Traffic Engineering

A branch of civil engineering, traffic engineering uses the techniques of engineering to plan transportation features that result in well-managed traffic flow. Civil engineering is the parent of most non-military engineering disciplines and is concerned with design and construction, especially of public works and infrastructure. The concerns of traffic engineering overlap with other types of [Page 1361]civil engineering, particularly highway engineering, transport engineering, and pavement engineering. While other engineers engaged in the process are responsible for planning the infrastructure of a transportation system, such as a bridge or a new road, traffic engineers plan the traffic control and management devices and features of that system.

For instance, a traffic engineer's area of concern would include the traffic signals and signs on a transportation route, and possibly modifications to speed limits, as well as traffic control measures such as speed bumps, traffic lights, road surface markers and lane markers, sidewalks, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and other features.

There is an element of traffic forecasting in the traffic engineer's job. Traffic engineers are involved with the planning of new transportation projects because their expertise allows them to estimate the traffic impacts of proposed changes, such as the effect on traffic through adjacent neighborhoods and streets of a new outlet mall, or the amount of traffic a bridge can be expected to see in a given amount of time and what that says about the proposed time frame of scheduled repairs or preventive maintenance work. Traffic engineers also present estimates about short-term impacts on traffic (for example, from construction, road closures, flooding and other weather impacts, or special events resulting in increased traffic flow) and propose solutions (for example, detours, reroutings, lane closures, and plans for pedestrian traffic).

They may also make recommendations about traffic control during accidents or brief construction (such as utility work, in which the work site continually moves over the course of the day, rather than blocking off a specific spot for a longer period of time), and what sort of traffic control methods (for example, an on-site traffic controller, flagger, or police officer, or mobile signs and other equipment) should be used. Construction traffic control is sometimes outsourced to dedicated companies, the larger of which may engage the services of a traffic engineer for consultation.

Traffic engineers may also consult with urban planners and state and municipal leadership in preparing evacuation routes in cities prone to natural disasters, making them necessary, such as in the hurricane-prone parts of the country. The New Orleans evacuation route, for instance, must take into consideration the limited number of routes out of the city (which is surrounded by water) and the possibility of street flooding in the lower-lying areas. The increased use of computers and sophistication of specialized software have amplified the role of civil engineers in urban planning, because computers can handle the data and calculations necessary to forecast the possible results of various options.

Traffic engineering projects like this complex intersection may make use of findings on high crash rate locations and countermeasures to reduce crashes. Traffic engineers often work in conjunction with computer and electrical engineers.

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