Transportation Engineering

Description | Recommended courses

 

Description

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.

Increasing environmental concerns have revived an interest in the development and management of public transportation systems. Professional activities can range from road and transit design and operation at the urban scale, to railroad, seaway and airport location, construction and operation at the regional and national scale. Transportation engineering in North America focuses on automobile infrastructures, although it also encompasses sea, air and rail systems.

Automobile infrastructures can be split into the traditional area of highway design and planning, and the rapidly growing area of traffic control systems. The transportation engineer faces the challenge of developing both network links and major terminals to satisfy transportation demands, with due regard for the resultant land-use, environmental and other impacts of these facilities.

Employment opportunities are available both in the public sector (e.g., federal and provincial government transportation ministries, regional and municipal roads, traffic and transit agencies) and the private sector (e.g., engineering consultants, trucking, railroad and airline companies, vehicle manufacturing). The undergraduate core and technical complementary program provide for a solid grounding in transportation engineering sufficient for related professional employment.

 

Recommended courses

In order to achieve a specialization in the area of Transportation Engineering at the undergraduate level, the following courses are:

  • Strongly recommended:
    CIVE 440 Traffic Engineering&Simulation 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

  • Recommended:
    CIVE 433 Course not available

    CIVE 446 Construction Engineering 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer


    CIVE 540 Urban Transportation Planning 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer


    CIVE 560 Transportation Safety & Design 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer


    CIVE 561 Greenhouse Gas Emissions 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer


     
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