What is Traffic Engineering Like?

I am 2 semesters away from finishing my Civil Engineering degree and am looking for some information on traffic engineering before deciding on this emphasis. I have 1 year of Co-op experience at a large consulting firm. Most of my experience has been in water distribution with some exposure to streetscape/urban design which I enjoyed most. I have decided I don't necessarily enjoy sitting in a cubicle crunching numbers all day and would like a job with a little more human interaction. I enjoyed my one transportation class I have taken so far and heard that transportation engineering can involve allot of interaction with the public. I have also been considering entering a masters program in urban planning with a focus on transportation. If anyone has any information on what a job in transportation engineering entails I would appreciate it.

<--- doesn't do well dealing with the public.

If you're looking at getting out of the cubicle world but still want to get outside and deal with people (but not the public), perhaps you should look into construction management.

Go to Home Depot or lowes on a Saturday and hang around the "paint counter" for a couple hours and watch the different types of people that come in. That's what dealing with the public is like... You've either got to love it or hate it but its hard to do if you hate it..

Almost everyone drives. They all think they are good at it. They all think they know more about it than the dumb traffic engineer. That is basically the frustrating part.

Now that being said if you are really wanting to get into traffic engineering, I'd recommend learning as much as you can about ITS and take a circuits class or two as an elective. With the way most agencies capital budgets are shrinking, adding capacity by building more roads is going to be much harder. So finding new ways to move more cars through the same road is going to be getting a lot more emphasis.

As to what Transportation Engineer entails:

There are careers in airports, rails and shipping, but I don;t really know much about them so maybe someone else can talk about that.

Transportation (Roads) Engineering is basically split into Traffic (engineering the system to move vehicles) and Highway (engineering the actually physical components pieces of the system). There is some bleed over between the two but I know a lot of traffic engineers that have never designed a vertical curve and a lot of highway engineers haven't the first clue on signal phasing.

With either most of your work is going to be for some government either as an employee or as a consultant. (though you could work as a commercial site developer but most of the time you would be expected to do all the civil plans for the site also, so probably not much for just pure transportation engineering).

If you go into highway engineering a part of your job will be hydraulics (sizing ditches, culverts, etc) and environmental (erosion prevention plans, SWPPPs).

MWC PE said:

Almost everyone drives. They all think they are good at it. They all think they know more about it than the dumb traffic engineer. That is basically the frustrating part.

Click to expand...

This for sure!

If you want to be out and about, constantly loaded with work, and deal with the public, then work for a municipality. As a consultant, we deal with developers and cities, but only have to deal with the public at planning commission and city council meetings.

I work on traffic impact studies, designing traffic signal, signing, striping, lighting, and traffic control plans, signal coordination timing plans, traffic signal warrant studies, etc. The jobs are always unique, so the constant repetition isn't there. I really do enjoy what I do.

Thanks for the info everyone. It is hard to choose an emphasis when you don't know much about what working in that field is like. I guess what you choose probably doesnt matter too much in the long run anyways. Two of the first things I learned at my co-op was work is allot different from school and you never really know what you will end up doing no matter how much you plan.

ITS is actually one of the things that peaked my interest in transportation. We had a guest lecturer come in and talk to us about that field and I found it interesting. I do have the option to take a circuits class as an elective. I'll look into that.

JSC said:

Thanks for the info everyone. It is hard to choose an emphasis when you don't know much about what working in that field is like. I guess what you choose probably doesnt matter too much in the long run anyways. Two of the first things I learned at my co-op was work is allot different from school and you never really know what you will end up doing no matter how much you plan.

ITS is actually one of the things that peaked my interest in transportation. We had a guest lecturer come in and talk to us about that field and I found it interesting. I do have the option to take a circuits class as an elective. I'll look into that.

Click to expand...

Yeah I wouldn't worry about the emphasis too much. I went the structures route in school but have never worked in structures. Do I wish I had taken another traffic class instead of masonry? Sure, but it hasn't limited me either. I'd take as broad a class loading as the school will let you get away with. No one that hires you right out of school is going to expect you to be an expert anyway, so knowing a little about many more things will probably help than being book smart in one thing that you may or may not ever get a job doing.

If you are still unsure which route to go around graduation time, look into working for your local DOT. They have a rotation programs where you work at each area for a period of time before moving onto the next. That way you get a good feel for each job in the real world.

A perspective from California...it is my understanding that very few states specifically license Traffic Engineers and that California is a minority in this case. I may be wrong, but that is my current understanding.

Also in California, the actual practice of Traffic Engineering is not regulated, only the title "Traffic Engineer" is. When someone becomes licensed here, the only right is the ability to use the title. Practically speaking, most traffic engineering is performed by civil engineers, but I agree with some of the previous posters, studying the science of traffic patterns and circuits would probably be very useful.

Traffic engineering is that phase of engineering that deals with the planning, geometric design and traffic operations of roads, streets and highways and their networks, terminals, abutting lands and relationships with other modes of transportation for the achievement of safe, efficient and convenient movement of people and goods.

Traffic engineering applies engineering principles that help solve transportation problems by considering the psychology and habits of the transportation system users.

MWC PE said:

JSC said:

Thanks for the info everyone. It is hard to choose an emphasis when you don't know much about what working in that field is like. I guess what you choose probably doesnt matter too much in the long run anyways. Two of the first things I learned at my co-op was work is allot different from school and you never really know what you will end up doing no matter how much you plan.

ITS is actually one of the things that peaked my interest in transportation. We had a guest lecturer come in and talk to us about that field and I found it interesting. I do have the option to take a circuits class as an elective. I'll look into that.

Click to expand...

Yeah I wouldn't worry about the emphasis too much. I went the structures route in school but have never worked in structures. Do I wish I had taken another traffic class instead of masonry? Sure, but it hasn't limited me either. I'd take as broad a class loading as the school will let you get away with. No one that hires you right out of school is going to expect you to be an expert anyway, so knowing a little about many more things will probably help than being book smart in one thing that you may or may not ever get a job doing.

Click to expand...

Just adding that I am in a similar boat. I studied structural for my undergrad and a mix of structural and construction for my masters. I took ONE class in highway design during my masters program and guess what I am doing for work now... you guessed it, highway design. As long as you have a solid foundation, most companies expect to train you in their specialty when you join the workforce. See if you can get into various internships or even the DOT one recommended above.

I suggest getting an internship this summer at a transportation engineering firm to see whats its like. That's your best bet.

Traffic engineering is that phase of engineering that deals with the planning, geometric design and traffic operations of roads, streets and highways and their networks, terminals, abutting lands and relationships with other modes of transportation for the achievement of safe, efficient and convenient movement of people and goods.

I am a highway engineer. When I hear traffic engineer, I consider that someone different than myself. Traffic engineers typically focus on signal design, traffic planning and analysis, etc. Highway engineers deal with geometric design, drainage, e&s, mpt, s&pm, etc. While this goes for other disciplines, highway engineers move into project management much more often because that are so diversified.

My suggestion is to get an internship at a well diversified firm so you can gain exposure into both traffic and highway engineering as they are very different.

Meant to add, as far as dealing with the public, yes there is public involvement but that is usually the case for all civil disciplines. Client interaction is much more frequent.