This 15-credit elective course is in the final year of the Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (BE Hons) in Civil Engineering programme. It is a transportation engineering design course that builds upon previous years' topics covered in Part II and Part III courses in Transportation Engineering (CIVIL 203 Transport Design and Geomatics and CIVIL 303 Transport Operations and Pavements). It complements the BE(Civil) Part IV elective course (CIVIL 735 Transport Modelling and Design).
The main objective is to provide a strong basis for those wishing to include traffic and transportation engineering within their field of expertise and to provide a foundation for further postgraduate study in Transportation. A relatively wide range of intra-modal transportation safety, economic evaluation, transport sustainability, design and mobility aspects of transportation includes active modes, public transport (bus and rail) and private motor vehicle modes, including professional practice.
The course is structured to include lectures, a weekly clinic/tutorial, laboratories, and field exercises for project work. This diverse approach to learning ensures that students gain a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
Lectures will cover the basic information. Tutorials will be used principally for projects, problem-solving, assignment exercises, and revision. Software demonstrations (e.g., Waka Kotahi Crash Analysis System (CAS)) will be shown at the relevant stages. In addition, students will be expected to learn from additional reading, problem solving (vital) and other work outside formal contact hours. The recommended texts support the course well, providing a good source of additional problems. The lecture material will be multi-modal.
The course assignments and design project will allow students to further develop data analyses and appraisal techniques for the economic evaluation of Transportation Projects that deliver sustainable and socially responsible transport outcomes. This includes designing transport systems that enable equitable access to social, cultural, and economic opportunities for transport users. Students will undertake a project that uses the CAS system to firstly find an overrepresented crash risk site, analyse crashes, design improvement options and then undertake a benefit-cost assessment. The appraisal of various improvement options will require application of ethics and professional practice utilising the broad principles of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) Business Case Analysis using both quantitative and qualitative evaluation matrices to account for non-economic measures.