Transportation Planning Questions on the PE

I bombed the Transporation Planning part of the Civil PE last Fall. I'm having a hard time finding what I should study to boost my score in this area. I suggestions?

How many questions were in this category? Planning involves Trip Generation I believe. Try taking a look at Traffic and Highway Engineering by Garber and Hoel. I believe that book has great examples of Traffic Planning.

maximus808 said:

How many questions were in this category? Planning involves Trip Generation I believe. Try taking a look at Traffic and Highway Engineering by Garber and Hoel. I believe that book has great examples of Traffic Planning.

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He's right. That book helps quite a bit. If you can try and get the teacher's anwer key as well.

:multiplespotting:

jbenson, I think this is a great question - I'd wondered about this myself but had skipped over this section it in my initial review.

According to the outline, transportation planning is 7.5% of the exam, so this section is 3 questions out of 40. The section involves:

A. Optimization and/or cost analysis (e.g. transportation route A or route B)

B. Traffic impact studies

C. Capacity analysis (future conditions)

Typical, the CERM and Goswami manuals ignore these subjects in favor of more pressing material like having entire chapters on 'Plane Surveying' and 'Rigid Pavement'. I don't doubt these subjects are important but going by the Exam Outline they are barely touched upon (maybe see 1 or 2 questions on flexible/rigid pavement).

There is a CERM chapter devoted to Capacity Analysis, so I'm hoping that will help cover Part C - not sure, and as for where to get information for parts A & B above I have no idea.

The Goswami completely misses the Transportation Planning Section. Why did I even buy that book?!? Does the author not read the outlines.

Someone mentions Trip Generation? Where does that come from? It is not on the Exam Outline either. I'd rather not drop another hundred bucks (or precious study time) for a book on trip generation unless I see some more info on why I should.

Happy, trust me, the Goswami book is gold. In my opinion, the examples are much better laid out than the CERM. The Traffic and Highway Engineering book by Garber and Hoel is great for Traffic Planning which talks about Trip Generation but you're looking at a small portion of the NCEES outline. If you can nail the Geometric Problems and Traffic Analysis, that's more than half the depth portion about. Focus on the big ticket sections. The first time I took the exam in April, I was okay in Geometric Design and Traffic Analysis and okay in the Other Topics, I was poor at the rest. For October, I made sure I was better and more confident in Geometrics, Analysis, and Other Topics. I made sure I was at least ok on the other depth topics as well. Basically, just keep plugging along and doing problems and problems. It never hurts to do too much problems. It will soon become second nature. But Goswami's book must've have helped on at least 50% of the morning questions and 25-50% in the depth.

This is weird. I was studying tonight and I get to the NCEES syllabus outline "III. Transportation Planning". Just like Happy mentioned, it consists of 7.5% of the afternoon portion of the exam and is made up of the topics A., B., and C. he listed. I too have the CERM and the All-In-One CEBD. I looked at the TOC and Indexes of both books and nothing (well, CEBD has one page or so on "Engineering Planning" but didn't seem overly helpful). The weird thing is, I actually came to this forum tonight to ask the same question - what is a good study source for topics III. A., B. and C. of the NCEES syllabus? Then I saw this thread.

As I am going through the syllabus, I can't help but wonder why CERM and CEBD don't title the topics in the book to match those on the syllabus and why they don't cover everything on the syllabus.

I'm not buying any more books so unless I can find "Transportation Planning" in CERM, CEBD, Aashto GDHS or HDM, I'll have to guess those 3 questions on the exam (I too bombed this section per my diagnostic). Bummer.

I agree that the CERM could do a better job with their transportation section. I felt Goswami did a better job with his book. But yes, both books are light on the planning portion which really is a small portion of the depth. You probably can search the web for some trip generation information.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much but focus on traffic analysis and geometric design.

I've taken the Transportation PE twice so far and haven't seen more than one question involving trip generation on each test.

I concur with Maximus. The Goswami isn't necessary, but I prefer how it covers the transportation topics. It even helps with the other subjects. The only reference manual I found that covers this topic is the the Traffic and Highways Engineering book that Maximus mentioned. It covers gravity model, QRS Method, types of Mode choice models, etc. I happened to still have this book from College. My edition however was sadly riddled with errors, so it was a pain to go through and fix the mistakes. I've seen a newer edition that has fixed these mistakes.

I think it is a good topic to cover if you have already covered the major topics. I find this section is a hit or miss and is not something I would rely on to pass the exam.

Thanks Guess. I didn't even think about my college Transpo textbook. I think I still have it (James Banks - San Diego State University). I will check it tonight to see if Transpo Planning is covered in the book. Thanks.

Guess said:

I concur with Maximus. The Goswami isn't necessary, but I prefer how it covers the transportation topics. It even helps with the other subjects. The only reference manual I found that covers this topic is the the Traffic and Highways Engineering book that Maximus mentioned. It covers gravity model, QRS Method, types of Mode choice models, etc. I happened to still have this book from College. My edition however was sadly riddled with errors, so it was a pain to go through and fix the mistakes. I've seen a newer edition that has fixed these mistakes.
I think it is a good topic to cover if you have already covered the major topics. I find this section is a hit or miss and is not something I would rely on to pass the exam.

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There's still plenty of errors, even in the instructor's manual. You just have to fix them as you go along.

Well since the consensus seems to be:

- the Transporation Planning section is poorly covered by the widely used reference texts, CERM & Goswami

- there is a good reference book out there, Traffic and Highway Engineering by Garber and Hoel

- not everyone wants to drop more $$$ on this book to potentially help answer some or none of just 3 questions on the exam.

So, to help each other out how about everyone posts here anything they find that might be free and relevant to the exam.

I'll start with this link I found:

http://www.lic.wisc.edu/shapingdane/facili...sis_traffic.htm

Happy said:

Well since the consensus seems to be:- the Transporation Planning section is poorly covered by the widely used reference texts, CERM & Goswami

- there is a good reference book out there, Traffic and Highway Engineering by Garber and Hoel

- not everyone wants to drop more $$$ on this book to potentially help answer some or none of just 3 questions on the exam.

So, to help each other out how about everyone posts here anything they find that might be free and relevant to the exam.

I'll start with this link I found:

http://www.lic.wisc.edu/shapingdane/facili...sis_traffic.htm

Click to expand...

Garber and Hoel is extremely good exam prep for the PM part of the PE. In fact I did great on the PM part but botched the AM part from overconfidence and rushing. I suggest you get the Teacher's Answer Manual as well.

Well, I will seriously consider the Garber and Hoel textbook. I see it has good reviews on Amazon too.

ipswitch said:

Garber and Hoel is extremely good exam prep for the PM part of the PE. In fact I did great on the PM part but botched the AM part from overconfidence and rushing. I suggest you get the Teacher's Answer Manual as well.

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Where do you guys get/buy the "Teacher's Answer Manual " ?

I'm not sure this will help or not, but here is Chapter 14 "Transportation Planning" from my college textbook.

(in 3 parts due to file size)

Cr@p, it looks like I am limited to 250K file size total. I thought it was 250K per post.

That's pretty weak.

It looks like I can't upload the second and third part of Chapter 14. Sorry guys.

ptatohed said:

Cr@p, it looks like I am limited to 250K file size total. I thought it was 250K per post.
That's pretty weak.

It looks like I can't upload the second and third part of Chapter 14. Sorry guys.

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find a file hosting website and link it. EB.com is not in the business of online file storage.

Although if it is copyrighted material you may want to think twice about sharing it online

Isar said:

ipswitch said:

Garber and Hoel is extremely good exam prep for the PM part of the PE. In fact I did great on the PM part but botched the AM part from overconfidence and rushing. I suggest you get the Teacher's Answer Manual as well.

Click to expand...

Where do you guys get/buy the "Teacher's Answer Manual " ?

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Can't remember where I got it. Google for it that's how I found it; it's out there...