Transportation Planning and Engineering

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts in Transportation Planning and Engineering.

Transportation

Essential for a nation’s development and growth and is an inseparable part of a society.

Efficient Transport

Critical for strengthening a country’s investment climate and enhancing economic growth.

Transportation Planning Process

Involves the elements of situation and problem definition, search for solutions and performance analysis, also evaluation and choice of project

Highway and Traffic Engineer

Responsible for developing forecasts of travel demand, conducting evaluations based on economic and non-economic factors, and identifying alternatives for short-, medium-, and long-range purposes

Transportation Engineering

A field or branch of Civil Engineering that deals with the application of technology and scientific principles to the planning, functional design, operation, and management of facilities for any mode of transportation

Traffic Engineering

Phase of Transportation Engineering that deals with the planning, geometric design, and traffic operations of roads, streets, and highways, their networks, terminals, abutting lands, and relationships with other modes of transportation

Transportation System

Consists of vehicles, roads and highways, terminal facilities, and control systems that move freight and passengers

Fixed Facilities

Physical components of the system that are fixed in space and constitute the network of links and nodes

Flow Entities

Components that traverse the fixed facilities and mainly include vehicles and are considered based on shape, size, weight, acceleration, and deceleration abilities.

Vehicle Control System

Technological way in which the vehicles are guided either automatically or manually

Flow Control System

Consists of the means that permit the efficient and smooth operation of stream of vehicles and the reduction of conflicts between them

Traffic Management

Term used to embody the activities undertaken by a highway transportation agency to improve roadway system safety, efficiency and effectiveness for both providers and consumers of transportation services

Regulatory Devices

Have the authority of law and impose precise requirements upon the road user’s actions

Warning Devices

Inform road users of potentially hazardous roadway conditions or unusual traffic movements that are not readily apparent to passing traffic

Guiding Devices

Employed simply to inform the road user of route, destination, and other pertinent traffic

Informative Signs

Intended to guide users while they are traveling

Regulatory Signs

Intended to inform users of special obligations, restrictions, or prohibitions with which they must comply

Warning Signs

Intended to warn users of a danger on the road and to inform them of its nature

Pavement Markings

Used as a supplement to other traffic control devices such as traffic signals and road signs, used to convey messages to roadway users

Urban Transportation Planning

Involves the evaluation and selection of highway or transit facilities to serve present and future land uses

Flow Rate or Volume

Defined as the number of vehicles (N) passing a point during a specified period of time (T)

Time Mean Speed/Spot Speed

Arithmetic mean of the speeds of vehicles passing a point within a given interval of time

Space Mean Speed/Harmonic Mean Speed

Used to describe the rate of movement of a traffic stream within a given section of road. It is the speed based on the average travel time of vehicles in the stream within the section

Density

Number of vehicles (n) in a given length of road (L) at an instant point in time

Travel Demand

Expressed as the number of persons or vehicles per unit time that can be expected to travel on a given segment of a transportation system under a set of given land-use, socioeconomic, and environmental conditions

Trip Generation

Process of determining the number of trips that will begin or end in each traffic analysis zone within a study area

Trip Distribution

Process by which the trips generated in one zone are allocated to other zones in the study area

Gravity Model

Most widely used and documented trip distribution model