and
Transportation Materials. It is our hope, that by the end of the
semester, many of you will consider yourselves Transportation Students.
However not all will.

### \"Wet Students\"

*I am studying Environmental Engineering or Water Resources, why should
I care about Transportation Engineering?*

Transportation systems have major environmental impacts (air, land,
water), both in their construction and utilization. By understanding how
transportation systems are designed and operate, those impacts can be
measured, managed, and mitigated.

### \"Dry Students\"

*I am studying Structures or Geomechanics, why should I care about
Transportation Engineering?*

Transportation systems are huge structures of themselves, with very
specialized needs and constraints. Only by understanding the systems can
the structures (bridges, footings, pavements) be properly designed.
Vehicle traffic is the dynamic structural load on these structures.

### Citizens and Taxpayers

Everyone participates in society and uses transportation systems. Almost
everyone complains about transportation systems. In developed countries
you seldom hear similar levels of complaints about water quality or
bridges falling down. Why do transportation systems engender such
complaints, why do they fail on a daily basis? Are transportation
engineers just incompetent? Or is something more fundamental going on?

By understanding the systems as citizens, you can work toward their
improvement. Or at least you can entertain your friends at parties.

## Goal

It is often said that the goal of Transportation Engineering is \"The
Safe and Efficient Movement of People and Goods.\"

But that goal (safe and efficient movement of people and goods) doesn't
answer:

Who, What, When, Where, How, Why?

## Overview

This wikibook is broken into 4 major units

-   Transportation
    Planning:
    Forecasting, determining needs and standards.
-   Transit:
    Transit demand, service planning, and operations.
-   Traffic Engineering
    (Operations):
    Queueing, Traffic Flow Highway Capacity and Level of Service (LOS)
-   Highway Engineering
    (Design): Vehicle
    Performance/Human Factors, Geometric Design

## Thought Questions

-   What constraints keeps us from achieving the goal of transportation
    systems?
-   What is the \"Transportation Problem\"?

## Sample Problem

-   Identify a transportation problem (local, regional, national, or
    global) and consider solutions. Research the efficacy of various
    solutions. Write a one-page memo documenting the problem and
    solutions, documenting your references.

## Abbreviations

-   LOS - Level of Service
-   ITE - Institute of Transportation Engineers
-   TRB - Transportation Research Board
-   TLA - Three letter abbreviation

## Key Terms

-   Hierarchy of Roads
-   Functional Classification
-   Modes
-   Vehicles
-   Freight, Passenger
-   Urban, Intercity
-   Public, Private

## References

