Fundamentals

Transportation

of

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Fundamentals of Transportation

Fundamentals of Transportation
Fundamentals of Transportation

/About/
/Introduction/
/Economics/
/Geography and Networks/

/Planning/

/Trip Generation/
/Destination Choice/
/Mode Choice/
/Route Choice/
/Evaluation/

/Operations/

/Queueing/
/Traffic Flow/
/Queueing and Traffic Flow/
/Shockwaves/
/Traffic Signals/

/Design/

/Sight Distance/
/Grade/
/Earthwork/
/Horizontal Curves/
/Vertical Curves/

Other Topics

/Pricing/
/Conclusions/
/Analogs/
/Decision Making/

Fundamentals of Transportation/About

Fundamentals of Transportation/
About
This book is aimed at undergraduate civil engineering students, though the material may
provide a useful review for practitioners and graduate students in transportation. Typically,
this would be for an Introduction to Transportation course, which might be taken by
most students in their sophomore or junior year. Often this is the first engineering course
students take, which requires a switch in thinking from simply solving given problems to
formulating the problem mathematically before solving it, i.e. from straight-forward
calculation often found in undergraduate Calculus to vaguer word problems more reflective
of the real world.

How an idea becomes a road

The plot of this textbook can be thought of as "How an idea becomes a road". The book
begins with the generation of ideas. This is followed by the analysis of ideas, first
determining the origin and destination of a transportation facility (usually a road), then the
required width of the facility to accommodate demand, and finally the design of the road in
terms of curvature. As such the book is divided into three main parts: planning, operations,
and design, which correspond to the three main sets of practitioners within the
transportation engineering community: transportation planners, traffic engineers, and
highway engineers. Other topics, such as pavement design, and bridge design, are beyond
the scope of this work. Similarly transit operations and railway engineering are also large
topics beyond the scope of this book.
Each page is roughly the notes from one fifty-minute lecture.

Authors
Authors of this book include David Levinson
Danczyk, Michael Corbett

[1]

, Henry Liu

References
[1] http:/ / nexus. umn. edu
[2] http:/ / www. ce. umn. edu/ ~liu/
[3] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ William_Garrison_(geographer)

[2]

, William Garrison

[3]

, Adam

Fundamentals of Transportation/Introduction

Fundamentals of Transportation/
Introduction
Transportation moves people
and goods from one place to
another using a variety of
vehicles

across

dierent

infrastructure systems. It does

this using not only technology
(namely vehicles, energy, and
infrastructure),
but
also
peoples
time
and
eort;
producing not only the desired
outputs of passenger trips and
freight shipments, but also
adverse outcomes such as air
pollution, noise, congestion,
crashes,
injuries,
and
fatalities.
Figure 1 illustrates the inputs,
outputs, and outcomes of
transportation. In the upper
left are traditional inputs
(infrastructure
(including
pavements,
bridges,
etc.),
Transportation inputs and outputs
labor required to produce
transportation, land consumed
by infrastructure, energy inputs, and vehicles). Infrastructure is the traditional preserve of
civil engineering, while vehicles are anchored in mechanical engineering. Energy, to the
extent it is powering existing vehicles is a mechanical engineering question, but the design
of systems to reduce or minimize energy consumption require thinking beyond traditional
disciplinary boundaries.
On the top of the gure are Information, Operations, and Management, and Travelers Time
and Eort. Transportation systems serve people, and are created by people, both the system
owners and operators, who run, manage, and maintain the system and travelers who use it.
Travelers time depends both on freeow time, which is a product of the infrastructure
design and on delay due to congestion, which is an interaction of system capacity and its
use. On the upper right side of the gure are the adverse outcomes of transportation, in
particular its negative externalities:
by polluting, systems consume health and increase morbidity and mortality;
by being dangerous, they consume safety and produce injuries and fatalities;
by being loud they consume quiet and produce noise (decreasing quality of life and
property values); and
by emitting carbon and other pollutants, they harm the environment.

Fundamentals of Transportation/Introduction
All of these factors are increasingly being recognized as costs of transportation, but the
most notable are the environmental eects, particularly with concerns about global climate
change. The bottom of the gure shows the outputs of transportation. Transportation is
central to economic activity and to peoples lives, it enables them to engage in work, attend
school, shop for food and other goods, and participate in all of the activities that comprise
human existence. More transportation, by increasing accessibility to more destinations,
enables people to better meet their personal objectives, but entails higher costs both
individually and socially. While the transportation problem is often posed in terms of
congestion, that delay is but one cost of a system that has many costs and even more
benets. Further, by changing accessibility, transportation gives shape to the development
of land.

Modalism and Intermodalism

Transportation is often divided into infrastructure modes: e.g. highway, rail, water, pipeline
and air. These can be further divided. Highways include different vehicle types: cars, buses,
trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Transportation can be further separated into
freight and passenger, and urban and inter-city. Passenger transportation is divided in
public (or mass) transit (bus, rail, commercial air) and private transportation (car, taxi,
general aviation).
These modes of course intersect and interconnect. At-grade crossings of railroads and
highways, inter-modal transfer facilities (ports, airports, terminals, stations).
Different combinations of modes are often used on the same trip. I may walk to my car,
drive to a parking lot, walk to a shuttle bus, ride the shuttle bus to a stop near my building,
and walk into the building where I take an elevator.
Transportation is usually considered to be between buildings (or from one address to
another), although many of the same concepts apply within buildings. The operations of an
elevator and bus have a lot in common, as do a forklift in a warehouse and a crane at a port.

Motivation
Transportation engineering is usually taken by undergraduate Civil Engineering students.
Not all aim to become transportation professionals, though some do. Loosely, students in
this course may consider themselves in one of two categories: Students who intend to
specialize in transportation (or are considering it), and students who don't. The remainder
of civil engineering often divides into two groups: "Wet" and "Dry". Wets include those
studying water resources, hydrology, and environmental engineering, Drys are those
involved in structures and geotechnical engineering.

Transportation students
Transportation students have an obvious motivation in the course above and beyond the
fact that it is required for graduation. Transportation Engineering is a pre-requisite to
further study of Highway Design, Traffic Engineering, Transportation Policy and Planning,
and Transportation Materials. It is our hope, that by the end of the semester, many of you
will consider yourselves Transportation Students. However not all will.

Fundamentals of Transportation/Introduction

"Wet Students"
I am studying Environmental Engineering or Water Resources, why should I care about
Transportation Engineering?
Transportation systems have major environmental impacts (air, land, water), both in their
construction and utilization. By understanding how transportation systems are designed
and operate, those impacts can be measured, managed, and mitigated.

"Dry Students"
I am studying Structures or Geomechanics, why should I care about Transportation
Engineering?
Transportation systems are huge structures of themselves, with very specialized needs and
constraints. Only by understanding the systems can the structures (bridges, footings,
pavements) be properly designed. Vehicle traffic is the dynamic structural load on these
structures.

Citizens and Taxpayers

Everyone participates in society and uses transportation systems. Almost everyone
complains about transportation systems. In developed countries you seldom here similar
levels of complaints about water quality or bridges falling down. Why do transportation
systems engender such complaints, why do they fail on a daily basis? Are transportation
engineers just incompetent? Or is something more fundamental going on?
By understanding the systems as citizens, you can work toward their improvement. Or at
least you can entertain your friends at parties

Goal
It is often said that the goal of Transportation Engineering is "The Safe and Efficient
Movement of People and Goods."
But that goal (safe and efficient movement of people and goods) doesnt answer:
Who, What, When, Where, How, Why?

Overview
This wikibook is broken into 3 major units
Transportation Planning: Forecasting, determining needs and standards.
Traffic Engineering (Operations): Queueing, Traffic Flow Highway Capacity and Level of
Service (LOS)
Highway Engineering (Design): Vehicle Performance/Human Factors, Geometric Design

Fundamentals of Transportation/Introduction

Thought Questions
What constraints keeps us from achieving the goal of transportation systems?
What is the "Transportation Problem"?

Sample Problem
Identify a transportation problem (local, regional, national, or global) and consider
solutions. Research the efficacy of various solutions. Write a one-page memo
documenting the problem and solutions, documenting your references.

Abbreviations

LOS - Level of Service

ITE - Institute of Transportation Engineers
TRB - Transportation Research Board
TLA - Three letter abbreviation

Key Terms

Hierarchy of Roads
Functional Classification
Modes
Vehicles
Freight, Passenger
Urban, Intercity
Public, Private

Transportation Economics/Introduction

Transportation Economics/
Introduction
Transportation systems are subject to constraints and face questions of resource allocation.
The topics of supply and demand, as well as equilibrium and disequilibrium, arise and give
shape to the use and capability of the system.

Demand Curve
How much would people pay for a final grade of an A in a transportation engineering class?

How
How
How
How

many
many
many
many

people
people
people
people

would
would
would
would

pay
pay
pay
pay

$5000 for an A?
$500 for an A?
$50 for an A?
$5 for an A?

If we draw out these numbers, with the price on the Y-axis, and the number of people
willing to pay on the X-axis, we trace out a demand curve. Unless you run into an
exceptionally ethical (or hypocritical) group, the lower the price, the more people are
willing to pay for an "A". We can of course replace an "A" with any other good or service,
such as the price of gasoline and get a similar though not identical curve.

Demand and Budgets in Transportation

We often say "travel is a derived demand". There would be no travel but for the activities
being undertaken at the trip ends. Travel is seldom consumed for its own sake, the
occasional "Sunday Drive" or walk in the park excepted. On the other hand, there seems to
be some innate need for people to get out of the house, a 20-30 minute separation between
the home and workplace is common, and 60 - 90 minutes of travel per day total is common,
even for nonworkers. We do know that the more expensive something is, the less of it that
will be consumed. E.g. if gas prices were doubled there will be less travel overall. Similarly,
the longer it takes to get from A to B, the less likely it is that people will go from A to B.
In short, we are dealing with a downward sloping demand curve, where the curve itself
depends not only on the characteristics of the good in question, but also on its complements
or substitutes.

The Shape of Demand

What we need to estimate is the shape of demand (is it
linear or curved, convex or concave, what function best
describes it), the sensitivity of demand for a particular
thing (a mode, an origin destination pair, a link, a time
of day) to price and time (elasticity) in the short run and
the long run.
Are the choices continuous (the number of miles
driven) or discrete (car vs. bus)?
Are we treating demand as an absolute or a probability?

Demand for Travel

Transportation Economics/Introduction

Does the probability apply to individuals (disaggregate) or the population as a whole

(aggregate)?
What is the trade-off between money and time?
What are the effects on demand for a thing as a function of the time and money costs of
competitive or complementary choices (cross elasticity).

Supply Curve
How much would a person need to pay you to write an A-quality 20 page term paper for a
given transportation class?

How
How
How
How
How

many
many
many
many
many

would
would
would
would
would

write
write
write
write
write

it
it
it
it
it

for
for
for
for
for

$100,000?
$10,000?
$1,000?
$100?
$10?

If we draw out these numbers for all the potential entrepreneurial people available, we
trace out a supply curve. The lower the price, the fewer people are willing to supply the
paper-writing service.

Equilibrium in a Negative Feedback System

Supply and Demand comprise the economists view of
transportation systems. They are equilibrium systems.
What does that mean?
It means the system is subject to a negative feedback
process:
An increase in A begets a decrease in B. An increase B
begets an increase in A.
Example: A: Traffic Congestion and B: Traffic Demand
... more congestion limits demand, but more demand
creates more congestion.
Negative feedback loop

Supply and Demand Equilibrium

As with earning grades and cheating, transportation is not free, it costs both time and
money. These costs are represented by a supply curve, which rises with the amount of
travel demanded. As described above, demand (e.g. the number of vehicles which want to
use the facility) depends on the price, the lower the price, the higher the demand. These
two curves intersect at an equilibrium point. In the example figure, they intersect at a toll
of $0.50 per km, and flow of 3000 vehicles per hour. Time is usually converted to money
(using a Value of Time), to simplify the analysis.

Transportation Economics/Introduction

10

Costs may be variable and include users' time,

out-of-pockets costs (paid on a per trip or per distance
basis) like tolls, gasolines, and fares, or fixed like
insurance or buying an automobile, which are only
borne once in a while and are largely independent of
the cost of an individual trip.

Disequilibrium
However, many elements of the transportation system
Illustration of equilibrium between
do not necessarily generate an equilibrium. Take the
supply and demand
case where an increase in A begets an increase in B. An
increase in B begets an increase in A. An example
where A an increase in Traffic Demand generates more Gas Tax Revenue (B) more Gas Tax
Revenue generates more Road Building, which in turn increases traffic demand. (This
example assumes the gas tax generates more demand from the resultant road building than
costs in sensitivity of demand to the price, i.e. the investment is worthwhile). This is dubbed
a positive feedback system, and in some contexts a "Virtuous Circle", where the "virtue" is a
value judgment that depends on your perspective.
Similarly, one might have a "Vicious Circle" where a decrease in A begets a decrease in B
and a decrease in B begets a decrease in A. A classic example of this is where (A) is Transit
Service and (B) is Transit Demand. Again "vicious" is a value judgment. Less service results
in fewer transit riders, fewer transit riders cannot make as a great a claim on
transportation resources, leading to more service cutbacks.
These systems of course interact: more road building may attract transit riders to cars,
while those additional drivers pay gas taxes and generate more roads.
One might ask whether positive feedback systems
converge or diverge. The answer is "it depends on the
system", and in particular where or when in the system
you observe. There might be some point where no
matter how many additional roads you built, there
would be no more traffic demand, as everyone already
consumes as much travel as they want to. We have yet
to reach that point for roads, but on the other hand, we
have for lots of goods. If you live in most parts of the
United States, the price of water at your house
probably does not affect how much you drink, and a
lower price for tap water would not increase your rate
of ingestion. You might use substitutes if their prices
were lower (or tap water were costlier), e.g. bottled
water. Price might affect other behaviors such as lawn
watering and car washing though.

Positive feedback loop (virtuous circle)

Transportation Economics/Introduction

11

Provision
Transportation services are provided by both the public
and private sector.
Roads are generally publicly owned in the United
States, though the same is not true of highways in
other countries. Furthermore, public ownership has
not always been the norm, many countries had a long
history of privately owned turnpikes, in the United
States private roads were known through the early
1900s.
Railroads are generally private.
Carriers (Airlines, Bus Companies, Truckers, Train

Positive feedback loop (vicious circle)

Operators) are often private firms

Formerly private urban transit operators have been taken over by local government from
the 1950s in a process called municipalization. With the rise of the automobile, transit
systems were steadily losing passengers and money.
The situation is complicated by the idea of contracting or franchising. Often private firms
operate "public transit" routes, either under a contract, for a fixed price, or an agreement
where the private firm collects the revenue on the route (a franchise agreement).
Franchises may be subsidized if the route is a money-loser, or may require bidding if the
route is profitable. Private provision of public transport is common in the United Kingdom.

Thought questions
1. Should the government subsidize public
transportation? Why or why not?
2. Should the government operate public
transportation systems?
3. Is building roads a good idea even if it results in
more travel demand?

Sample Problem
Problem (Solution)

London Routemaster Bus

Transportation Economics/Introduction

Key Terms

Supply
Demand
Negative Feedback System
Equilibrium
Disequilibrium
Public Sector
Private Sector

Fundamentals of Transportation/
Geography and Networks
Transportation systems have specific structure. Roads have length, width, and depth. The
characteristics of roads depends on their purpose.

Roads
A road is a path connecting two points. The English word road comes from the same root
as the word ride the Middle English rood and Old English rad meaning the act of
riding. Thus a road refers foremost to the right of way between an origin and destination. In
an urban context, the word street is often used rather than road, which dates to the Latin
word strata, meaning pavement (the additional layer or stratum that might be on top of a
path).
Modern roads are generally paved, and unpaved routes are considered trails. The pavement
of roads began early in history. Approximately 2600 BCE, the Egyptians constructed a
paved road out of sandstone and limestone slabs to assist with the movement of stones on
rollers between the quarry and the site of construction of the pyramids. The Romans and
others used brick or stone pavers to provide a more level, and smoother surface, especially
in urban areas, which allows faster travel, especially of wheeled vehicles. The innovations
of Thomas Telford and John McAdam reinvented roads in the early nineteenth century, by
using less expensive smaller and broken stones, or aggregate, to maintain a smooth ride
and allow for drainage. Later in the nineteenth century, application of tar (asphalt) further
smoothed the ride. In 1824, asphalt blocks were used on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. In
1872, the first asphalt street (Fifth Avenue) was paved in New York (due to Edward de
Smedt), but it wasnt until bicycles became popular in the late nineteenth century that the
Good Roads Movement took off. Bicycle travel, more so than travel by other vehicles at
the time, was sensitive to rough roads. Demands for higher quality roads really took off
with the widespread adoption of the automobile in the United States in the early twentieth
century.
The first good roads in the twentieth century were constructed of Portland cement concrete
(PCC). The material is stiffer than asphalt (or asphalt concrete) and provides a smoother
ride. Concrete lasts slightly longer than asphalt between major repairs, and can carry a
heavier load, but is more expensive to build and repair. While urban streets had been paved
with concrete in the US as early as 1889, the first rural concrete road was in Wayne
County, Michigan, near to Detroit in 1909, and the first concrete highway in 1913 in Pine

12

Fundamentals of Transportation/Geography and Networks

Bluff, Arkansas. By the next year over 2300 miles of concrete pavement had been layed
nationally. However over the remainder of the twentieth century, the vast majority of
roadways were paved with asphalt. In general only the most important roads, carrying the
heaviest loads, would be built with concrete.
Roads are generally classified into a hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy are freeways,
which serve entirely a function of moving vehicles between other roads. Freeways are
grade-separated and limited access, have high speeds and carry heavy flows. Below
freeways are arterials. These may not be grade-separated, and while access is still
generally limited, it is not limited to the same extent as freeways, particularly on older
roads. These serve both a movement and an access function. Next are collector/distributor
roads. These serve more of an access function, allowing vehicles to access the network from
origins and destinations, as well as connecting with smaller, local roads, that have only an
access function, and are not intended for the movement of vehicles with neither a local
origin nor destination. Local roads are designed to be low speed and carry relatively little
traffic.
The class of the road determines which level of government administers it. The highest
roads will generally be owned, operated, or at least regulated (if privately owned) by the
higher level of government involved in road operations; in the United States, these roads
are operated by the individual states. As one moves down the hierarchy of roads, the level
of government is generally more and more local (counties may control collector/distributor
roads, towns may control local streets). In some countries freeways and other roads near
the top of the hierarchy are privately owned and regulated as utilities, these are generally
operated as toll roads. Even publicly owned freeways are operated as toll roads under a toll
authority in other countries, and some US states. Local roads are often owned by adjoining
property owners and neighborhood associations.
The design of roads is specified in a number of design manual, including the AASHTO
Policy on the Geometric Design of Streets and Highways (or Green Book). Relevant
concerns include the alignment of the road, its horizontal and vertical curvature, its
super-elevation or banking around curves, its thickness and pavement material, its
cross-slope, and its width.

Freeways
A motorway or freeway (sometimes called an expressway or thruway) is a multi-lane divided
road that is designed to be high-speed free flowing, access-controlled, built to high
standards, with no traffic lights on the mainline. Some motorways or freeways are financed
with tolls, and so may have tollbooths, either across the entrance ramp or across the
mainline. However in the United States and Great Britain, most are financed with gas or
other tax revenue.
Though of course there were major road networks during the Roman Empire and before,
the history of motorways and freeways dates at least as early as 1907, when the first
limited access automobile highway, the Bronx River Parkway began construction in
Westchester County, New York (opening in 1908). In this same period, William Vanderbilt
constructed the Long Island Parkway as a toll road in Queens County, New York. The Long
Island Parkway was built for racing and speeds of 60 miles per hour (96 km/hr) were
accommodated. Users however had to pay a then expensive $2.00 toll (later reduced) to
recover the construction costs of $2 million. These parkways were paved when most roads

13

Fundamentals of Transportation/Geography and Networks

were not. In 1919 General John Pershing assigned Dwight Eisenhower to discover how
quickly troops could be moved from Fort Meade between Baltimore and Washington to the
Presidio in San Francisco by road. The answer was 62 days, for an average speed of 3.5
miles per hour (5.6 km/hr). While using segments of the Lincoln Highway, most of that road
was still unpaved. In response, in 1922 Pershing drafted a plan for an 8,000 mile (13,000
km) interstate system which was ignored at the time.
The US Highway System was a set of paved and consistently numbered highways sponsored
by the states, with limited federal support. First built in 1924, they succeeded some
previous major highways such as the Dixie Highway, Lincoln Highway and Jefferson
Highway that were multi-state and were constructed with the aid of private support. These
roads however were not in general access-controlled, and soon became congested as
development along the side of the road degraded highway speeds.
In parallel with the US Highway system, limited access parkways were developed in the
1920s and 1930s in several US cities. Robert Moses built a number of these parkways in
and around New York City. A number of these parkways were grade separated, though they
were intentionally designed with low bridges to discourage trucks and buses from using
them. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler appointed a German engineer Fritz Todt Inspector
General for German Roads. He managed the construction of the German Autobahns, the
first limited access high-speed road network in the world. In 1935, the first section from
Frankfurt am Main to Darmstadt opened, the total system today has a length of 11,400 km.
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938 called on the Bureau of Public Roads to study the
feasibility of a toll-financed superhighway system (three east-west and three north-south
routes). Their report Toll Roads and Free Roads declared such a system would not be
self-supporting, advocating instead a 43,500 km (27,000 mile) free system of interregional
highways, the effect of this report was to set back the interstate program nearly twenty
years in the US.
The German autobahn system proved its utility during World War II, as the German army
could shift relatively quickly back and forth between two fronts. Its value in military
operations was not lost on the American Generals, including Dwight Eisenhower.
On October 1, 1940, a new toll highway using the old, unutilized South Pennsylvania
Railroad right-of-way and tunnels opened. It was the first of a new generation of limited
access highways, generally called superhighways or freeways that transformed the
American landscape. This was considered the first freeway in the US, as it, unlike the
earlier parkways, was a multi-lane route as well as being limited access. The Arroyo Seco
Parkway, now the Pasadena Freeway, opened December 30, 1940. Unlike the Pennsylvania
Turnpike, the Arroyo Seco parkway had no toll barriers.
A new National Interregional Highway Committee was appointed in 1941, and reported in
1944 in favor of a 33,900 mile system. The system was designated in the Federal Aid
Highway Act of 1933, and the routes began to be selected by 1947, yet no funding was
provided at the time. The 1952 highway act only authorized a token amount for
construction, increased to $175 million annually in 1956 and 1957.
The US Interstate Highway System was established in 1956 following a decade and half of
discussion. Much of the network had been proposed in the 1940s, but it took time to
authorize funding. In the end, a system supported by gas taxes (rather than tolls), paid for
90% by the federal government with a 10% local contribution, on a pay-as-you-go system,
was established. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 had authorized the expenditure of

14

Fundamentals of Transportation/Geography and Networks

$27.5 billion over 13 years for the construction of a 41,000 mile interstate highway system.
As early as 1958 the cost estimate for completing the system came in at $39.9 billion and
the end date slipped into the 1980s. By 1991, the final cost estimate was $128.9 billion.
While the freeways were seen as positives in most parts of the US, in urban areas
opposition grew quickly into a series of freeway revolts. As soon as 1959, (three years after
the Interstate act), the San Francisco Board of Supervisors removed seven of ten freeways
from the citys master plan, leaving the Golden Gate bridge unconnected to the freeway
system. In New York, Jane Jacobs led a successful freeway revolt against the Lower
Manhattan Expressway sponsored by business interests and Robert Moses among others. In
Baltimore, I-70, I-83, and I-95 all remain unconnected thanks to highway revolts led by now
Senator Barbara Mikulski. In Washington, I-95 was rerouted onto the Capital Beltway. The
pattern repeated itself elsewhere, and many urban freeways were removed from Master
Plans.
In 1936, the Trunk Roads Act ensured that Great Britains Minister of Transport controlled
about 30 major roads, of 7,100 km (4,500 miles) in length. The first Motorway in Britain,
the Preston by-pass, now part of the M-6, opened in 1958. In 1959, the first stretch of the
M1 opened. Today there are about 10,500 km (6300 miles) of trunk roads and motorways in
England.
Australia has 790 km of motorways, though a much larger network of roads. However the
motorway network is not truly national in scope (in contrast with Germany, the United
States, Britain, and France), rather it is a series of local networks in and around
metropolitan areas, with many intercity connection being on undivided and non-grade
separated highways. Outside the Anglo-Saxon world, tolls were more widely used. In Japan,
when the Meishin Expressway opened in 1963, the roads in Japan were in far worse shape
than Europe or North American prior to this. Today there are over 6,100 km of expressways
(3,800 miles), many of which are private toll roads. France has about 10,300 km of
expressways (6,200 miles) of motorways, many of which are toll roads. The French
motorway system developed through a series of franchise agreements with private
operators, many of which were later nationalized. Beginning in the late 1980s with the
wind-down of the US interstate system (regarded as complete in 1990), as well as intercity
motorway programs in other countries, new sources of financing needed to be developed.
New (generally suburban) toll roads were developed in several metropolitan areas.
An exception to the dearth of urban freeways is the case of the Big Dig in Boston, which
relocates the Central Artery from an elevated highway to a subterranean one, largely on the
same right-of-way, while keeping the elevated highway operating. This project is estimated
to be completed for some $14 billion; which is half the estimate of the original complete US
Interstate Highway System.
As mature systems in the developed countries, improvements in todays freeways are not so
much widening segments or constructing new facilities, but better managing the roadspace
that exists. That improved management, takes a variety of forms. For instance, Japan has
advanced its highways with application of Intelligent Transportation Systems, in particular
traveler information systems, both in and out of vehicles, as well as traffic control systems.
The US and Great Britain also have traffic management centers in most major cities that
assess traffic conditions on motorways, deploy emergency vehicles, and control systems like
ramp meters and variable message signs. These systems are beneficial, but cannot be seen
as revolutionizing freeway travel. Speculation about future automated highway systems has

15

Fundamentals of Transportation/Geography and Networks

taken place almost as long as highways have been around. The Futurama exhibit at the
New York 1939 Worlds Fair posited a system for 1960. Yet this technology has been twenty
years away for over sixty years, and difficulties remain.

Layers of Networks
The road is itself part of a layer of subsystems of which the pavement surface is only one
part. We can think of a hierarchy of systems.

Places
Trip Ends
End to End Trip
Driver/Passenger
Service (Vehicle & Schedule)
Signs and Signals
Markings
Pavement Surface
Structure (Earth & Pavement and Bridges)
Alignment (Vertical and Horizontal)

Right-Of-Way
Space
At the base is space. On space, a specific right-of-way is designated, which is property
where the road goes. Originally right-of-way simply meant legal permission for travelers to
cross someone's property. Prior to the construction of roads, this might simply be a
well-worn dirt path.
On top of the right-of-way is the alignment, the specific path a transportation facility takes
within the right-of-way. The path has both vertical and horizontal elements, as the road
rises or falls with the topography and turns as needed.
Structures are built on the alignment. These include the roadbed as well as bridges or
tunnels that carry the road.
Pavement surface is the gravel or asphalt or concrete surface that vehicles actually ride
upon and is the top layer of the structure. That surface may have markings to help guide
drivers to stay to the right (or left), delineate lanes, regulate which vehicles can use which
lanes (bicycles-only, high occupancy vehicles, buses, trucks) and provide additional
information. In addition to marking, signs and signals to the side or above the road provide
additional regulatory and navigation information.
Services use roads. Buses may provide scheduled services between points with stops along
the way. Coaches provide scheduled point-to-point without stops. Taxis handle irregular
passenger trips.
Drivers and passengers use services or drive their own vehicle (producing their own
transportation services) to create an end-to-end trip, between an origin and destination.
Each origin and destination comprises a trip end and those trip ends are only important
because of the places at the ends and the activity that can be engaged in. As transportation
is a derived demand, if not for those activities, essentially no passenger travel would be
undertaken.
With modern information technologies, we may need to consider additional systems, such
as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), differential GPS, beacons, transponders, and so on

16

Fundamentals of Transportation/Geography and Networks

17

that may aide the steering or navigation processes. Cameras, in-pavement detectors, cell
phones, and other systems monitor the use of the road and may be important in providing
feedback for real-time control of signals or vehicles.
Each layer has rules of behavior:
some rules are physical and never violated, others are physical but probabilistic
some are legal rules or social norms which are occasionally violated

Hierarchy of Roads
Even within each layer of the
system of systems described
above, there is differentiation.
Transportation facilities have
two distinct functions: through
movement and land access.
This differentiation:
permits the aggregation of
traffic to achieve economies
of scale in construction and
operation (high speeds);
reduces the number of
conflicts;
helps maintain the desired
quiet character of
Hierarchy of roads
residential neighborhoods
by keeping through traffic away from homes;
contains less redundancy, and so may be less costly to build.
Functional Classification

Types of Connections

Relation to Abutting
Property

Minnesota
Examples

Limited Access (highway)

Through traffic movement

between cities and across
cities

Limited or controlled access

highways with ramps and/or
curb cut controls.

I-94, Mn280

Linking (arterial:principal
and minor)

Traffic movement between

limited access and local
streets.

Direct access to abutting

property.

University Avenue,
Washington Avenue

Local (collector and

distributor roads)

Traffic movement in and

between residential areas

Direct access to abutting

property.

Pillsbury Drive,
17th Avenue

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