Creativity in Traffic Engineering?

[techysyska]

I am 22 years old and about to graduate with a bs in CE. I am thinking about doing traffic engineering as I find traffic flow and road design intriguing. I am wondering if traffic engineering requires creative thought (being creative at work is important to me). Does anyone know from experience what exactly in traffic engineering requires creativity?

I do understand there are many rules/regulations that parameterize what is allowed. I am hoping there is some room for creative thought.
















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[ACtrafficengr]

Hi, techysyska! Yes, there are rules that traffic engineers must follow, such as road design manuals, vehicle and traffic laws, and regulations like the UK Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions. Creativity is needed when applying these rules to real-world problems.

I think mental agility will be essential in the future. Road design software is getting more and more clever, and there will be less and less need for engineering technicians and junior engineers to crunch numbers, draw cross-sections and do other rote work. If you want a career in engineering, you'll need to bring more than high math grades.

One of the more interesting and upcoming areas is urban street design. More communities are looking at streets as more than a conduit for routing vehicles. They are looking at the needs and desires of all street users, including walkers and cyclists, and especially those with mobility or visual difficulties. I expect cognitive difficulties will be included in this as well. Also, they are looking at streets as a platform for creating prosperity. How do you design a street to attract people to an area, and foster small businesses? You'll need to work with landscape architects and urban planners to deliver a good project. A sense of esthetics and knowledge of ergonomics are also parts of it.

Weather patterns are changing. In my area, storm intensity is increasing, and regulations regarding stormwater are getting tighter. Figuring out how to slow down and reduce pollution in the runoff within the road right-of-way requires ingenuity. Green infrastructure such as bioswales are used for this. It's a interesting mix of fluid mechanics and biology.

A lot of people think of traffic capacity and delays when they think of traffic engineering, but traffic safety is arguably more important. Understanding the human factors involved is important here. Driver error contributes to many crashes, but what causes driver error? How much cognitive load is imposed on the road users? Is it too much to take in and analyze in time to avoid a collision? This field operates where engineering overlaps with psychology.

I notice you listed computer engineering as your field. Intelligent transportations systems (ITS) could use those skills. Adaptive signal control allows a traffic signal to adjust its timing and phasing on the fly to meet changing conditions. Incident management systems detect freeway crashes, breakdowns, etc. so operators can identify the problem and dispatch police, EMS, tow trucks, etc. It's a hardware- and programming-intensive field.

Depending on your interests, there are lots of avenues where creativity is needed. Good luck!

My glass has a v/c ratio of 0.5

Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris. -

http://xkcd.com/319/