CEE 4640 - Sustainable Transportation Systems Design

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading (no audit).

Prerequisite: CEE 3040, CEE 3610 or permission of instructor. Co-meets with CEE 6648.

F. Vanek.

Senior-level design course in transportation, with a focus on design of sustainable transportation systems. The perspective in the course is one of “system design”, i.e., understanding the process of creating objectives, developing alternative designs and having models capable of representing the interactions among major elements of the overall system. We will also adopt a “sustainable development” or “triple bottom line” perspective, taking into account ecological and social as well as economic dimensions of transportation systems design. From this perspective, efficient transportation function achieves the economic objective, while quantifying and minimizing negative impacts addresses ecological and social goals. The interactions among the major system elements (vehicles, infrastructure, people, freight) occurs on networks, and we need to focus on how networks function. We will also study how resources are allocated and how capacity is maintained in networks. Systems design is examined from both a public sector perspective and from a private sector perspective.

Outcome 1: Develop the student’s ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science and basic transportation engineering in a design context.

Outcome 2: Design transportation systems to meet desired objectives.

Outcome 3: Develop the students’ ability to see their solutions in a social context.

Outcome 4: Understand current issues related to design of effective transportation systems.