Solving Real-World Problems with Transportation Engineering
WHAT IS TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING Transportation is a general word for all the methods people use to move themselves and their goods from one place to another Just as we have for thousands of years people today rely on walking to travel short distances For longer trips people depend on automobiles trucks railroads and airplanes Transportation engineers find ways to improve that travel They design the layout of streets to help Building a highway interchange is a very big project for engineers to plan and complete 4
us safely get from place to place However advances in transportation sometimes lead to problems Cars and trucks cause traffic jams accidents and air pollution To ease crowded roads engineers design public transportation systems such as subways Without the work of transportation engineers it would be difficult to get to school or to work Projects like New York’s AirTrain help meet the transportation needs of airline travelers Transportation engineers are responsible for the roads we drive on How long would it take you to get to the grocery store or school if there were no roads Think About It 5
BEFORE THERE WERE ROADS Cars trucks buses motorcycles and bicycles travel on strips of land called roads Some roads are made of dirt or gravel A firm strong material called pavement covers most modern roads Types of roads include city streets country roads and long-distance highways Before there were roads people traveled by foot along trails These paths were often used for hunting as well as to connect villages Many trails were made at random by A steamroller prepares roads for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro Brazil 6
wandering animals Sometimes people could wander away from the trails and become lost Today engineers locate the best possible places to build roads Roads are designed to reduce environmental harm and traffic Also modern roads are usually built to reduce the time it takes to travel between places Engineers need to think about human needs and the environment when designing roads In early times goods were transported on trails and dirt roads by horse and wagon In what ways do we transport goods by road today Compare and Contrast 7
