TTP282
Transportation Orientation Seminar
Fall
2009
|
Seminars |
Fridays 11:00-11:50 am 2022 Academic Surge (ITS Conference Room) |
|
Instructor |
Office: 2130 Wickson Hall Office hours: by appointment e-mail: slhandy@ucdavis.edu |
This seminar
is required for first year Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) students
and is recommended for first year transportation students in Civil and
Environmental Engineering. The goal of this seminar is to provide a
broad overview of the transportation field and to give students a general
framework that will help them understand how different topics within
transportation fit together. In
addition, the seminar will ensure students gain at least nominal exposure to
basic concepts, standard practices, and new innovations across the
transportation field. The seminar offers students the opportunity to get
to know other transportation students, learn about the interests of different
transportation faculty, and reflect on their own interests in the
transportation field.
Requirements
The requirements for receiving a “satisfactory” grade at the end of the quarter
are as follows:
1. Attend and participate in the seminar for
each of the 10 sessions over the 11 weeks of the quarter. If a student cannot attend one of the seminar
sessions, he/she must explain his/her absence to the instructor ahead of time,
if possible. The schedule, which is
subject to change, is attached.
2. Complete a journal over the course of the
quarter. This is an intellectual
journal rather than a personal journal: the purpose is to reflect on ideas
presented in the seminar and to practice formulating, developing, and
articulating your own ideas.
Students must
complete a journal entry following each seminar. I define a journal entry as at least 15
minutes of writing (by computer, typewriter, or by hand). This is a free-writing exercise: you should
write spontaneously, authentically, and without editing. If you prefer to proofread and correct
errors, please do so only after completing 15
minutes of free writing – not
while drafting your entry.
Things you
might right about when writing your entry:
How does the material relate to things you’re learning in other
classes? How does the material relate to
your experience, professional or personal?
Was anything particularly intriguing about the material? What questions do you have that weren’t
answered during the seminar?
Submit your journal entry to me at the
beginning of the next seminar, in hardcopy. Journal entries
must be completed satisfactorily to pass this course. However, I will not assign grades to the
entries or comment on writing style or grammatical correctness. You must submit at least 9 journal entries to get credit for the seminar. If you need to miss more than one session,
you can complete make-up assignments to get to a total of 9 submissions.
3.
Read what you want. I’ll be posting articles and links of
potential interest on the course
website. Please forward articles to
me you think others might be interested in:
slhandy@ucdavis.edu
Schedule of Topics and Guest Lecturers – Subject to
Change!
|
Week |
Date |
Topic |
Person |
Concepts
Covered |
Related
Courses |
|
1 |
Sept 25 |
Defining
the problem and who does what |
Handy |
Travel
needs, environmental impacts, financial constraints |
TTP220,
ESP/ECI 252, ECI/ESP 163 |
|
2 |
Oct 2 |
Travel
behavior |
Mokhtarian |
Concept of
mobility, travel as derived demand, positive utility of travel |
TTP200,
ECI251; ECI254; ECN145 |
|
3 |
Oct 9 |
Who does
what |
Handy |
Federal
policy, responsibilities by level of government, regional planning |
TTP220; ECI269;
ESP/ECI 163; ESP/ECI 252 |
|
4 |
Oct 16 |
Traffic
control |
Zhang |
HCM, MUTCD,
ITS |
ECI256 |
|
5 |
Oct 23 |
Road design |
Handy |
Road
hierarchy, Greenbook, context sensitive design, street standards, traffic
calming, |
ECI162 |
|
6 |
Oct 30 |
Road
materials |
|
Paving
materials and techniques |
ECI179; ECI259 |
|
7 |
Nov 6 |
Vehicle
technology |
Erickson |
ICE basics; efficiency/safety trade-offs |
TTP210; ESP/ECI 252 |
|
8 |
Nov 13 |
Alternative fuels |
Ogden |
Energy pathways; lifecycle costs; adoption |
ESP/ECI 252 |
|
9 |
Nov 20 |
Automobile alternatives |
Handy |
Transit,
bikes/peds, ICT, land use, auto ownership trends |
ESP171; TTP220; Transit
course |
|
|
Nov 27 |
Thanksgiving
weekend |
|
|
|
|
10 |
Dec 4 |
Wrap-up
discussion |
Sperling |
|
ESP/ECI252 |
September
25:
Vision 2050: An Integrated
National Transportation System
October 2:
Pat’s
powerpoint presentation on Intro to Travel Demand
October 9:
Handout on key provisions of key federal legislation
Handout
on Who Does What
Powerpoint
presentation on Who
Does What
For background on federal policy:
SAFETEA-LU Homepage,
hosted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Transportation
Air Quality - Selected Facts and Figures – from
CAFÉ Overview,
from NHTSA
NEPA overview,
hosted by FHWA
Environmental Justice,
hosted by FHWA
For background on regional planning:
Powerpoint on Regional Planning
Metropolitan
Planning - Transportation Capacity Building Program, hosted by FHWA and FTA
Inside the Black Box - an overview of transportation
modeling, with a critique
Transportation
Capacity Building Program - Resource Index, hosted by FHWA and FTA
October 16:
Michael
Zhang’s presentation on traffic
control
October 23:
Article
on update to the Greenbook
ITE’s
new report on Context
Sensitive Solutions
Caltrans Context-Sensitive
Solutions
FHWA’s Flexibility in Highway Design
October 30:
Pavement
and materials…
November 6:
Vehicle technology...
November 13:
Article
from Joan Ogden on the potential
of hydrogen
November 20:
Article from
TRB
papers on history of bicycling
in Davis and factors that
explain bicycling
Short
article on the impact of
neighborhood design on walking and another one
December 5:
Dan Sperling on the Price of Regulation
Make-up assignment 1:
Pick
a transportation topic of interest to you.
Explore the TRB conference program ( http://www.trb.org/meeting/ ) to find at
least 5 relevant papers. In one-page,
describe the topic, list the presentations, and say a few words about how they
relate to the topic and why they are of interest.
Make-up assignment 2:
Write
a one-paragraph description of three potential thesis/dissertation topics. Be sure to articulate the research question
and provide the rationale for why this is an interesting and important
question.
Return to Department of Environmental Science and
Policy
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home page
Last updated 10/9/09