Transportation Systems
[ Research | Courses | Faculty | Contact Information ]
Visit the Transportation website at http://www.ce.gatech.edu/groups/transportation/.
Transportation systems form integral building blocks for a modern society. Efficient and safe movement of people and goods ensures a thriving economy and provides for an improved quality of life. However, transportation systems by their very nature also affect the environment through their integration with land use decisions and the travel behaviors they encourage, as well as their physical construction, operation, maintenance and renewal. The study of transportation, therefore, must not only focus on efficient and safe design and operations but also on the link between travel behavior, urban form, and environmental quality.
The transportation graduate program at Georgia Tech provides a depth of knowledge in the design and performance of transportation systems and encourages students to add breadth to their education by understanding the environmental, institutional, and societal context within which these systems operate. The technical core courses include urban transportation planning, traffic engineering, design of highway and transit facilities, transportation administration, and transportation statistics. Students supplement these courses with technical electives and are encouraged to take courses from other academic units at Georgia Tech.
Recent research in advanced technologies, environmental impacts, intermodal transportation, geographic information systems, and modal emissions modeling and infastructure/assets management have been added to the curriculum. The faculty expects the graduates of the program to be well educated on the latest concepts and ideas in the transportation community.
The transportation program is aligned with the Georgia Transportation Institute. The GATI conducts research, develops various research and educational technology transfer programs pertaining to all forms of transportation. It provides a campus focus where students are active participants. Working through the GATI, research sponsors are able to access all the resources at Georgia Tech and other research universities in the state.
In addition to the excellence of the graduate program, the location of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, provides a living transportation laboratory for graduate students. With one of the best transportation systems of any comparable U.S. metropolitan area, Atlanta provides students with the ability to study first-hand what makes a good transportation system work as well as the contemporary challenges of urban transportation sysetms. Field trips are often conducted to the Georgia DOT's Transportation Management Center, the international airport, intermodal freight yards, the transit control center, highway construction sites, and nearby ports.
Transportation Systems Research [ Return to top ]
The transportation faculty is involved in research on new planning methods for transportation investment, enhanced methods for modeling travel behavior, analysis of driver safety in southeastern United States, crash analysis using event data recorders, applications of advanced technologies in the transportation system, the development of new models for estimating mobile emissions, improved concepts for intermodal transportation, sustainable development and transportation, application of geographic information systems in program management, the design of a fog detection and warning system, and the development of decision support tools for infrastructure management. Many of these projects are interdisciplinary in nature and involve faculty and students from other academic units.
Research facilities include a unique traffic signal lab, instrumented vehicle lab, and an Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) laboratory. The ITS laboratory includes a functional traffic management center with real-time data and video via fiber-optic connections. In addition, students use the library and computer facilities to support their research projects.
Research Areas:
- Intermodal transportation
- Incorporating mobility into transportation planning
- Incorporating environmental considerations into transportation planning
- Feasibility of electric vehicles
- Transportation management associations
- Adaptive traffic signal controls
- Automated highways
- Sustainable development and transportation
- Portfolio theory applications in infrastructure management
- Portfolio theory and sustainability metrics in infrastructure and asset management
- Geographic Information System (GIS) applications to program development
- Impact of transit system on metro Atlanta
- Integration of transportation data for management systems
- Safety analysis of work zones
- Air quality impacts and modal emissions modeling
- Investigation of accidents with occurrences of fatalities in the southeastern U.S.
- Road design using virtual reality
- Improvements to travel behavior models through the use of heuristics
- Kinematic waves on freeways
- Rural multimodal planning tool
- Assessment of insurance pricing on consumer response
- Context sensitive design in urban areas
- Design factors for low speed roads
- Quantitative properties of speeding and other unsafe
- driving
- Context sensitive design
- Georgia statewide pedestrian plan
- Incorporating safety into transportation planning
- Safety analysis of congested urban streets
- Smart work zones analysis
Courses [ Return to top ]
Infrastructure Systems
Analytical approaches and tools for infrastructure and asset management, sustainable systems development.
Computer-aided Site Engineering and Road Design
Use of personal computers in the design and layout of project sites, highways, and intersections. Coordinate geometry, auto-contouring, and earthwork calculations.
Linear Statistical Models in Transportation
Theory of simple and multivariate regression and analysis of variance models. Assessment of modeling assumptions and remedial measures. Applications in the field of transportation planning.
Urban Transportation Planning
An overview course on the history, finance, operations, modeling, politics, environmental impacts, and planning of urban transportation systems in the United States.
Traffic Engineering
Characteristics of traffic demand, traffic flow, vehicles, drivers, roadways and pedestrians. Studies and data analysis. Capacity analysis. Traffic control and intelligent systems. Operations and management.
Geometric Design of Transportation Facilities
Geometric configurations of streets, expressways, busways, railways, and their terminals to meet characteristics of vehicle performance and operator limitations.
Transportation Administration and Policy Analysis
Overview of institutions and policy processes in the transportation sector; organizational analysis and implementation; policy analysis.
GIS in Transportation
Theory and application of GIS applied to transportation engineering and planning (GIS-T). Laboratory focuses on GIS-T development.
Travel Demand Analysis
Forecasting travel demand at both site and regional levels. The 4-step transportation planning process will be emphasized. The laboratory will focus on using computer models to forecast travel demand.
Survey Design and Analysis
The overall objective of this course is to understand the general methods and theory underlying the acquisition and analysis of survey data used to measure/forecast consumer choices. First examined are past research efforts aimed at soliciting unbiased and complete responses to mail, telephone, and face-face interview techniques. Then, various sampling strategies and sampling plans are discussed. Finally, the theory and application of discrete choice models, covering linear probability, probit, multinomial logit, and nested logit models are developed.
Land Use - Transportation Interaction
This course provides an overview of land use and transportation planning principles, how development impacts air transportation, how transportation investments impact development patterns and air quality.
Transportation, Energy, and Air Quality
Students investigate relationships between transportation demand, energy supply and consumption, fuel types, greenhouse gas emissions, and relationships between vehicle technology, pollutant emissions, modeling techniques, and air quality.
Atmospheric Chemical Modeling
Indepth analysis of basic principles and approaches in air quality modeling. Application of modern numerical methods to the prediction of atmospheric chemical and physical compositions; specific applications using computer models developed by the students are included.
Signalized Intersections and Networks
Traffic-responsive signalization. Detector placement and signal timing at individual intersections. Hands-on practice with equipment. Timing of coordinated systems. Signal plans and specifications.
Simulation Models in Transportation
Simulation models in transportation: development, calibration, applications and analysis of outputs.
Advanced Traffic Detection and Control
Latest developments in traffic control equipment and software, including incident management. Communications-technology alternatives. Video and other above-road detector technologies. Hands-on practice with equipment.
Transportation Safety Analysis
This course examines important concepts underlying transportation safety analysis. The types of analyses include identification of factors contributing to accident occurrence and the evaluation of safety investments. Safety-related concepts covered include: definitions of risk, exposure, and system safety; driver factors, roadway factors, and vehicle factors; accident accounting and reporting; prediction and estimation of accident occurrence; modeling of system failures including Poisson and negative binomial regression, survival and hazard models, and classification methods.
Technology Innovations in Transportation
Technology innovations in transportation including Intelligent Transportation Systems. Planning and design of ITS systems.
Traffic Flow Theory
Advanced study of the underlying principles and analytical procedures used in performing capacity analyses of transportation facilities. Highway Capacity Manual procedures, deterministic and stochastic queueing analysis, shock wave theory and gap acceptance theory presented.
Transportation Infrastructure Management and Traffic Control
Transportation Infrastructure traffic control and safety related issues are addressed for initial implementation of transportation facilities as well as daily operational aspects.
Transit Systems Planning and Design
Introduction to transit system planning and design concepts. Course will discuss the planning, design, and operations of transit systems, and the operations of intermodal terminals.
Airport Planning and Design
Airport site selection, runway length and orientation, traffic control, drainage lighting, long range planning, government responsibility for air transportation.
Faculty
Listing of Transportation Faculty
Contact Information [ Return to top ]
To receive application materials and information regarding graduate studies, please contact the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering:
Graduate Program
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
404) 894-2246, (404) 385-0571 FAX
gradinfo@ce.gatech.edu
For more information concerning Transportation Systems, please contact:
Dr. Michael Meyer
Discipline Coordinator - Transportation Systems
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
404) 894-0405, (404) 894-2278 FAX
michael.meyer@ce.gatech.edu