Transportation Engineering:

An Introduction

by C. J. Khisty and B. K. Lall, 3rd

Edition

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History of Traffic Markings
z Edward N. Hines (1870-1938)
z Widely recognized as one of the great innovators in
highway development, Hines was a charter member
of the Wayne County Road Commission in 1906 and
was its chairman for most of the ensuing 32 years of
his life.
z He instituted construction in 1909 of the first full mile
of concrete ever built, the strip of Woodward Avenue
in Detroit between Six and Seven Mile Roads.
z In 1911 he conceived the centerline for highways, an
invention which has been called the most important
single traffic safety device in the history of auto
transportation.
z (source: Michigan DOT,
http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/)

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History of Traffic Signal (Light)

z On 10 December 1868, the first traffic lights

were installed outside the British Houses of
Parliament in London, by the railway
engineer J. P. Knight. They resembled
railway signals of the time, with semaphore
arms and red and green gas lamps for night
use.
z The gas lantern was turned with a lever at its
base so that the appropriate light faced
traffic. Unfortunately, it exploded on 2
January 1869, injuring the policeman who
was operating it. 972R561200 3
z The modern electric traffic light is an American invention. As
early as 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah, policeman Lester Wire
invented the first red-green electric traffic lights. On 5 August
1914, the installed a traffic signal system on the corner of 105th
Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. It had two colours,
red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James
Hoge, to provide a warning for colour changes. The design by
James Hoge (USPTO # 1251666 Sept. 22, 1913) allowed Police
and Fire stations to control the signals in case of emergency.

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z The first four-way, three-
colour traffic light was
created by police officer
William Potts in Detroit in
1920. In 1923, Garrett
Morgan patented a traffic
signal device, although it
was not a precursor of the
modern traffic light.

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z The first interconnected traffic signal system was
installed in Salt Lake City in 1917, with six
connected intersections controlled simultaneously
from a manual switch. Automatic control of
interconnected traffic lights was introduced March
1922 in Houston, Texas. The first automatic
experimental traffic lights in England were
deployed in Wolverhampton in 1927.
z Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_signal#History

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Chapter 1: Transportation as a System
z Introduction
z The Field of Transportation Engineering (TE)
z The Practice of TE
z The Nature of TE
z The Systems Approach
z Transportation Policymaking
z Movement and Transportation
z Overview of Transportation Systems Characteristics
z Transportation Systems, Hierarchies, and Classification
z Communications, Transportation, and Transport Gaps
z Transportation and Transportation-related Problems
z Transportation and Sustainability
z Emerging Transportation Technologies
z ISTEA and TEA-21

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1. Introduction
z Facts of Transportation System at a national
level (US DOT, 1994)
z 200 million automobiles, vans, and trucks
z 4 million miles of streets and highways
z 100,000 transit vehicles
z 7,000 miles of subways, street car lines, and commuter
railroads
z 275,000 airplanes in/out at 17,000 airports
z 18,000 locomotives and 1.20 million cars operating
over 113,000 miles of railroads
z 20 million recreational boats, 31,000 barges, and over
8,000 ships, tugs, and other commercial vessels
operating on 26,000 miles of waterways
z 1.50 million miles of intercity pipelines
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z Facts of Transportation System at an individual
level (US DOT)
z Travel consumes roughly an hour of an average
persons day, and roughly one-sixth of household
expenditures
z Americans make nearly a thousand trips per year, per
person, covering a distance of about 15,000 miles
annually
z Households, businesses, and governments spend over
$1 trillion miles and to ship goods 3.5 trillion ton-miles
each year
z Transportation accounts for 12% of Gross Domestic
Product

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z Progress in Transportation (U.S.)
z The first pipelines: 1825
z The first internal-combustion engine: 1866
z The first automobile: 1886 (by Daimler and Benz)
z The Wright brothers flew the first heavier-than-air
machine: 1903
z The first diesel electric locomotive: 1921
z Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic Ocean to Europe: 1927
z The first diesel engine buses: 1938
z The first limited-access highway: 1940 (the
Pennsylvania Turnpike)
z The Interstate Highway System: 1950
z The first commercial jet: 1958
z Human beings landed on the moon: 1969

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z The Urban System and Transportation
z The Ekistic Grid (Bell and Tyrwhitt, 1972)

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2. The Field of TE
z Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE, 1987)
defines TE as:
z 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 for the safe, rapid, comfortable,
convenient, economical, and environmentally compatible
movement of people and goods.
z Traffic engineering, a branch of TE, is described as: that
phase of transportation engineering which deals with
planning, geometric design, and traffic operations of
roads, streets, and highways, their networks, terminals,
abutting lands, and relationships with other modes of
transportation.

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3. The Practice of TE
z Transportation as a System (Khisty, 1983)

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4. The Nature of TE
z Multidisciplinary area
z Interdisciplinary breadth and the depth of
involvement of TE

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5. The Systems Approach
z System: a set of interrelated parts, called
components, that perform a number of functions in
order to achieve common goals.
z System analysis: the application of the scientific
method to the solution of complex problems.
z Goals are desired end states. Operational
statements of goals are called objectives; these
should be measurable and attainable.
z Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs): an MOE is a
measurement of the degree to which each
alternative action satisfies the objective.
z Measures of Costs (MOCs): measures of the
benefits forgone or the opportunities lost for each
of the alternatives.
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z Standard: is a fixed objective, the lowest (or highest) level of
performance acceptable. A standard represents a cutoff point
beyond which performance is rejected.
z Value: values form the basis for human perception and
behavior.
z Societal or culture values: e.g., the desire of survive, the
need of belong, the need for order, and the need for security.
z Policy: a guiding principle or course of action adopted to
forward progress toward an objective. Evaluating the current
state of a system and choosing directions for change may be
considered as policymaking.

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z Steps in System Analysis
z Recognizing community problems and values
z Establishing goals
z Defining objectives
z Establishing criteria
z Designing alternative actions to achieve steps 2 and 3
z Evaluating the alternative actions in terms of
effectiveness and costs
z Questioning the objectives and all assumptions
z Examining new alternatives or modifications of step 5
z Establishing new objectives or modifications of step 3
z Repeating the cycle until a satisfactory solution in
reached, in keeping with criteria, standards, and value
set

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6. Transportation Policymaking

z The System
Analysis Process
of Transportation
Policymaking

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z Transportation
System Model:
Transportation
Processor

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7. Movement and Transportation

z A city can be considered as a locational

arrangement of activities or a land-use pattern.
z The reason that people and goods move from one
place to another can be explained by the following
three conditions:
z Complementarity
z Transferability
z Intervening opportunities

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z Land Use / Transportation Cycle

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8. Overview of Transportation
Systems Characteristics
z The physical plant of most transportation
systems consists of four basic elements:
z Links
z Vehicles
z Terminals
z Management and labor

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z Nine categories of human behavior that are
affected by transportation:
z Locomotion (passengers, pedestrians)
z Activities (e.g., vehicle control, maintenance,
community life)
z Feelings (e.g., comfort, convenience, enjoyment, stress,
likes, dislikes)
z Manipulation (e.g., modal choice, route selection,
vehicle purchase)
z Health and safety (e.g., accidents, disabilities, fatigue)
z Social interaction (e.g., privacy, territoriality, conflict,
imitation)
z Motivation (e.g., positive or aversive consequences,
potentiation)
z Learning (e.g., operator training, driver education,
merchandising)
z Perception (e.g., images, mapping, sensory thresholds)

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z 11 properties of the physical environment that
have a direct impact on human behavior:
z Spatial organization
z Circulation and movement
z Communication
z Ambience
z Visual properties
z Resources
z Symbolic properties
z Architectonic properties
z Consequation
z Protection
z Timing

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z Relation between Aspects of Transportation
and Their Effects on People

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 9. Transportation Systems,
Hierarchies, and Classification

z Hierarchy of
Movement

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z Functionally Classified Rural Highway
Network

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z Functionally Classified Suburban Street
Network

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z Relationship of Functionally Classified
Systems in Service Traffic Mobility and
Land Access

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10. Communications, Transportation,
and Transport Gaps

z It is recognized that in the US three modes of

transportation dominate the overall hierarchy
of transportation available to people:
z Walking for short distances
z Car for medium distances
z Airplane for long distances

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z Vehicle-miles of Travel by Street Class

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z Transportation Gaps

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z Demands for Speed Depend on Distance
Traveled

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z Transportation Function Concept

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z Relationship between Human Trip and
Artificial Media with Social Flow of Information

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11. Transportation and
Transportation-related Problems

z Common urban transportation problems:

z Congestion
z Safety
z Efficiency
z Mobility
z Noise and air pollution
z Equity

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12. Transportation and Sustainability
z Basic Model Connecting Vehicles/Vessels,
Persons/Goods, and the Built
Infrastructure

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13. Emerging Transportation
Technologies
z Nine components of Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS):
z Smart traffic signal control systems
z Freeway management systems
z Transit management systems
z Incident management systems (IMS)
z Electronic toll collection (ETC)
z Electronic fare payment (EFP)
z Emergency response/management systems (RMS)
z Travel information systems (TIS)
z Route guidance systems (RGS)

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 14. ISTEA and TEA-21
z December 18, 1991, President Bush signed the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991.
z The Act authorizes for highways, highway safety, and mass
transportation for the next 6 years with total funding of about
$155 billion US dollars in fiscal years (FY) 1992-1997.
z The purpose of the Act is: to development a National
Intermodal Transportation System that is economically
efficient, environmentally sound, provides the foundation for
the Nation to compete in the global economy and will move
people and goods in an energy efficient manner.

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z On June 9, 1998, President Bill Clinton signed into law the
Transportation Equity Act for the Twenty-first Century (TEA-
21), which are in many ways a continuation of ISTEA.
z While ISTEA focuses on efficiency, TEA-21 supports issues
of equity.
z The bill protects public health and safety through programs to
increase seat belt use, improve truck safety, and reduce
danger at rail-highway crossings.
z It also fights drunk driving, and strengthens proven strategies
to safeguard public health and the environment, such as the
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program,
and new technologies, such as low-pollution vehicles and ITS.

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z On August 10, 2005, President George W. Bush
signed the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users
(SAFETEA-LU). SAFETEA-LU authorizes the
federal surface transportation programs for
highways, highway safety, and transit for the 5-year
period 2005-2009, with guaranteed funding for
highways, highway safety, and public transportation
totaling $244.1 billion.

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