Public Transportation Education: Inventory and Recommendations on Curricula

Abstract

Public transportation systems provide the opportunity for efficient and sustainable mobility. Twenty-first century technological innovation, as well as efforts to promote alternative modes such as bus, light rail, and heavy rail systems, encourages improvement within the field. As the field innovates, transportation engineering education must adapt to prepare and attract the next generation of public transportation engineers. The primary objective of this study is to investigate existing public transportation engineering courses throughout the US (sample of 145 schools) to provide recommendations for future course development. The investigation includes a spatial inventory, a comparison of topical coverage, and an identification of new topics to be incorporated in future course development. The results show that approximately 3% of civil engineering programs evaluated offer at least one public transportation course, with 98% of the courses evaluated offered at the graduate level. Program recommendations, such as including topical coverage on high speed rail and connections to automated vehicles, are provided with the goal of enhancing and expanding the field of public transportation engineering.