Jonel C.

Tabura
11-44401

CE 553
HOMEWORK #1

Questions:
1. What is Transportation Engineering?
2. What is the importance of Transportation Engineering?
3. What are the different modes of transportation? Cite examples for each mode.
4. State some prevalent problems in urban transportation (specifically, Batangas City
Area).
5. Give the six (6) different types of traffic surveys, its application, method and output
6. What are the standard required data that should appear on all fields notes of traffic
surveys
7. What is the importance of traffic surveys in transportation planning?
Additional Question: How much money lost in Metro Manila due to traffic
congestion?
Answers:
1. Transportation engineering, as practiced by civil engineers, primarily involves
planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of transportation
facilities. The facilities support air, highway, railroad, pipeline, water, and even
space transportation.
2. Transportation has always played an essential role in the development of
society, originally with regard to trade routes and harbours, but more recently
with regard to land- and air-based systems as well. It is the transportation
engineer's responsibility to plan, design, build, operate and maintain these
systems of transport, in such a way as to provide for the safe, efficient and
convenient movement of people and goods.

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3. Modes of Transportation
3.1.

Road transportation.
Road transportation has an average operational flexibility as
vehicles can serve several purposes but are rarely able to move
outside roads. Road transport systems have high maintenance costs,
both for the vehicles and infrastructures.
Examples are: automobiles, bus, cargo track etc.

3.2.

Rail transportation.
They have an average level of physical constrains linked to the
types of locomotives and a low gradient is required, particularly for
freight. Heavy industries are traditionally linked with rail transport
systems, although containerization has improved the flexibility of rail
transportation by linking it with road and maritime modes.
Example: Train

3.3.

Pipelines.
Pipeline routes are practically unlimited as they can be laid on
land or under water. The longest gas pipeline links Alberta to Sarnia
(Canada), which is 2,911 km in length.
Example: Oil Pipe Lines

3.4.

Maritime transportation.
Because of the physical properties of water conferring buoyancy
and limited friction, maritime transportation is the most effective mode
to move large quantities of cargo over long distances. Main maritime
routes are composed of oceans, coasts, seas, lakes, rivers and
channels.
Examples: Cargo ships, boats, cruise ships etc.

3.5.

Air transportation.
More recently, air transportation has been accommodating
growing quantities of high value freight and is playing a growing role in
global logistics.
Example: Airplane

3.6.

Intermodal transportation.

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Concerns a variety of modes used in combination so that the

respective advantages of each mode are better exploited. Although
intermodal transportation applies for passenger movements, such as
the usage of the different, but interconnected modes of a public transit
system, it is over freight transportation that the most significant impacts
have been observed. Containerization has been a powerful vector of
intermodal integration, enabling maritime and land transportation
modes to more effectively interconnect.
3.7.

Telecommunications.
Cover a grey area in terms of if they can be considered as a
transport mode since unlike true transportation, telecommunications
often does not have a physicality. Yet, they are structured as networks
with a practically unlimited capacity with very low constraints, which
may include the physiography and oceanic masses that may impair the
setting of cables. They provide for the instantaneous movement of
information (speed of light in theory). Wave transmissions, because of
their limited coverage, often require substations, such as for cellular
phone networks.

4. Some prevalent problems in Urban Transportation (Batangas City Area) are:

Traffic congestion.
Side walk vendors in the Public Market and other areas of Batangas
City.

Overcrowded Population.

5. Traffic Surveys
5.1.

Manual observation: a very traditional method involving placing

observers at specific locations to record vehicle or pedestrian
movements. At its simplest, observers use tally sheets to record, but
numbers, on the other hand there are mechanical and electronic
counting boards available that the observer can punch in each time an
event is observed. It can record traffic numbers, type and directions of
travel. Manual counts give rise to safety concerns, either from the

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traffic itself or the neighborhoods where the counts are being

5.2.

undertaken.
Passive and active infra-red: a sensor detecting the presence, speed
and type of vehicles by measuring infra-red energy radiating from the
detection area. Typically the devices are mounted overhead on a
bridge or pylon. The major limitation is the performance during

5.3.

inclement weather, and limited lane coverage.

Passive magnetic: magnetic sensors that count vehicle numbers,
speed, and type are placed under or on top of the roadbed. In
operating conditions the sensors have difficulty differentiating between

5.4.

closely spaced vehicles.

Microwave- Doppler/ Radar: mounted overhead the devices record
moving vehicles and speed. With the exception of radar, devices they
have difficulty in detecting closely spaced vehicles and do not detect

5.5.

stationary vehicles. They are not affected by weather.

Ultrasonic and passive acoustic: devices that sound waves or sound
energy to detect vehicles. Those using ultrasound are placed overhead
to record vehicle presence but can be affected by temperature and
turbulence; the acoustic devices are placed alongside the road and can
detect numbers and vehicle type.

5.6.

Video image detection: use of overhead video cameras to record

vehicle numbers, type and speed. Various software is available to
analyze the video images. Weather may limit accuracy.

6.

Traffic counting methodsTransport planning at all levels requires

understanding of actual conditions. This involves determination of vehicle or
pedestrian numbers, vehicle types, vehicle speeds, vehicle weights, as well
as more substantial information such as trip length and trip purpose and trip
frequency. The first group of data dealing with the characteristics of vehicle or
people movement is obtained by undertaking traffic counts. Those related to
measuring trips involving knowledge of origin and destination require more
detailed surveys.There is a wide range of counting methods available.

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7.

The growth of surveys was encouraged by the results that provided the
first comprehensive snapshots of urban travel activities in a society rapidly
adopting the automobile and undertaking new types of travel behavior. This
was a boon to transport planning. Furthermore, much of academic
understanding of travel activity in cities has been drawn from these surveys.
Since then national censuses in many countries have included travel surveys
in their decennial inventories, and many planning agencies update and extend
the results from the national surveys with local investigations.
Additional Question:
Ans. Php.2.4B
If time is money, then the Philippines is losing P2.4 billion a day in potential
income due to traffic congestion that eats up time that could have been used
for productive pursuits, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan
said.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:41 AM July 6th, 2013
References:
www.mcgill.ca/civil/undergrad/areas/transportation
"ITE The Transportation Profession". ITE. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/.../ch3c1en.html
https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/methods/ch9m2en.html
http://business.inquirer.net/130649/traffic-costs-p2-4b-daily#ixzz3tPFfXKcp

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