Radu ANDREI, PhD, P.E.,
Professor of Civil Engineering
Technical University “Gh. Asachi” IASI

Importance of Transportation
Transportation and economic growth.
Transportation history. Significant events
Employment and specialties in Transportation Engineering
Problems
Additional Readings

• Transportation is essential for a nation’s development and growth.The transportation system includes highway, rail, airport and mass transit systems .
• These systems are permanently planned, designed, built, operated and maintained by specific organizations and agencies
• New techniques are being applied for operating and maintaining these systems , safely and economically.

• Transportation is a necessary condition for human interaction and economic survival. If a country wishes to develop and grow it must have a strong internal transportation system as well as excellent linkages to the rest of the world.
• Availability of transportation facilities may strongly influence the growth and development of a region or of a country.
Good transportation permits the development of industry and commerce, reduce costs for raw materials or manufactured goods, encourages competition between regions, resulting in lower costs and better choices for the consumer.

• Transportation is also a necessary element of governing services such delivering mail, defending a nation and retaining control of its territories.
• Building or improvement of vast transportation systems, involves significant social costs , risks and some change of the natural environment. A major task for the modern transportation engineer is to balance society’s needs for fast and efficient transportation with the costs and the risks involved , so that the most efficient and cost-effective transportation system to be created.

• Transportation history involves the development of many separate modes of transportation such as travel by foot and horseback , the automobile and track travel, the development of roads and highways, the construction of railroads, the the building of canals and inland waterways, the creation and use of public transportation like bus and metro systems in the cities, the development of air transportation including the aircraft, airports, and air navigation facilities.

• 1794 :First toll road in England
• 1807 : Robert Fulton demonstrates a steamboat on the
Hudson River
• 1830: Construction of first railroad in USA ( Ohio and
Baltimore )
• 1838: Steamships service on the Atlantic ocean begins
• 1866: Bicycles are introduced in United States
• 1903: The Wright brothers fly the first airplane

• 1914: Panama Canal opens for traffic
• 1927: Charles Linbergh flies from New York to Paris
• 1961: Space flight begins
• 1960: The American Association for State Highway officials
(ASHTO) research program
• 1969: Men land on the Moon and return
• 1981: Space shuttle Columbia orbits and lands safely (it fails returning from its last mission, when entered into the
Earth’s atmosphere in 2003)

• 1987 : The strategic highway Research Program (SHRP) in
USA followed by similar Strategic European Highway
Research Programs ( SEHRP)
• 1992: Intelligent Transport Systems open a new era of research and development in transportation
• 1993: The initiation of the huge road rehabilitation program in Romania
• 1998:Electric vehicles are introduced in the world, as an alternative to internal combustion engines

• The professional skills required to plan, build, and operate the extensive transportation system require a variety of disciplines , including engineering, planning, law, economic management and social sciences.
• Thus, transportation offers one of the broadest opportunities for employment, because it involves so many disciplines and modes.
• Transportation services are provided within and between cities by rail, air, bus, truck and private automobile.The service sector provides jobs for vehicle drivers,maintenance people,flight attendants, train conductors, and other necessary support personnel.

• The service sector provides also jobs for other professionals such as lawyers, economists, social scientists and ecologists , when their skills are required to draft legislation, to facilitate right -of-way acquisition, or to study and measure the impacts of transportation on the economy, society and environment
• Vehicle design and manufacture involves the application of the professional skills of mechanical, electrical and aerospace engineers and also those of technical trained mechanics and workers

• Civil engineers are involved primarily for the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the transportation system
• Transportation planning deals with the selection of projects for design and construction.
• A transportation planner investigates the physical feasibility of a project and makes comparisons between various alternatives , to determine which one will accomplish the task, at the lowest cost, consistent with other criteria and constraints.

• Transportation design involves the technical specification of all features of the transportation system so that it will function smoothly, efficiently, and in accord with physical laws.
The design process results in a set of detailed plans that can be used for estimating the facility costs and for carrying out its construction.
• For a highway, the design process involves the following:
• - the selection of dimensions for all geometric features ( longitudinal profile, vertical curves and elevations, highway cross sections, etc),

• -the design of the pavement itself, including the structural requirements for every layer of the pavement structure,
• -the design of bridges and drainage structures as well the provision for traffic control devices, roadside rest areas and landscaping.
• The most important aspect of the highway designer’s work is to produce a balanced design in which all elements of the geometry of a highway- its curve radii, sight distance, superelevation, grade and vertical curvature- are consistent with a chosen design speed, so that if a motorist travels at that speed, can proceed safely and comfortably his journey.

• Transportation construction involves all aspects of the building process, beginning with clearing of native soil, preparation of the surface, placement of the pavement material, and preparation of the final roadway for use by traffic.
• Traffic engineers are responsible for operation of the transportation system, by the harmonious integration of vehicle, driver and pedestrian characteristics to improve the safety and capacities of streets and highways.

• Highway maintenance involves all the works , such as pavement patching and repair, and any other actions necessary to maintain the roadway pavement at a desired level of serviceability.
• Maintenance also involves record keeping and data management for work activities and project needs, as well as analyses of work activities , to determine that they are carried out in the most economical manner.
• Maintenance involves maintaining an inventory of traffic signs and markings, redesign of existing highway sections, economic evaluation of maintenance programs, testing of new products and prioritization of works.

• To illustrate the importance of transportation in our life, for one-week period, clip out several transportation-related articles that appear in local or national newspapers. Consider the issues involved, discuss them and formulate your own comments and views.
• Arrange an interview with a transportation professional in your city, and attempt to learn about the job he or she performs, why he or she entered the profession, and what he or she sees as future challenges in his field.
• Review the classified section of the telephone directory of your city and identify at least ten different jobs or industries, that are related with transportation

• Keep a diary of all trips you make for a period of one week, recording the the purpose of each trip, how you traveled, the approximate distance traveled , and the trip time. From this estimate the proportion of your monthly budget is spent for transportation and try to extrapolate these data to the tripmaking characteristics for all students of your group
• Most departments or agencies for transportation incorporate at least five major transportation engineering subspecialties within their organizations. List and indicate at least three tasks falling under each subspecialty.

• In the hypothesis that a country has a population of 23 million people and a average ownership of 0,5 cars per person, each driven an average of 10,000 Km per year, at
100Km per 7 liter of gasoline. Officials estimate that an additional EUR 75 million per year in revenue will be necessary to improve the highway system and they proposed an increase in the gasoline tax, to meet this need. Determine the required in cents per liter.
• List at least three major detrimental effects that are directly related to the construction and use of our highway transportation system. Do the same exercise for our rail transportation system.

• For the city of Iasi, describe briefly the actual transportation system, including its transportation modes. Try to formulate your own opinion about how this transportation system meet the needs and expectations of the citizens of Iasi.
Which improvements or corrections are necessary to by applied ?
• Estimate the number of motor vehicles in the city of Iasi, and the total number of km driven each year. What is the total revenue raised for each 1cent/ liter tax? Assume that the average vehicle achieves 36 Km per 3.785 liter of gasoline.

• Andrei R. Land Transportation Engineering, Technical
Publishers, Chisinau, 2002
• Garber j.N., Hoel A.,L, Traffic and Highway Engineering, revised second edition, PWS Publishing,1999
• American Highways
• www.trb.org/trb newsletter
• www.andnet.ro