Chapter 1

Introduction to
Transportation Engineering

Habte M.
By Habte M. February 2025 1
 Chapter 1
Introduction to
Transportation Engineering

Habte M.
By Habte M.
February 2025
February 2025 2
 Overview
What is transportation?
• Transportation is all about moving goods and people
from one place to another.
• It is also Safe, efficient, reliable, and sustainable
movement of persons and goods over time and space.

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What is Transportation Engineering?

❖ Transportation engineering is a type of civil engineering which

focuses on the infrastructure of transportation: all the elements
which support the movement of goods and people.

❖ Transportation engineers design runways, build bridges,

layout roads and plan docking facilities.

❖ They look at traffic patterns, determine when new transport

facilities are needed and come up with better ways to get from
point A to point B.
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❖ Also Application of technology 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.

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➢ Mobility is a basic human need.
➢ From the times immemorial, everyone travels either
for food or vacation.
➢ A closely associated need is the transport of raw
materials to a manufacturing unit or finished goods for
consumption.
➢ Transportation fulfils these basic needs of humanity.
➢ Transportation plays a major role in the development
of the human civilization.
➢ For instance, one could easily observe the strong
correlation between the evolution of human settlement
and the proximity of transport facilities.
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➢ Also, there is a strong correlation between the quality
of transport facilities and standard of living, because
of which society places a great expectation from
transportation facilities.
➢ In other words, the solution to transportation problems
must be analytically based, economically sound,
socially credible, environmentally sensitive, and
practically acceptable and sustainable.
➢ Alternatively, the transportation solution should be
safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical, and
eco friendly for both men and material.

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 The characteristics of transportation system
The characteristics of transportation system that makes it diverse and complex are listed
below:

1. Multi-modal: Covering all modes of transport; air, land, and sea for both passenger
and freight.

2. Multi-sector: Encompassing the problems and viewpoints of government, private

industry,and public.

3. Multi-problem: Ranging across a spectrum of issues that includes national and

international policy, planning of regional system, the location and design of specific
facilities, carrier management issues, regulatory, institutional and financial policies
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4. Multi-objective: Aiming at national and regional economic
development, urban development, environment quality, and social
quality, as well as service to users and financial and economic
feasibility.
5. Multi-disciplinary: Drawing on the theories and methods of
engineering, economics, operations research, political science,
psychology, other natural, and social sciences, management and law.

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The context in which transportation system is studied is also very diverse and are mentioned
below:

1. Planning range: Urban transportation planning, producing long range plans for 5-25 years
for multimodal transportation systems in urban areas as well as short range programs of
action for less than five years.

2. Passenger transport: Regional passenger transportation, dealing with inter-city passenger

transport by air, rail, and highway and possible with new modes.

3. Freight transport: Routing and management, choice of different modes of rail and truck.

4. International transport: Issues such as containerization, inter-modal co-ordination

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 History of transportation Engineering

✓ Long before cars, snowmobiles and airplanes, humans had migrated to all

over the Earth powered almost exclusively by their feet.

✓ Eventually, people got tired of walking around and carrying everything they

needed on their backs.

✓ They started to use domesticated animals to carry goods.

✓ They also built machines and devices, like sleds and travois, to help them

carry more.
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✓ In some parts of the world, they began using the wheel and axle to build
carts and carriages.

✓ As people travelled back and forth, establishing trading routes, well-used

paths became more and more permanent.

✓ These paths became the first roads.

✓ As time went on, people started to maintain the roads and look at ways in
which they could be made easier to travel, these people were the first
transportation engineers.

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✓Therefore as we understand from above Transportation engineering is a very
diverse and multidisciplinary field, which deals with the planning, design,
operation and maintenance of transportation systems.

✓Good transportation is that which provides safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient,

economical, and environmentally compatible movement of both goods and
people.

✓This profession carries a distinct societal responsibility.

✓Transportation planners and engineers recognize the fact that transportation

systems constitute a potent force in shaping the course of
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✓Planning and development of transportation facilities generally raises living
standards and enhances the aggregate of community values.

✓ Generally a transportation system has three elements this are

• Infrastructure: which includes Road, canal, rail, air Transfer points

Supporting elements(signs, signals, safety)

• Vehicles: which includes Planes, trains, autos, buses, ships, trucks

• Operators/Content : which includes Drivers, pilots, freight, passengers

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The strong interrelationship and the interaction between transportation and the rest of the
society especially in a rapidly changing world is significant to a transportation planner.

Among them four critical dimensions of change in transportation system can be

identified; which form the background to develop a right perspective.

1. Change in the demand: When the population, income, and land-use pattern changes,
the pattern of demand changes; both in the amount and spatial distribution of that
demand.

2. Changes in the technology: As an example, earlier, only two alternatives (bus transit
and rail transit) were considered for urban transportation. But, now new systems like ITS
,LRT, MRTS, etc over a varietyBy of alternatives.
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3. Change in operational policy: Variety of policy options designed to improve
the efficiency, such as incentive for car-pooling, bus fare, road tolls etc.
4. Change in values of the public: Earlier all beneficiaries of a system was
monolithically considered as users. Now, not one system can be beneficial to all,
instead one must identify the target groups like rich, poor, young, work trip, leisure
etc.

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Major disciplines of Transportation
Transportation engineering can be broadly consisting of the four major parts:
1. Transportation Planning
2. Geometric Design
3. Pavement Design
4. Traffic Engineering
Transportation planning
Transportation planning essentially involves the development of a transport model which will
accurately represent both the current as well as future transportation system.

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Geometric design
✓ Geometric design deals with physical proportioning of other transportation
facilities, in contrast with the structural design of the facilities.

✓ The topics include the cross-sectional features, horizontal alignment, vertical

alignment and intersections.

✓ Although there are several modes of travel like road, rail, air, etc. the
underlying principles are common to a great extent.

✓ Therefore emphasis will be normally given for the geometric design of

roads.
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Pavement analysis and design
❖ Pavement design deals with the structural design of roads, both (bituminous
and concrete), commonly known as (flexible pavements and rigid
pavements) respectively.

❖ It deals with the design of paving materials, determination of the layer

thickness, and construction and maintenance procedures.

❖ The design mainly covers structural aspects, functional aspects, drainage.

❖ Structural design ensures the pavement has enough strength to withstand the
impact of loads, functional design emphasizes on the riding quality, and the
drainage design protects the pavement from damage due to water infiltration.
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Traffic Engineering
❖ Traffic Engineering covers a broad range of engineering applications with a focus on the safety
of the public, the efficient use of transportation resources, and the mobility of people and goods.

❖ Traffic engineering involves a variety of engineering and management skills, including design,
operation, and system optimization.

❖ In order to address the above requirement, the traffic engineer must first understand the traffic
flow behavior and characteristics by extensive collection of traffic flow data and analysis.

❖ Based on this analysis, traffic flow is controlled so that the transport infrastructure is used
optimally as well as with good service quality.

❖ In short, the role of traffic engineer is to protect the environment while providing mobility, to
preserve scarce resources while assuring economic activity, and to assure safety and security to
people and vehicles, through both acceptable practices and high tech communications.
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Other important disciplines

❖ In addition to the four major disciplines of transportation, there are

several other important disciplines that are being evolved in the past
few decades.

❖ Although it is difficult to categorize them into separate well defined

disciplines because of the significant overlap, it may be worth the
effort to highlight the importance given by the transportation
community. They can be enumerated as below:
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[Link] transportation:
✓ Public transportation or mass transportation deals with study of the
transportation system that meets the travel need of several people by
sharing a vehicle.

✓ Generally this focuses on the urban travel by bus and rail transit.

✓ The major topics include characteristics of various modes; planning,

management and operations; and policies for promoting public
transportation.
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2. Financial and economic analysis:
➢ Transportation facilities require large capital investments. Therefore it is imperative that whoever
invests money should get the returns.

➢ When government invests in transportation, its objective is not often monetary returns; but social
benefits.

➢ The economic analysis of transportation project tries to quantify the economic benefit which includes
saving in travel time, fuel consumption, etc.

➢ This will help the planner in evaluating various projects and to optimally allocate funds.

➢ On the contrary, private sector investments require monetary profits from the projects. Financial
evaluation tries to quantify the return from a project.

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3. Environmental impact assessment :

❑ The depletion of fossil fuels and the degradation of the environment has been a severe
concern of the planners in the past few decades.

❑ Transportation; in spite of its benefits to the society is a major contributor to the above
concern.

❑ The environmental impact assessment attempts in quantifying the environmental

impacts and tries to evolve strategies for the mitigation and reduction of the impact
due to both construction and operation.

❑ The primary impacts are fuel consumption, air pollution, and noise pollution.

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4. Accident analysis and reduction:
❖ One of the silent killers of humanity is transportation.

❖ Several statistics evaluates that more people are killed due to transportation than great
wars and natural disasters.

❖ This discipline of transportation looks at the causes of accidents, from the perspective of
human, road, and vehicle and formulate plans for the reduction.

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5. Intelligent transport system:
❖ With advent to computers, communication, and vehicle technology, it is possible in these
days to operate transportation system much effectively with significant reduction in the
adverse impacts of transportation.

❖ Intelligent transportation system offers better mobility, efficiency, and safety with the help
of the state-of-the-art-technology.

❖ In addition disciplines specific to various modes are also common. This includes railway
engineering, port and harbor engineering, and airport engineering.

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Means Factors in Transportation Development
Transportation develops because of several and frequently overlapping
factors. From the many, the following are important:

Economic Factors
▪ Almost all transport development is economic in origin.

▪ The chief preoccupation of the first human was the procurement of food, shelter
and sometimes clothing. As they become more highly developed their needs
increased, often beyond what their local economy could supply.

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▪ Means of transporting goods from distant places had to be devised,
adding to the costs of the goods thereby secured.

▪ The need for transporting individuals over wider areas also arose.

▪ Increasing transportation productivity and lower unit costs have

occurred over the years as the system of transportation becomes
more highly developed and complex.

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Geographical Factor
❖ Geography is closely related to economics.

❖ The geographical location of natural resources determines the transport routes that
gives access to those resources and create economic utility, that is, time and place
utility, by taking them from a location where they have little values to processing
and consuming areas where their values is vastly increased.

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Political Polices
Political polices frequently play a deciding role in transport development. Basically is in a way to
form integrated political system and control.

Military
The military might of a nation is primarily intended to support its political polices and to provide for
national defense. Consequently, often it has direct influence on transport development.

Technological Factor
Progress in direct and supporting technologies has played an obvious role in transportation, for
instance introduction of new economical transportation mode to the exist system calls for the
development of transportation

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Competition

✓ The competitive urges have given a powerful impetus to transport development.

✓ Railroads compete with railroad also with trucks, barges, pipelines and airlines.

✓ Airlines have counted heavily on speed but have also been forced to greater safety
and dependability to meet ground transport competition.

✓ No less real is the competition between products and industries tributary to transport.

✓ Bituminous material competes with concrete as the road surface.

✓ Diesel won steam but may face competition with electricity.

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Urbanization

➢ The rapid growth of urban areas by an even more rapidly

expanding population is a phenomenon that cannot be
overlooked among transport development factors.

➢ Accessibility to land and the intensity of land use are closely

related to transport availability.

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Role of transportation in society
❖ Transportation is a non separable part of any society.

❖ It exhibits a very close relation to the style of life, the range and location of activities and
the goods and services which will be available for consumption.

❖ Advances in transportation has made possible changes in the way of living and the way in
which societies are organized and therefore have a great influence in the development of
civilizations.

❖ This topic conveys an understanding of the importance of transportation in the modern

society by presenting selected characteristics of existing transportation systems, their use
and relationships to other human activities.

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❖ Transportation is responsible for the development of civilizations from very old times by
meeting travel requirement of people and transport requirement of goods.

❖ Such movement has changed the way people live and travel.

❖ In developed and developing nations, a large fraction of people travel daily for work,
shopping and social reasons.

❖ But transport also consumes a lot of resources like time, fuel, materials and land.

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Economic role of transportation

❖ Economics involves production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.

❖ People depend upon the natural resources to satisfy the needs of life but due to non
uniform surface of earth and due to difference in local resources, there is a lot of difference
in standard of living in different societies.

❖ So there is an immense requirement of transport of resources from one particular society to

other.

❖ These resources can range from material things to knowledge and skills like movement of
doctors and technicians to the places where there is need of them.

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❖ Without the ability to transport manufactured goods, raw materials, and technical know-how, a country is
simply unable to maximize the comparative advantage it may have in the form of natural or human
resources.

❖ Goods have little values unless given utility, that is, the capacity for being useful and satisfying wants.

❖ Transportation contributes two kinds of utilities: place and time utility, economic terms that simply mean
having goods where they are wanted when they are needed, essential functions that can also be applied to the
movement of people.

❖ An example is given to evaluate the relationship between place, time and cost of a particular commodity.

❖ If a commodity is produced at point A and wanted by people of another community at any point B distant x
from A, then the price of the commodity is dependent on the distance between two centers and the system of
transportation between two points. With improved system the commodity will be made less costly at B.

❖ In urban areas especially, transportation provides the connecting link between dwelling-units to their
corresponding activities.

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Social role of transportation

▪ Transportation has always played an important role in influencing the formation of urban
societies.

▪ Although other facilities like availability of food and water, played a major role, the
contribution of transportation can be seen clearly from the formation, size and pattern, and
the development of societies, especially urban centers.

Formation of settlements: From the beginning of civilization, the man is living in settlements
which existed near banks of major river junctions, a port, or an intersection of trade routes.

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Size and Pattern of Settlement: the initial settlements were relatively small developments but
with due course of time, they grew in population and developed into big cities and major
trade centers.

❖ The size of settlements is not only limited by the size of the area by which the settlement
can obtain food and other necessities, but also by considerations of personal travels
especially the journey to and from work.

❖ The increased speed of transport and reduction in the cost of transport has resulted in
variety of spatial patterns.

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Growth of Urban Centers: When the cities grow beyond normal walking distance, then
transportation technology plays a role in the formation of the city.

✓ For example, many cities in the plains developed as a circular city with radial routes,
where as the cities beside a river developed linearly.

✓ The development of automobiles and other factors like increase in personal income, and
construction of paved road network, the settlements were transformed into urban centers
of intense travel activity.

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Environmental role of transportation

❑ The negative effects of transportation are more dominating than its useful aspects as
far as transportation is concerned.

❑ There are numerous categories into which the environmental effects have been
categorized. They are explained in the following sections.

Safety
❖ Growth of transportation has a very unfortunate impact on the society in terms of
accidents.

❖ Worldwide death and injuries from road accidents have reached epidemic proportions.

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❖ Present indications are that about half a million killed and about 15 million injured on the
road accidents annually. Increased variation in the speeds and vehicle density resulted in a
high exposure to accidents.

❖ Accidents result in loss of life and permanent disability, injury, and damage to property.

❖ Accidents also causes numerous non-quantifiable impacts like loss of time, grief to the
near ones of the victim, and inconvenience to the public.

❖ The loss of life and damage from natural disasters, industrial accidents, or epidemic often
receive significant attention from both government and public.

❖ This is because their occurrence is concentrated but sparse. On the other hand, accidents
from transport sector are widespread and occurs with high frequency.
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Air Pollution

❖ All transport modes consume energy and the most common source of energy is from the burning of fossil
fuels like coal, petrol, diesel, etc.

❖ The relation between air pollution and respiratory disease has been demonstrated by various studies and the
detrimental effects on the planet earth are widely recognized recently.

❖ The combustion of the fuels releases several contaminants into the atmosphere, including carbon monoxide,
hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, and other particulate matter.

❖ Hydrocarbons are the result of incomplete combustion of fuels.

❖ Particulate matters are minute solid or liquid particles that are suspended in the atmosphere.

❖ They include aerosols, smoke, and dust particles.

❖ These air pollutants once emittedByinto the atmosphere, undergoFebruary

Habte M.
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and disperse into the surroundings.
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Noise pollution

✓ Sound is acoustical energy released into atmosphere by vibrating or moving bodies where as noise is

unwanted sound produced.

✓ Transportation is a major contributor of noise pollution, especially in urban areas.

✓ Noise is generated during both construction and operation.

✓ During construction, operation of large equipment's causes considerable noise to the neighborhood.

✓ During the operation, noise is generated by the engine and exhaust systems of vehicle, aerodynamic friction,

and the interaction between the vehicle and the support system (road-tire, rail-wheel).

✓ Extended exposure to excessive sound has been shown to produce physical and psychological damage.

✓ Further, because of its annoyance and disturbance, noise adds to mental stress and fatigue.
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Energy consumption

➢ The spectacular growths in industrial and economic growth during the past century have been
closely related to an abundant supply of inexpensive energy from fossil fuels.

➢ Transportation sector is unbelieved to consume more than half of the petroleum products.

➢ The compact of the shortage of fuel was experienced during major wars when strict rationing was
imposed in many countries.

➢ The impact of this had cascading effects on many factors of society, especially in the price
escalation of essential commodities.

➢ However, this has few positive impacts; a shift to public transport system, a search for energy
efficient engines, and alternate fuels. During the time of fuel shortage, people shifted to cheaper
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public transport system.
➢ Policy makers and planners thereafter gave much emphasis to the public transit which
consumes less energy per person.

➢ The second impact was in the development of fuel-efficient engines and devices and
operational and maintenance practices.

➢ A fast depleting fossil fuel has accelerated the search for energy efficient and environment
friendly alternate energy source.

➢ The research is active in the development of bio-fuels, hydrogen fuels and solar energy.

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Other impacts
❖Transportation directly or indirectly affects many other areas of society and few of then are
listed below: Increased travel requirement also require additional land for transport
facilities.

❖A good transportation system takes considerable amount of land from the society.

❖Aesthetics of a region is also affected by transportation. Road networks in quite country

side are visual intrusion.

❖Similarly, the transportation facilities like fly-overs are again visual intrusion in urban
context.

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❖The social life and social pattern of a community is
severely affected after the introduction of some
transportation facilities.

❖Construction of new transportation facilities often

requires substantial relocation of residents and
employment opportunities.

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Modes of Transportation

➢ Transport modes are the means by which people and freight achieve mobility.

➢ They fall into one of three basic types, depending on over what surface they travel – land

(road, rail and pipelines), water (shipping), and air.

➢ Each mode is characterized by a set of technical, operational and commercial

characteristics.

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Road transportation

✓ Road infrastructures are large consumers of space with the lowest level of physical constraints
among transportation modes.

✓ However, physiographical constraints are significant in road construction with substantial

additional costs to overcome features such as rivers or rugged terrain.

✓ 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.

✓ They are mainly linked to light industries where rapid movements of freight in small batches are
the norm.

✓ Yet, with containerization, road transportation has become

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a crucial link in freight distribution.
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Rail transportation

❖ Railways are composed of traced paths on which are bound vehicles.

❖ 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.

❖ Rail is by far the land transportation mode offering the highest capacity with a
23,000 tons fully loaded coal unit train being the heaviest load ever carried.

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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.

❑ The longest oil pipeline is the Transiberian, extending over 9,344 km from the Russian
arctic oilfields in eastern Siberia to Western Europe.

❑ Physical constraints are low and include the landscape and pergelisol in arctic or subarctic
environments.

❑ Pipeline construction costs vary according to the diameter and increase proportionally with
the distance and with the viscosity of fluids (from gas, low viscosity, to oil, high
viscosity).
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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.

▪ However, due to the location of economic activities maritime circulation takes place on specific
parts of the maritime space, particularly over the North Atlantic and the North Pacific.

▪ The construction of channels, locks and dredging are attempts to facilitate maritime circulation by
reducing discontinuity. Comprehensive inland waterway systems include Western Europe, the
Volga / Don system, St. Lawrence / Great Lakes system, the Mississippi and its tributaries, the
Amazon, the Panama / Paraguay and the interior of China.

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▪ Maritime transportation has high terminal costs, since port infrastructures are among the
most expensive to build, maintain and improve.

▪ High inventory costs also characterize maritime transportation.

▪ More than any other mode, maritime transportation is linked to heavy industries, such as
steel and petrochemical facilities adjacent to port sites.

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Air Transportation

❖ Air routes are practically unlimited, but they are denser over the North Atlantic, inside
North America and Europe and over the North Pacific.

❖ Air transport constraints are multidimensional and include the site (a commercial plane
needs about 3,300 meters of runway for landing and take off), the climate, fog and aerial
currents.

❖ Air activities are linked to the tertiary and quaternary sectors, notably finance and tourism,
which lean on the long distance mobility of people.

❖ More recently, air transportation has been accommodating growing quantities of high
value freight and is playing a growing role in global logistics.
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Intermodal Transportation

❖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.

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 CHAPTER-2

TRANSPORATION PLANNING

Habte M.

February 2025
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 Transport Planning:
▪ Transport planning is science that deals with the study of problems that arise in providing
transportation facilities in urban or rural areas.

▪ The objective of planning is to prepare a systematic basis for planning such facilities.

▪ Transport planning is an important part of overall town and country planning. Any
change in the transport system is reflected in number of impacts.

▪ Today Motor vehicles have revolution in our life and brought comfort, pleasure and
convenience. But they have created lot of congestion problems, lack of safety and
degeneration of the environment.

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▪ Transportation planning is thus meant to understand the nature of these problems
and to formulate proposals for the safe and efficient movement of goods and
people from one place to another place.

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 Transport Planning Process
• Strategies of Transport Planning: In general, Transportation planning can be made into two
ways for any urban area.

• Short Term Planning: The planning which works for short period say for 3 months or
6 months is called as Short term planning.

• This means that facilities are provided for betterment that works only for shorter period.
This type of planning does not cost much, but sometimes gives excellent results

• Example: Suppose at the place of horizontal curve on highway, lot of accidents are
occurring.

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 Short term planning for this case is to provide Speed breakers before the start
of horizontal curve.

• Long Term Planning : The planning which works for long period say for 10
years or 20 years or so is called as Long Term planning.

• The facility is provided in such a way that the people will feel comfort for
longer time. This type of planning will cost more and more but gives definitely
excellent results.

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 Cont.…
• Interdependence of Land use and Transport:

• Urban traffic is a function of Land use.

• Land use is a function of number of buildings, vehicles, population, business and

commercial activities, category of people living, etc in a particular town or city.

• The demand of the place generally depends upon the number of activities running in
that place. When more traffic is moving in the place, naturally the land value also
increases. Thus there is an interdependence exists between land use and transport

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 Cont.…
• Systems approach to Transport Planning: A System is defined as a
complex whole that consists of a set of connected things whose
components are vital to the operation of the system. Thus in case of
transport planning, a systematic approach is essential.

• The following is the systematic approach for any sort of transport

planning in urban areas.

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Cont.…
Decision to adopt planning

Problem definition, formulation of goal

Solution generation

Solution analysis

Evaluation of possible alternatives and choice

Implimentation

Operation

Performance assessment and Review

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 Cont.…
• Stages in Transportation planning : Transport planning is system of observing the entire facilities
available in the network and suggesting the possible alternatives to improve the present system into
a better system, which gives good comfort for the people living in that region or country.

• The following are the different stages of transport planning that are required for betterment of the
system.

1. Survey and analysis of existing conditions: As a planner, the primary duty is to survey the
entire region and noting down the available facilities in the region.

For that purpose, the entire region has to be divided into number of zones and each zone has to be
studied thoroughly.

As a part of survey, the following studies are required to conduct in order to collect the necessary
data.
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 Cont.…
• Origin and Destination Studies • Information on land use type

• Collection of data on movement of vehicles • Population statistics

• Inventory study on the streets regarding• House hold structure

their dimensions and existing conditions • Employment pattern
• Studies on travel time • College and School attendance
• Inventory study regarding Public transport
facilities

• Parking inventory studies

• Accident studies By: Habte M. February 2025 65

 Cont.…
[Link] and analysis of future conditions : Population forecasting can be done by
studies of the past trends. It is also required to estimate the future employment, car ownership,
land use patterns, land use activity, etc. This helps the administration to correlate this data for
various models.

[Link]: In this stage, the number of alternatives suggested can be evaluated based on
their benefit/ cost ratio and finally the best alternative is selected for implementation.

[Link] adoption and Implementation: The best alternative selected based on the
above stages of survey is finally programmed and implemented for the fulfillment of the given
network.
By: Habte M. February 2025 66
 Cont.…
[Link] study: The transport planning is a dynamic and complex process
and hence a continuous study is required even after implementation, until it gives
good results and consistency in the results. Periodical surveys are to be conducted
to know the various challenges required to correct the system time to time.

6. Citizen participation: For any transport planning, before implementation, it

is highly essential to take the opinion of the public. This can be done by sampling
method. The suggestions given by the citizens can be reexamined to correct the
system further to suit to all the public living in that region.
By: Habte M. February 2025 67
 Cont.…
• Urban Travel characteristics and Travel patterns and their relationship:

• The characteristics of urban travel varies from one urban area to another urban area. This is mainly because of
various activities running in the region and other structure of the region as a whole. These characteristics varies
from regional to local. Urban travel characteristics are the functions of

• Distance of residence from the urban centre

• Provision of local facilities

• Proximity to transport networks

• Availability of parking

• Road network type

• Settlement size

• Land use value By: Habte M. February 2025 68

 Cont.…
The following are some of the travel characteristics that can be kept in mind, while planning any region.

• Physical: The physical strength of the driver such as his/her weight, age, eye sight, hearing condition, etc are
some of the characteristics which will dominate for various sorts of travel patterns.

• Mental: The mental ability of the driver is also an important character of the driver that affects the travel pattern.

• Psychological: The psychological behavior of the driver also affects the pattern and hence should be considered.

• Environmental: The environmental conditions such as heavy rains, heavy winds and other sorts of whether
conditions will also affect the travel pattern and hence to be studied in the planning.

By: Habte M. February 2025 69

 Cont.…
• Travel patterns are the functions of travel characteristics. Based on the travel characteristics
in a region, the travel patterns varies. In addition to this, the travel patterns are depending on
the various activities scheduled in the region time to time. The following five types of travel
patterns are more predominant in nature.

▪ Travel distance

▪ Journey frequency

▪ Modal split

▪ Travel time

▪ Transport energy consumption

By: Habte M. February 2025 70
 Cont.…
• Travel pattern also depends on land use, facilities in the region, employment density, road
network type, residential parking, socio- economic factors, etc.

By: Habte M. February 2025 71

 Cont.…

• Intercity passenger and Freight systems:

Intercity passengers are the passengers who will travel from one city to the neighboring
city most frequently. The travelling may be either by bus or by rail or by air.

The number of intercity passengers is the functions of travel pattern and travel demand.
In many areas, the employees will work at one city and lives in another city.

This indicated the demand of the area where people are living even though the work
centers are so far. Moreover, the socio- economic factors will increase because of
intercity passengers. Hence, it is necessary to include intercity passengers in the transport
planning.
By: Habte M. February 2025 72
 Cont.…

Freight is defined as a sort of safekeeping made to the customer who brings

luggage along with them. The charges of the freight depend upon the weight of the
luggage and the distance of journey. Freight system in a region indicates the
demand of travel. Freight systems are of four types.

• Road Freight system

• Rail Freight system

• Air Freight system

• Ship Freight system By: Habte M. February 2025 73

 Cont.…
• State wide and Regional Transport planning:

❖ The transport planning which is made by considering all the aspects in the state as a whole, is called as state wide transport
planning.

❖ must be taken to select all important attributes, without leaving any one. Lot of studies are required to conduct to get the total
information about the entire state.

❖ minor attributes can be neglected giving more priority to the major attributes and their behavior.

❖ The transport planning which is made by considering only a region is called as Regional Transport planning.

❖ In this planning, the attributes affecting to the region only will be considered. It is highly essential to consider all minor and major
attributes in case of regional transport planning. The studies are to be conducted at a micro level to get an appropriate information to
the planner.

❖ In this way, the observation of state wide transport development and regional transport development will give the planner a picture
to focus on the better planning to that region or state.
By: Habte M. February 2025 74
 Cont.…
Need of Public Transportation in Cities :

• Public Transportation is one of the major issues pertaining to urban traffic.

• Urban areas are associated with lot of congestion problems, environmental degradation and
energy crises. A lot of competition exists between private cars and public transport such as
buses.

• For smooth traffic flow in urban areas, the public transport has to be encouraged more as
compared to the private vehicles. This will reduce congestion, accidents, parking and pollution.

• Every country should have maximum number of public transport facilities that will economize
and create more safety for the public in the respective places.
By: Habte M. February 2025 75
 Cont.…
Advantages of Bus Transport :

• The carrying capacity of buses is very high as compared to any other private vehicle

• Streets can get decongested and travel can be made quicker

• Parking problems and accidents will be reduced

• Heavy investment required to cater private vehicles will be reduced

• Oil consumption can be reduced

• Pollution can be minimized

By: Habte M. February 2025 76

 Cont.…
• Employment opportunities will increase due to increase in public transportation

• People who cannot afford private vehicles are benefited with public transport

• Increase in public transport will divert the private vehicle owners to swift to public
transport for their mobility

• The duration of peak hour traffic in urban areas will be reduced due to increase in public
transport facilities

An efficient bus transport system can be built only after careful planning. The selection of bus
routes should be based on detailed travel surveys

By: Habte M. February 2025 77

 Cont.…
Urbanization:
❖The growth of people and various activities in cities day to day is called as
Urbanization. Urbanization provides the necessary infrastructure for trade,
commerce and industry. It also provides better living standards in terms of
educational facilities, health care, recreation and several intellectual pursuits.

❖The percentage of Urbanization indicates the development of the country. In

advanced countries, Urbanization exceeds more than 75% and in fact in
developing countries, it is still less than 50%.

By: Habte M. February 2025 78

 Cont.…
❖The residences begin to be pushed outwards to the fringe of the town that makes
more separation between work place and residence. This increases the need of
transport of people from the outer fringe to the inner core. The existing roads
become overloaded with the traffic and turns out to be incapable of handling the
newly created transport demand

❖The inability of transport network leads to relocation of various activities to the

edge of the town where land is available at cheaper rate.

By: Habte M. February 2025 79

 Cont.…
• Difficulties in Urbanization:
✓Urbanization increases the growth of vehicles that leads a lot of congestion on the roads.
✓Door to door delivery needs lot of machinery and planning due to Urbanization
✓Parking problems increases day to day
✓Loading and Unloading of goods by commercial vehicles is hampered by too many
restrictions
✓Delay and travel time increases for the people in their mobility
✓Road accidents will increase from time to time
✓Environment will get degraded and pollution increases
✓Land value increases at a higher [Link] cannot be affordable
By: Habte February 2025 by a common man 80
 Cont.…
•Measures to meet Traffic Problems in
Cities:
Land use and City planning controls: Land use is a function of traffic.

➢Control the land value based on the traffic generation by limiting the floor area
ratio of buildings and restrictions on the high rise construction especially in the
CBD areas.

➢Distribute the business, commercial, recreational, industrial and educational

activities equally to all parts of Urban area.
By: Habte M. February 2025 81
 Cont.…
➢studies should be comprehensive and cover all aspects of Urban street schemes,
Public transport, Mass transport, Traffic Management, Parking policies and
Pedestrian Schemes.

➢The methodology and techniques of these studies has to be developed at a higher

degree so as to get reasonable answers to the problems of traffic from time to time.

➢New bye-passes, ring roads, arterial streets and expressways can be built to give
relief to the traffic congestion.

➢Traffic Management measures such as one- way streets could be implemented. Lane
discipline to segregate the traffic can be [Link] 2025
By: Habte M. 82
 Cont.…
• Traffic Restraint Measures: These are the measures imposed to restrain the use of roads
by traffic. Restriction on Parking and Road Pricing

• Promotion of Public Transport: Public transport vehicles such as buses on the roads will
carry large number of people and beneficiaries at a time

• Pedestrianisation: It is the phenomenon of converting a busy road into Pedestrian road.

Vehicles are to be parked in nearby place and people should go by walk into those roads.
This can be implemented only in the peak hours.

• Staggering of Office Hours

• Promotion of Bicycle Traffic

By: Habte M. February 2025 83
 Cont.…
Bus Facilities:

Bus is one of the public transport vehicle which is essential for all category of people In
Urban areas. The bus facilities are of two types.

• Bus Bay: Bus Bay is a Bus Stop designed at a particular depth from the edge of the road.
This will facilitate the loading and unloading of passengers without blocking the vehicles
on the main road.

• Kerb Side Bus Stop : The bus stop which is provided on the edge of the kerb is called as
kerb side bus stop.

• In general, most of the bus stops in urban areas are located on the kerb side
By: Habte M. February 2025 84
By: Habte M. February 2025 85