Areas of Study

Transportation Engineering

In the transportation field today, it is evident that a new profession is emerging. This "new" profession is multimodal in perspective, multi-disciplinary in approach and multi-sectoral in application. The new transportation professional uses concepts and techniques from engineering, urban and regional planning, management, law, political science and a variety of other disciplines to solve transportation problems affecting shippers, carriers, travelers, international organizations, national, state and local governments involving all modes of travel.

This profession has expanded as transportation issues have gained world-wide prominence. Transportation is a primary contributor to our global exchange economy, and therefore indispensable to economic growth and development. In a developed economy, the volume of goods and people transported from one place to another is enormous (approximately 20% of the U.S. Gross National Product is directly or indirectly attributed to transportation and approximately 12% of total U.S. civilian employment is in transportation or transportation-related industries). In developing countries, transport typically accounts for 10% to 17% of the Gross Domestic Product.

Because transportation services are such important determinants of the development pattern within a country, they directly influence the structure and functioning of social, economic and political systems. Therefore, transportation professionals are needed to take an active leadership role in this widely diversified and highly challenging field. It is the goal of the Transportation Systems graduate program to provide instruction in the analysis, planning and operation of transportation systems, the working domain of today's transportation professional.

Students in Transportation Systems are expected to have an aptitude for rigorous thinking, but it is not necessary that they should have majored in engineering as undergraduates. Backgrounds in engineering, business administration, city planning, economics, physical or social sciences, mathematics, liberal arts, or any of several related fields are both appropriate and desirable. In particular, our faculty is interested in attracting men and women who are excited about solving today's pressing transportation problems.

We emphasize the application of quantitative methods to the planning, design, operation and management of major urban and regional systems. Special attention is given to transportation systems within a context of more general public sector planning including housing, land use and public works. Sufficient breadth is available at the University to allow students considerable flexibility in the choice of specialization. The size and diversity of the faculty provides a wide range of viewpoints and intensive training in several specialty areas of study.

Students wishing to specialize in transportation systems are usually expected to do some work in urban and regional planning or geography, but also to concentrate in areas such as transportation systems planning and analysis, impact analysis and evaluation, public transit planning and operations, traffic systems planning and operations, intercity transportation systems analysis, forecasting of travel demand, and traffic engineering and safety.

Strong support is provided in other subjects such as statistics, operations research, systems analysis, computer simulation, data management and engineering management tools by companion departments in other colleges of the University such as economics, psychology, geography, sociology, political science, business and other areas. The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department provides the focal point for transportation studies through a core of teaching and research in the transportation systems area.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has maintained a strong program with a national reputation in the transportation field in research, academic instruction and professional training since the late Forties. During the Fifties, it was a leading center for studies in highway economics, finance and administration. During the Sixties it became identified predominantly with the area of economic and social impacts of transportation systems, road user economics, analyzing the traffic engineering, urban and regional information systems and interactive graphic planning models of particular relevance to transit planning and analysis. In the Seventies the program supported a wide range of research efforts in the urban transportation area with special emphasis on policy, planning, economics, forecasting, traffic operations, transit and other forms of ride-sharing, together with interactive graphic computer applications in these fields. Throughout this time, the Department's transportation program has also been the major center of traffic engineering and highway safety instruction in the Pacific Northwest with many fellowships sponsored by the Automotive Safety Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Washington State Department of Transportation, as well as professional and technical short courses sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

Few universities in this country--none west of Chicago or north of the Bay area in California--have brought together the combination of academic programs, research efforts and professional training that the University of Washington has mounted in the past few decades. In 1975, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration's Office of University Research awarded the University of Washington one of the three largest grants in its history of support to universities. This award recognized the University as one of the major centers of excellence in urban transportation research and training.

The materials for investigation in this field of study are mainly data on the physical and operational attributes of transportation networks and services, the land use activity pattern and forecasts of the intraurban or intercity flows of persons, vehicles and goods. These data are acquired in the area of traffic analysis through monitoring devices and in the areas of urban policy, planning and analysis through the use of Census records and periodic land use, economic and household activity surveys. Analysis and planning activities are supported by several interactive graphic computer programs that allow students to analyze data and to generate and evaluate alternative transportation system designs in ways that were previously impossible to accomplish.

The subject elements of the transportation program are expanding fields of influence within the field of civil engineering, and also represent strong areas of interdisciplinary relevance involving other academic units of the University, particularly in the fields of geography, law, psychology, business administration and urban planning. The subject areas of the Transportation Systems Program are also recognized in various divisions of professional societies including the following: the Urban Transportation and Urban Development Divisions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Transportation and Urban Information System Departments of the American Planning Association, the Transportation and Geocoding Special Interest Groups of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, Institute of Transportation Engineers, and various committees of the Transportation Research Board.

Research Groups

Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC)

Transportation Northwest (TransNow) - USDOT Transportation Center for Federal Region 10

Transportation Engineering Faculty