·
Present
information on what transportation engineers do
·
Encourage
you to think about transportation issues and problems
$
Highway
and traffic engineering
$
Public
transportation engineering and operations
$
Airport
design and operations
$
Rail
transportation
CE
372-Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering
$
Geometric
design of highways
$
Operation
of signal systems
$
Public
transit operations
$
Transportation
planning
CE
473-Highway Design
CE
474-Traffic Systems Design
CE
475-Pavement Systems Design
Institute
of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
National
Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology (NIATT) (www.niatt.uidaho.edu)
$
Civil
engineering courses in transportation
$
Research
projects with NIATT
$
Summer
internships with Idaho Transportation Department
$
Institute
of Transportation Engineers scholarship
$
Coral
Sales scholarship
$
Road
Builders Clinic scholarship
$
Field
trips to transportation centers and operations
$
Traffic
signal summer workshop ((http://www.its.uidaho.edu/niatt/education/TSSW.htm)
Michael
Kyte
Professor,
Civil Engineering
Director,
National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology
Engineering/Physics
Building 115
885-6002
mkyte@uidaho.edu
The
purpose of this class today is to get you to think about transportation and how
it affects you. Transportation is a
challenge every time you have to get from one place to another; in some cities,
this challenge is bigger than in other cities.
You have had many experiences with the transportation system and you probably
have thought some (complained?) about how the system works or, sometimes,
doesn’t work. Your task today is to
consider a specific problem that you have encountered in your hometown, and
what solutions might be possible to this problem. For example, I am originally from Los Angeles, and one of the
problems there is the congestion that I experienced every day driving to and
from work. The trip typically took
about 45 minutes each way. It was very
frustrating on some days. One of the
solutions that has been considered for Los Angeles is to build more freeways;
another is to build a mass transit system.
Spend
some time thinking about your hometown transportation problem and then writing
about it. Then, discuss this problem
with one other student in the class.
Together, assess the problems that you have identified and
documented. Finally, consider solutions
to one of the problems in your group.
Here
are the tasks and the schedule for today’s class:
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Task 1. Consider the town in which you
lived during most or all of your high school years. What was it like to travel there? Do most people drive, or walk, or ride the bus? What are some of the transportation problems
that you remember experiencing? Select
one of these problems. Write a brief essay
(no longer than one page, maximum) describing this problem. Why is this problem important? Who does it affect? Does it occur everyday? (Time: 15 minutes)
$
Task 2. Share your essay with your
partner. Spend a few minutes reading
the essay written by your partner. How
do the problems that he or she identified compare with yours? What did you learn from reading the
essay? (Time: 10 minutes)
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Task 3. Select one problem from the
two problems discussed in your group.
Spend five minutes considering how you might solve this problem. Then, working alone, identify one or more
solutions that you think should be considered to this transportation
problem. Document your ideas in a
written list. (Time: 10 minutes)
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Task 4. Discuss your solutions with
your partner. How are the solutions and
issues the same? How are they
different? Summarize the results of
your discussion in a two-page paper that includes the viewpoints of each member
of the group. This paper is due in
class next week. Please email your
paper to me at mkyte@uidaho.edu.