Transportation Engineering

Theory, Practice and Modeling

Dusan Teodorovic, Milan Janić

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780128038895
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Transport & Navigation

Transportation Engineering: Theory, Practice and Modeling is a guide for integrating multi-modal transportation networks and assessing their potential cost and impact on society and the environment. Clear and rigorous in its coverage, the authors begin with an exposition of theory related to traffic engineering and control, transportation planning, and an evaluation of transportation alternatives that is followed by models and methods for predicting travel and freight transportation demand, analyzing existing and planning new transportation networks, and developing traffic control tactics and strategies. Written by an author team with over thirty years of experience in both research and teaching, the book incorporates both theory and practice to facilitate greener solutions.

• Contains worked out examples and end of the chapter questions
• Covers all forms of transportation engineering, including air, rail, and public transit modes
• Includes modeling and analytical procedures for supporting different aspects of traffic and transportation analyses
• Examines different transport mode sand how to make them sustainable
• Explains the economics of transport systems in terms of users' value of time

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

The development of human civilization has been characterized by constant migration of population. Various ethnic groups, in search of a better life, traveled, explored, and inhabited new lands. Throughout history, humans continually migrated to new regions, establishing new settlements, and creating states. The Hawaiian islands, Easter Island, Tuvalu, Samoa, Tahiti, Cook Islands, and numerous other islands in the Pacific Ocean were inhabited 2000–3000 years ago. The Vikings also developed an ocean-going tradition. They established colonies in Iceland and Greenland, and explored the coast of North America and interior of Russia more than 1000 years ago. Migration has led to changes in racial, ethnical, linguistic, economic, and cultural characteristics of the population. Europe in the past was characterized by significant migration of Germans and Slavs. The Americas, Australia, and New Zealand were inhabited predominantly by European migrants from the late 16th century through to the 20th century. The greatest intercontinental migration in human history happened between the American Civil War and the World War I, when millions of people from Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to the United States of America. Advances in transportation technologies partially enabled such a huge migration.

Keywords

Transportation; Traffic; Migration; Exploration; Technology

At the time of Julius Caesar, in the first century BC, in order to solve traffic congestion problems, a law was passed prohibiting the use of private vehicles in Rome during the first ten hours of daylight.

The development of human civilization has been characterized by constant migration of population. Various ethnic groups, in search of a better life, traveled, explored, and inhabited new lands. Throughout history, humans continually migrated to new regions, establishing new settlements and creating states. The Hawaiian islands, Easter Island, Tuvalu, Samoa, Tahiti, Cook Islands, and numerous other islands in the Pacific Ocean were inhabited 2000–3000 years ago. The Vikings also developed an ocean-going tradition. They established colonies in Iceland and Greenland, and explored the coast of North America and interior of Russia more than 1000 years ago. Migration has led to changes in racial, ethnical, linguistic, economic, and cultural characteristics of the population. Europe in the past was characterized by significant migration of Germans and Slavs. The Americas, Australia, and New Zealand were inhabited predominantly by European migrants from the late 16th century through to the 20th century. The greatest intercontinental migration in human history happened between the American Civil War and the World War I, when millions of people from Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to the United States of America. Advances in transportation technologies partially enabled such a huge migration (Matthews, 1960; Fitzpatrick and Callaghan, 2008; Nichols Busch, 2008; Harvey, 2010; Clark, 2015).

The necessity for transportation evolves from a variety of man's activities. People travel for business, professional, cultural, or private reasons. Thousands of vehicles and passengers that travel from one place to another create flows of cars on highways, bicycles on streets, peoples in bus and metro stations, pedestrians on crossings, and aircraft on airport taxiways and runways. Passenger and freight flows are the consequences of spatial interaction among various regions (Vickrey, 1969; Gazis, 2002; Janić, 2014).

In ancient times as well as modern, people developed different transportation systems (whether based on animal-drawn wheeled vehicles or on Boeing-747 aircraft). The analysis and design of transportation systems are the essence of transportation engineering. Traffic engineers and planners are constantly faced with the question of how to plan, design, and maintain high-quality transportation system and livable human communities. Transportation engineering deals with planning, design, operations, control, management, maintenance, and rehabilitation of transportation systems, services, and components. The subareas that are parts of transportation engineering are transportation planning, traveler behavior, design and analysis of transportation networks, traffic flows analysis, analysis and control of traffic operations, queueing analysis, vehicle routing and scheduling, logistics and supply chain management, etc. Within transportation engineering, technology, mathematics, physics, computer science, social sciences, and cultural heritage converge. Transportation engineering methods and techniques have a high impact on transportation system performances (level of service, capacity, safety, reliability, resource consumption, environment, economics, etc.).

The basic elements of transportation modes are vehicles (aircraft, balloon, bicycle, boat, bus, cable car, car, electric vehicle, helicopter, locomotive, motorcycle, sailboat, ship, submarine, tractor, train, tram, tricycle, trolleybus, truck, unmanned aerial vehicle, van, wagon, etc.), guideways (street, highway, airway, railroad track, canal, etc.), transportation terminals (bus terminal, container terminal, marine terminal, airport terminal, railway terminal, freight terminal, etc.), and control policies (visual flight rules, instrument flight rules, railway signaling, fixed-time control, actuated signal control, adaptive control, etc.).

A range of control systems in transportation were originally created, mainly to improve traffic safety. Later on, engineers started with the development of control systems, intending to reduce traffic congestion. This congestion is an outcome of many decisions that different users make. Traffic and transportation systems are composed of decentralized individuals (pedestrians, drivers, passengers, dispatchers, operators, air traffic controllers, vehicles, vessels, aircraft, etc.) and each individual acts together with other individuals in accordance with localized knowledge. Occasionally, individuals collaborate, and at other times they are in conflict. They interact, simultaneously, with transportation infrastructure and the environment. Through the aggregation of the individual interactions, the global picture of the transportation system emerges.

Transportation and traffic systems are, in essence, different from other technical systems. Their performances depend a great deal on the users' behavior. A good understanding of the human decision-making mechanism is one of the key factors in the transportation planning process, as well as in developing appropriate real-time traffic control. There are continuous construction and expansion of traffic networks. Before the construction of a new bridge, road expansion, or development of a toll road, it is necessary to study how the potential users of the facility will react. For example, the following research questions should be properly answered in the case of route choice between a toll and nontoll road: how do the characteristics of competitive routes influence route choice when there is a toll and a nontoll road? How do travelers' characteristics influence route choice? Research to date has provided some answers to these questions. A proper understanding of the human decision-making mechanism is of high importance, since it has been shown that building additional roads, in some cases, does not automatically produce a reduction in total travel time in the transportation network.

Some existing transportation systems are characterized by outstanding performances. For example, the annual average delay of Shinkansen trains in Japan is only 0.9 min per operational train (including delays due to unmanageable causes, such as natural disasters). At the same time, no accidents resulting in fatalities or injuries to passengers on board have happened since operations commenced in 1964. The maximum speed of Shinkansen trains is about 300 km/h. On average, there are 342 daily departures, offering more than 1300 seats per train.

On the other hand, various transportation systems in many countries in the world are inefficient, and not reliable enough. They are also great consumers of energy and great polluters. Day after day, a number of the scheduled flights are canceled, traffic incidents happen on highways, some links in a city traffic network are fully congested, etc. Traffic engineers and operators must be also capable to obtain practical, “good” solutions for the complex transportation problems caused by random events.

Some transportation networks are exceptionally big. They are characterized by complex relationships between specific nodes and links, and they are repeatedly congested. Consequently, it is not simple to observe and study them, and to find suitable solutions for traffic problems. Most frequently, it is not possible to control the entire network in a centralized way.

Transportation science and transportation engineering offer various techniques related to transportation modeling, transportation planning, and traffic control. These techniques should be used for predicting travel and freight demand, planning new transportation networks, and developing traffic control strategies. The range of engineering concepts and methods should be used to make future transportation systems safer, more cost-effective, and “greener.”

References

Clark J. Ships, clocks, and stars: the quest for longitude: National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London. J. Transp. Hist. 2015;36:124–126.

Fitzpatrick S.M., Callaghan R. Magellan's crossing of the Pacific: using computer simulations to examine oceanographic effects on one of the world's greatest voyages. J. Pac. Hist. 2008;43(2):145–165.

Gazis D. The origins of traffic theory. Oper. Res. 2002;50(1):69–77 50th Anniversary Issue (Jan.–Feb.).

Harvey E. Pavage grants and urban street paving in medieval England, 1249–1462. J. Transp. Hist. 2010;31:151–163.

Janić M. Advanced Transport Systems: Analysis, Modelling and Evaluation of Performances. London: Springer-Verlag; 2014.

Matthews Jr. K. The embattled driver in ancient Rome. Expedition. 1960;2:22–27.

Nichols Busch T. Connecting an empire: eighteenth-century Russian roads, from Peter to Catherine. J. Transp. Hist. 2008;29:240–257.

Vickrey W. Congestion theory and transport investment. Am. Econ. Rev. Pap. Proc. 1969;59:251–261.

Chapter 2

Transportation Systems

Abstract

Passengers and goods travel over the land, under the land, over the oceans, and over the sky. Thanks to the development of technology and transportation systems, the world has become a “global village,” and mankind has achieved economic and cultural development. Developed transportation systems have facilitated the development of political, economic, cultural, touristic, and sporting relations among people in the modern world. Sustainable and efficient transportation is one of the most important factors for the survival and progress of modern civilization.

Keywords

Transportation systems; History of transportation; Transportation modes; Planning and control; Safety; Environment protection

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