Traffic Engineering Fifth Edition Chapter 1

Transcript:Traffic Engineering Fifth Edition Chapter 1:
Traffic Engineering Fifth Edition Chapter 1 Introduction Copyright © 2019, 2011, 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 1.1 Traffic engineering as a profession Traffic engineering described by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) in the following words: A branch of civil engineering, traffic engineering concerns the safe and efficient movement of people and goods along roadways. Traffic flow, road geometry, sidewalks, bicycle facilities, shared lane markings, traffic signs, traffic lights, and more—all of these elements must be considered when designing public and private sector transportation solutions. Historically, traffic engineering begins with early road-builders, which have existed since ancient times. The focus was on the physical and structural design of roadways. Civil engineering, with its focus on physical infrastructure, became the traditional home for traffic engineering. Modern traffic engineering involves complex technologies employed to control and operate roadway facilities and networks, and touches upon virtually all of the fundamental engineering disciplines. 1.1.1 safety: the primary objective The principal goal of the traffic engineer remains the provision of a safe system for highway traffic. Improvements in vehicles, driver training, roadway design, and traffic control have helped bring that number significantly down beginning in the 1980s. The number of traffic fatalities has been less than 40,000 per year since 2008, with a low of 32,744 posted in 2014. While total highway fatalities per year have fluctuated, accident rates based on vehicle-miles traveled have consistently declined. Improvements in fatality rates reflect a number of trends, many of which traffic engineers have been instrumental in implementing. Stronger efforts to remove dangerous drivers from the road have yielded significant dividends in safety. The increase in fatalities over the last 2 years has generally been attributed to higher incidence of “distracted driving.” The modern vehicle has many more distractions for the driver, despite all of the technological advances made to assist drivers. 1.1.2 other objectives Traffic engineers have other objectives to consider. 1-Travel time 2-Comfort 3-Convenience 4-Economy 5-Environmental compatibility The traffic engineer is tasked with all of these goals and objectives and with making the appropriate trade-offs to optimize both the transportation systems and the use of public funds to build, maintain, and operate them. 1.1.3 responsibility, ethics, and liability in traffic engineering The traffic engineer has a very special relationship with the public at large. Perhaps more than any other type of engineer, the traffic engineer deals with the daily safety of a large segment