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PREFACE:

The first four editions of Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis sought to redefine how entry-level transportation engineering courses are taught. When the first edition was published over two decades ago, there was a need for an entry-level transportation engineering book that focused exclusively on highway transportation and provided the depth of coverage needed to serve as a basis for future transportation courses as well as the material needed to answer questions likely to appear on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and/or Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exams in civil engineering. The subsequent use of the various editions of this book, over the years, at some of the largest and most prestigious schools in the U.S. and throughout the world suggests that a vision of a concise, highly focused, and well written entry-level book is shared by many educators.

This fifth edition of Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis continues the spirit of the previous four editions by again focusing exclusively on highway transportation and providing the depth of coverage necessary to solve the highway-related problems that are most likely to be encountered in engineering practice. 

The focus on highway transportation is a natural one given the dominance of highway transportation for people and freight movement in the U.S. and throughout the world. While the focus on highway transportation is easily accomplished, identifying the highway-related problems most likely to be encountered in practice and providing an appropriate depth of coverage of them is a more challenging task. 

Using the first four editions as a basis, along with the comments of other instructors and students who have used previous editions of the book, topics that are fundamental to highway engineering and traffic analysis have been carefully selected.

 The material provided in this book ensures that students learn the fundamentals needed to undertake upper-level transportation courses, enter transportation employment with a basic knowledge of highway engineering and traffic analysis, and have the knowledge necessary to answer transportation-related questions on the civil engineering FE and PE exams.

Within the basic philosophical approach described above, this book addresses the concern of some that traditional highway transportation courses are not as mathematically challenging or rigorous as other entry-level civil engineering courses, and that this may affect student interest relative to other civil-engineering fields of study. 

This concern is not easily addressed because there is a dichotomy with regard to mathematical rigor in highway transportation, with relatively simple mathematics used in practice-oriented material and complex mathematics used in research. Thus it is common for instructors to either insult students’ mathematical knowledge or vastly exceed it. This book strives for that elusive middle ground of mathematical rigor that matches junior and senior engineering students’ mathematical abilities.

The fifth edition of Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysishas evolved from nearly three decades of teaching introductory transportation engineering classes at the University of Washington, University of Florida, Purdue University, and Pennsylvania State University, feedback from users of the first four editions, and experiences in teaching civil-engineering licensure exam review courses. 

The book’s material and presentation style (which is characterized by the liberal use of example problems) are largely responsible for transforming muchmaligned introductory transportation engineering courses into courses that students consistently rate among the best civil engineering courses. The book begins with a short introductory chapter that stresses the significance of highway transportation to the social and economic underpinnings of society.

 This chapter provides students a basic overview of the problems facing the field of highway engineering and traffic analysis. The chapters that follow are arranged in sequences that focus on highway engineering (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) and traffic analysis (Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8). Chapter 2 introduces the basic elements of road vehicle performance. This chapter represents a major departure from the vehicle performance material presented in all other transportation and highway engineering books, in that it is far more involved and detailed.

 The additional level of detail is justified on two grounds. First, because students own and drive automobiles, they have a basic interest that can be linked to their freshman and sophomore coursework in physics, statics, and dynamics.

 Traditionally, the absence of such a link has been a common criticism of introductory transportation and highway engineering courses. Second, it is important that engineering students understand the principles involved in vehicle technologies and the effect that continuing advances in vehicle technologies will have on engineering practice. Chapter 3 presents current design practices for the geometric alignment of highways.

 This chapter provides details on vertical-curve design and the basic elements of horizontal-curve design. This edition of the book has been updated to the latest design guidelines (Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, DC, 2011). 

Chapter 4 provides a detailed overview of traditional pavement design, covering both flexible and rigid pavements in a thorough and consistent manner. The material in this chapter also links well with the geotechnical and materials courses that are likely to be part of the student’s curriculum. This edition of the book is significantly revised with new examples and new sections on pavement distresses and mechanistic-empirical approaches to pavement design.

Chapter 5 presents the fundamentals of traffic flow and queuing theory, which provide the basic tools of traffic analysis. Relationships and models of basic traffic stream parameters are introduced, as well as queuing analysis models for deterministic and stochastic processes. Considerable effort was expended to make the material in this chapter accessible to junior and senior engineering students. Chapter 6 presents some of the current methods used to assess highway levels of performance. 

Fundamentals and concepts are discussed along with the complexities involved in measuring and/or calculating highway level of service. This edition of the book has been updated to the latest analysis standards (Highway Capacity Manual 2010, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC). Chapter 7 introduces the basic elements of traffic control at a signalized intersection and applies the traffic analysis tools introduced in Chapter 5 to signalized intersections.

 The chapter focuses on pretimed, isolated signals, but also introduces the reader to the fundamentals of actuated and coordinated signal systems. Both theoretical and practical elements associated with traffic signal timing are presented. This edition of the book has been updated to the latest analysis standards (Highway Capacity Manual 2010, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC). Chapter 8, the final chapter, provides an overview of travel demand and traffic forecasting.

 This chapter concentrates on a theoretically and mathematically consistent approach to travel demand and traffic forecasting that closely follows the approach most commonly used in practice and contains a section on the traditional four-step travel-demand forecasting process.

This chapter provides the student with an important understanding of the current state of travel demand and traffic forecasting, and some critical insight into the deficiencies of forecasting methods currently used.