Transportation Engineering: Traffic Flow Theory

This interactive online course presents the fundamentals of traffic flow and queueing theory which form the basis of all traffic analysis. This course presents the relationships among traffic flow, traffic density, and speed which are the primary elements of a traffic stream. These relationships guide engineers in planning, designing, and assessing traffic engineering improvements on highway systems and transportation networks. This course presents analytical methods that are applied in the design of new facilities, and also in evaluating impacts of modifications to existing transportation networks. Specific applications of the fundamental principles presented in this course include analyzing turn lane lengths, evaluating freeway ramp operations, estimating traffic flows at intersections, determining traffic flows at toll booths, and assessing the impacts of bottlenecks and traffic incidents on highway performance. This course presents statistical methods and how they are applied to analyze and manipulate traffic flow data, as well as how they are used to identify deficiencies in transportation systems as well as how they are used to assess traffic operations.