EGB272 Traffic and Transport Engineering

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Gardens Point, Internal

Overview

Transport engineering is a prominent field of civil engineering that focuses upon safe, efficient and environmentally sustainable mobility of people and goods. Its activities include the analysis, design, planning, operation, management and control of multimodal transport systems. Transport engineers use knowledge and skills bases that you will learn in this unit to meet stakeholders' needs. You will learn the fundamentals of road traffic and transport engineering, which includes traffic flow theory, unsignalised intersection analysis, roundabout analysis and design, signalised intersection analysis and design, and travel demand modelling. You will further develop your professional skills in communication and engineering teamwork. This unit draws upon your learning in EGB123 Civil Engineering Systems and EGB103 Computing and Data for Engineers. EGH472 Advanced Highway and Pavement Engineering, and EGH479 Advances in Civil Engineering Practice, will build upon this unit.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Analyse the operation of transport engineering systems and elements theoretically at an introduced level
2. Demonstrate an understanding of statistical techniques for transport engineering at a developed level.
3. Contribute to a transport engineering assessment, as a team member with pre-assigned tasks, at an introduced level.
4. Compose technical documentation of a transport engineering task that includes design calculations and drawings at an introduced level.
5. Present the undertaking and results of a transport engineering task as a team member at an introduced level.

Content

Learning Approaches

In this unit you can expect to experience the following timetabled activities:

• Formal lectures from experienced professional civil engineers to give you insight into knowledge, skills, and attributes. You have the opportunity to ask questions during these lectures.
• Tutorial classes that will give you the opportunity to work collaboratively with your peers to solve problems.
  They will be facilitated by tutors and will provide an opportunity to test your understanding and gain feedback on your work.
• Embedded online modules (including computation and programming)  and resources will be available within this unit.
• Special talks from Industry will also be arranged to support your career development.

These activities will be detailed by week of semester on the unit schedule. You can also expect to be provided with learning resources including presentations and readings on a unit site, which you can access flexibly to complete your learning in this unit.

At the beginning of the unit, you will be made aware of the ways in which you can ask questions or seek clarification from the unit coordinator, lecturers and tutors. Where needed, further support for learning will be provided.  

You are expected to:

• Engage with timetabled learning activities on campus and ask questions.
• Engage with online resources outside of timetabled learning activities. They will be available on the unit site. You will receive regular announcements regarding the release of these resources.
• Work in a group to complete a traffic engineering problem solving task and a traffic engineering design task. While there will be time during timetabled tutorial classes, you will also need to undertake independent work outside of that time to complete assessment tasks, including for areas of individual responsibility.
• Prepare for learning activities according to the unit schedule, and follow up on any work not completed.
• Complete assessment tasks by working consistently throughout the semester and meeting the due dates that are published via the unit site.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

During tutorial classes, you will share your formative ideas for your problem solving task and you will receive feedback from your tutor. As part of a group you will share the outcomes of your design task with your tutor for marking and feedback, and with students from other groups in your tutorial class. You are encouraged to view your group as a learning community and to share and discuss emergent ideas in the transport engineering analysis
process and your understandings of transport engineering professional practice. Each assessment submission will be graded against criteria and standards that will be shared with you at the beginning of semester through Assessment Task Descriptions and Marking Rubrics. Marked assessment will include feedback given by the markers against the criteria.

Assessment

Overview

Assessment in this unit has been designed to give you the opportunity to show your learning against the unit
learning outcomes. You will work both individually and in a group to prepare and submit assessments related to
transport engineering analysis and design during the semester, deploying work practices that align to civil
engineering professional practice (such as project management). You will be expected to work together with your
group members and independently to make individual contributions to the assessments. You will sit an examination
individually during the central examination period at the end of semester, where you will show your overall learning
in the unit.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Traffic Flow Fundamentals and Roundabout Intersection

You will work in group and demonstrate your understanding on traffic flow theory, transport data, capacity analysis, and roundabouts. You will use analysis specialised analytical tools such as Excel and Python for  traffic data analysis.

Assessment: Intersection Design

You will work in a group, with tasks preassigned to each member, to design various control treatments for an intersection project . Your group will communicate your design in an oral and visual presentation, for which each individual will be marked. Your will also submit a design report.

Assessment: Invigilated Written Examination

You will be required to analyse aspects of transport engineering systems including traffic and
transport engineering fundamentals, traffic flow theory, unsignalised intersection analysis,
roundabout analysis, signalised intersection analysis and design, travel demand models, and
traffic survey. You will be presented with descriptions of the transport engineering systems
and will need to diagnose the problem type, make use of appropriate theory or methods,
demonstrate systems knowledge, show your working, and communicate a complete answer
in writing and graphically.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Reference book(s)

Institute of Transport Studies (Ed. Young, W.) 2003. Traffic Engineering and Management. Monash University, Australia.
Transportation Research Board 2010. Highway Capacity Manual. National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C.

Risk Assessment Statement

Risks may be associated with you visiting study areas and/or project sites. You are required to have completed a
valid Workplace Health and Safety course. You shall not enter project sites without the Unit Coordinator's approval.
You shall not to contact members of the public, public officers or staff associated with any project without
permission of the Unit Coordinator. More detailed information will be provided in your Week 1 information class.

Course Learning Outcomes

EN01 Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)

1. Engage stakeholders professionally and communicate the outcomes of your work effectively to expert and non-expert audiences using appropriate modes.
   Relates to: Intersection Design
2. Display leadership, creativity, and initiative in both self-directed and collaborative contexts of professional engineering practice.
   Relates to: Intersection Design
3. Deploy appropriate approaches to engineering design and quality.
   Relates to: Intersection Design
4. Demonstrate coherent knowledge and skills of physical, mathematical, statistical, computer, and information sciences that are fundamental to professional engineering practice.
   Relates to: Traffic Flow Fundamentals and Roundabout Intersection , Invigilated Written Examination
5. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of one engineering discipline, its research directions, and its application in contemporary professional engineering practice.
   Relates to: Traffic Flow Fundamentals and Roundabout Intersection , Intersection Design, Invigilated Written Examination