Fundamentals of

Transportation Engineering
INTR O DUCTION TO TR A N SP OR TATION EN G IN EER ING

Dr. Sudeshna Mitra

Civil Engineering
• Environmental Engineering

• Geotechnical Engineering

• Structural Engineering

• Transportation Engineering

• Water Resource Engineering

Today’s Transportation Engineering has much more

interdisciplinary approach

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 2

Interdisciplinary Nature of
Transportation Engineering

Environmental Engineering:
Water quality of runoff

Hydraulic Engineering:
Culvert

Project Management:
Coordination of construction
Surveying: Layout of alignment
Geotechnical Engineering:
Structural Engineering: Bridge Slope stability, compaction
Transportation Engineering:
Number of lanes, horizontal
alignment, vertical alignment,
pavement design

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 3

Definition
• The application of technological and scientific principles to
the planning, functional design, operation and
management of facilities for any mode of Transportation in
order to provide safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient,
economical and economically compatible movement of
people and goods

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 4

History of Transportation

1817 CE
First cycle called
running machine

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 5

Great Voyages

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 6

Great Voyages

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 7

Panama Canal

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 8

Orville Wright’s First Flight

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 9

Self Driving Cars

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 10

 Structure of
Transportation Sector
Transport Sector

Land Water Air Telecommunication

Rail Inland Waterways Air Transport

Pipelines
Road Sea Shipping Systems

Intermodal

Freight/ Cargo/
Passengers Goods

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 11

 School Automobile

Transit Light Truck

Intercity Bus

Air Carrier

General Aviation

Transit Rail
Passenger Modes

Commuter …

Intercity …

Trucks

Combination
Tractor Trailer
Transportation Modes

Rail
FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Freight Modes

Domestic
Waterborne

Pipeline
12
 Structure of
Transportation Modes
Road Transport Mode

Systems

Passengers Freight

Urban/ Suburban Inter-urban Urban/ Suburban Inter-urban

Individual Group Individual Group

Walking Bus Car Bus Small/ Light/ Heavy Medium/ Heavy
Cycling Trolleybus Trucks Trucks
Car

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 13

Structure of
Transportation Modes
Water Transport Mode

Systems

Passengers Freight

Shipping lines Inland Shipping Sea Shipping

General
Cruise

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 14

Structure of
Transportation Modes
Rail Transport Mode

Systems

Passengers Freight

Urban/ Suburban Inter-urban Inter-urban

Streetcar (Tramway) Trains Trains

LRT(Light Rail Transit) Conventional Bulk, Tanker
Subway (Metro) HS (High Speed) Container
MAGLEV

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 15

Structure of
Transportation Modes
Air Transport Mode

Systems

Passengers Freight

Airlines Airlines
Conventional Cargo
LCC (Low Cost Carriers)

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 16

Effectiveness of
Transportation Service
Effectiveness

Accessibility Mobility Productivity

Total amount of
How cheap / easy it is to
How fast and efficient is transportation done by
get to and from the
the mode? mode in ton-
mode?
kilometre/year

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 17

Suitability of Different Modes
of Transportation

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 18

Technologies of
Transportation Modes
• Support
◦ Vertical contact between vehicle and riding surface.

• Guidance
◦ Lateral guidance of vehicle operated by particular transport modes and
their systems

• Propulsion
◦ Refers to vehicles propulsion units and methods of transferring
acceleration/deceleration forces

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 19

Modal Characteristics:
Road
Highways
• Dominant transportation mode
• Most flexible- “door to door”
• Capital cost of physical facilities:
◦ vary a great deal, but on the whole
moderate

• Individual vehicles tend to be cheaper

but operating cost is high
• Operating cost: Fixed cost, variable
cost. In most cases OUR CARS COST
MORE THAN WE THINK!
• Also very high environmental impact
FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 20
Modal Characteristics:
Road
Transit (Public Transportation)
• Includes buses, streetcars, light
rail, rail rapid transit
• Operate under FOUR
CONDITIONS
◦ Stick to a published ROUTE
◦ Stick to a published SCHEDULE
(time table)
◦ Stick to a published FARE structure
◦ ACCEPT EVERYBODY (except when
completely drunk and aggressive etc.)
• Two types of users: Choice and
Captive

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 21

Modal Characteristics:
Road
Transit (Public Transportation)
• Accessibility less than private
• Capital cost for bus system is low but
for rail systems very high: both for
facilities and vehicles
• Operating cost for bus and rail are
moderate to low, but operating cost
per trip is almost always higher than
the fare
• However, environmental impact is
less than private automobiles

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 22

Modal Characteristics:
Rail
• Three main characteristics:
◦ Cars are grouped into trains
◦ Trains are guided along fixed tracks,
usually low friction steel on steel
◦ Trains are controlled by a rigid discipline

• Low friction allows heavy loads to be

moved at high speed with small fuel
expenditure
• Accessibility: Low
• Capital and maintenance cost: High
• Operating cost: Low
• Low environmental impact

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 23

Modal Characteristics:
Water
• Consists of coastwise Ocean shipping
and inland waterways, mainly for freight
• Suitable for: LONG DISTANCES and
BULKY NON-PERISHABLE GOODS
• Requires sophisticated navigation
• Low speed
• Accessibility: Low
• Capital cost: High
• Operating cost: Low
• Environmental impact: Significant
Ocean pollution

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 24

Modal Characteristics:
Air
• Most highly developed technology
• Includes commercial aircraft,
airfreight carriers and private
aircrafts
• Caters predominantly for
passengers
• Has a large charter market
• Few all freight airlines
• Most freight goes with passengers
• Income from freight planes
subsidizes passenger planes

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 25

Modal Characteristics:
Air
• Primary characteristic- high line
haul speed
• Accessibility-limited, but little
importance due to length of most
trips
• Capital cost of physical facilities:
High
• Operating cost: High
• Environmental impact:
Significant
• Noise impacts
• Banning of Concorde
FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 26
Modal Characteristics:
Pipelines
• The way is the carrying unit
• Continuous flow, not batch handling
• The market is almost entirely crude
oil, petroleum products and natural
gas.
• Suitable for:
◦ Harsh environment (North Sea)
◦ Remote locations (jungle, desert, cold)

• Both capital and operating costs are

low
• Environment impact: Low once they
are built

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 27

Transport Modes
and Their Systems

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 28

Urban Network for BRANCH

Passengers

FEEDER

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 29

Bus System

RADIAL

CENTRAL AREA

RING

DIAMETRICAL

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 30

Generic Spatial Topology

FUNDAMENTALS OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING | IIT KHARAGPUR | CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 31