Transportation System and Engineering Foundations

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering transportation engineering principles, infrastructure types, the Philippine transport system, and traffic flow theory.

Transportation

The movement of people and/or goods from one place to another.

Transportation Engineering

The application of technology and scientific principles to the planning, functional design, operation, and management of facilities for any mode of transportation to provide safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical, and environmentally compatible movement.

The Vehicle

One of the three basic elements of a transportation system used to move people or goods, supported by motor power or automated technology.

The Guideway

The path where a vehicle moves, consisting of nodes and links that connect and form transportation systems.

The Operations

A system plan for vehicles to move on guideways and terminals, consisting of scheduling, timetables, and control systems.

Terminal

A node in a transportation system where all traffic moves from one vehicle to another.

Intermodal Transportation

A type of transportation where two or more modes are used together to move people or cargo more efficiently without removing the asset from its container.

Multimodal Transportation

A system where goods are supplied using various shipping modes under a unified bill, coordinated through integrated transportation by different carriers such as trucks, ships, or aircraft.

Mass Transportation

A system that moves many people at one time and is available to the general public, mostly applicable to land transportation.

Transmission

A vehicle subsystem containing gears and parts that transfer power from the engine to the axles and wheels.

Driving Wheel

The wheel to which power is transferred; for example, the rear wheel on a bicycle connected by a chain.

Intercity Transportation

Transportation between cities, commonly served by buses carrying 30 or more passengers.

Provincial Buses

Buses used for medium- to long-haul routes between cities and towns, including those involving ferries.

Black Box

A data recorder in modern vehicles that monitors safety air bag release and records the actions of the driver during an accident.

Tractor-trailers

Large 18-wheel semi-trailer trucks used for carrying cargo on interstate highways.

Wind Deflector

A device placed on a tractor's roof to direct air around a truck, reducing resistance and saving fuel.

Maglev

Short for "magnetic levitation," a type of train that floats less than one inch above its guideway using magnetic attraction and repulsion.

Slurry

A mixture of particles, such as gravel, with liquids to allow the material to be forced through a pipeline via pumps.

Navigable Waterway

A lake or river that is deep and wide enough to allow ships and boats to pass.

Displacement

A measure of how much water a ship and its cargo push aside as the ship floats, serving as an indication of the ship's size.

Lift

An upward force created by the shape of an airplane's wing, which causes air to travel faster over the upper surface, reducing air pressure above the wing.

Jumbo Jets

Very large jet airplanes, such as the Boeing 747, that can carry about 500 passengers and fly non-stop over long distances.

Philippine National Railways (PNR)

A state-owned railway system in the Philippines, established during the Spanish Colonial period as Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan.

Jeepneys

Known as the "King of the Road" in the Philippines, these iconic vehicles were originally made from US military jeeps left over from World War II.

Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH)

Also known as the Road Roll on Roll off Terminal System (RRTS), it links island road networks through a series of roll-on/roll-off ferries.

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA)

The longest highway in the Metro Manila metropolis, passing through 6 of the 17 settlements and handling an average of 2.34 million vehicles.

Flexible Pavements

Pavements constructed with asphaltic cement and aggregates that transfer stress through successive layers to the subgrade.

Rigid Pavements

Pavements constructed with Portland cement concrete and aggregates which possess high flexural rigidity and transmit loads over a wider area.

Dowel and Tie Bars

Components in rigid pavements provided to prevent lanes from separating and to allow load transfer between slabs.

Modulus of Subgrade Reaction ($K$)

A measure defined by the formula $K = \frac{\text{stress}}{\text{deformation}}$ based on plate loading tests.

California Bearing Ratio (CBR)

A percentage value represented by the formula $\text{CBR} = \frac{\text{stress}}{\text{CBR value}} \times 100$, used to evaluate the strength of subgrade soil.

Stiffness Factor ($SF$)

A measure of a pavement's ability to resist bending, calculated as $SF = \sqrt[3]{\frac{E_s}{E_p}}$ where $E_s$ is the modulus of the subbase and $E_p$ is the modulus of the pavement.

Highway User Cost (HUC)

The sum of motor vehicle operating costs, travel time costs, and accident costs.

Build–Operate–Transfer (BOT)

A project delivery method where a private entity finances, designs, constructs, and operates a facility for a set period before turning it over to the public sector.

Build–Lease–Transfer (BLT)

A contract where a private entity finances and constructs a facility, turns it over to the government upon completion, and the government leases it back during the project period.

Flow or Volume ($q$)

The total number of vehicles that pass a point over a specific time interval, defined as $q = \frac{\text{no. of vehicles}}{\text{time}}$.

Density or Concentration ($k$)

The number of vehicles occupying a given length of roadway at any given instant, defined as $k = \frac{\text{no. of vehicles}}{\text{length}}$.

Time Mean Speed ($u_t$)

The arithmetic average of the speeds of all vehicles passing a fixed point on a roadway over a specific time period.

Space Mean Speed ($u_s$)

The average speed of vehicles occupying a specific roadway segment over a defined time period, calculated as the harmonic mean.

Time Headway ($h$)

The time interval between the passage of consecutive vehicles past a designated reference point, defined as $h = \frac{1}{q}$.

Space Headway ($d$)

The physical distance between consecutive vehicles in a traffic stream, calculated as $d = hv$.

Peak-Hour Factor (PHF)

A metric measuring traffic flow fluctuations within a peak hour, calculated as $\text{PHF} = \frac{\text{Total Hourly Volume}}{\text{Max. Volume} \times \frac{60}{n}}$ where $n$ is the time interval in minutes.

Jam Density ($k_j$)

The density at which traffic flow ($q$) stops due to extreme congestion, used in the Greenshields Model.

Department of Transportation (DOTr)

The primary policy, planning, and administrative entity of the executive branch of the Philippine government for transportation systems.