Traffic Engineering programs

[dgilman]

I'm a senior interested in civil engineering (and especially traffic engineering). I don't know of many schools that offer traffic/transportation specializations other then University of NE at Omaha and Marquette (I will most likely apply to both).

Do any of the engineers on this board have any advice as far as to what schools and programs I should apply?

 

[francesca]

Regardless of which school you apply to, take a careful look at what research the transportation professors do, and check them out on Web of Knowledge (access it through your current school's library page) and see when last they published something. I made the mistake of picking prestige over program and I'm ducking and running with a masters degree because I haven't learned anything. (I worked in transport planning/modeling/traffic engineering for nearly 4 years on three continents.)

Every class I've taken has been a Senior undergrad class, taught by a professor who is out of touch with the "real" world. There are no graduate-only transportation classes; well, they have some "on the books" but they haven't been taught as anything other than independent studies in probably decades. Three of the five transportation professors got their PhDs from the university; only one regularly publishes papers, and those tend to be in Environmental Management. The only research they do is actually GIS consulting, and the "Transportation Research Group" funds two Environmental Eng students while the Transportation students don't even get to work on what projects they do have going.

I go to a "Top 25" engineering school. The Environmental Engineering program is outstanding (if you're interested in the fate and transport of contaminents through porous media, it's non-existent if you're interested in water resources) and the Construction Management program is first class, as is the Risk and Reliability Engineering program (run by Structural Engineers). In terms of a Transportation education, however, I'd've been better off at a less prestigious State school.

 

[jeremyk55]

You might take a look at Northwestern University (near Chicago, IL). Our traffic engineer has taken numerous courses there and has found them to be very beneficial. I assume the quality of their graduate coursework is comparable. I've also heard good things about Georgia Tech.

 

[aaronz82]

University at Buffalo (a.k.a UB or SUNY Buffalo) has a transportation planning/engineering program. I've had a lot of friends and co-workers go through the program and have all turned out successful.