Transportation Engineering

What is Transportation Engineering?

Transportation engineering covers all aspects of transportation related issues, from determining the future transportation needs of a community or country through to the performance of the materials that are used to construct roads. All modes of travel are covered, from pedestrians/cyclists to cars/trucks to buses/trains to ships and planes (although our programmes at Canterbury largely deal with land transport).

Postgraduate Programme

Postgraduate qualifications in Transportation Engineering are provided in collaboration with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland.

Students are able to take:

One-off "Certificate of Proficiency" papers
A Postgraduate Certificate in Engineering (PGCertEng)
A Master of Engineering Transportation (MET)
A Master of Engineering Studies (MEngSt)
A doctorate in Transportation Engineering (PhD)

Qualifications can be undertaken either full-time or by part-time study. Most courses are taught in 'block mode', allowing working candidates and those from outside Christchurch to complete their studies while remaining in full-time employment. For more information about the study options see the Postgraduate Transportation Programme page.

The Department has a comprehensive range of physical laboratory and field equipment for transport teaching and research, as well as a full suite of relevant software.

Transportation Laboratory Equipment

Bitumen viscosity, aging and penetration test equipment
British Pendulum Skid Resistance tester
Polished Stone Tester (accelerated weathering of sealing chips)
Gyratory and Marshall compaction of asphaltic concrete specimens
Indirect Tensile Modulus and creep testing of asphaltic concrete specimens
Vibratory compaction of unbound granular material specimens
Repeated Load Triaxial Testing of unbound granular specimens
Loadman Portable Falling Weight Deflectometer device
Real-time Traffic monitoring suite
MetroCount traffic counting and speed measuring equipment
Autoscope vehicle image processing camera
Handheld laser speed gun
TIRTL infrared traffic logger
Psion handheld data collection devices
Various other traffic measurement equipment (tubes, lasers, etc)Inside the transportation laboratory

Note: Some of this equipment is available for hire by consultants; contact the Lab Manager for further details.

Transportation Computer Software Available

PLUTO - analysis of transport policy options
TransCAD - GIS modelling of transport networks
SATURN - mesoscopic simulation and assignment of traffic in road networks
Paramics - microscopic simulation and visualisation of individual vehicles in road networks
SIDRA - analysis of intersection performance (priority/roundabout/signalised)
CAS - NZ Transport Agency crash database analysis and reporting
TRARR - rural road traffic simulation
TRIPS, TRACKS, QRS - macroscopic transport network planning
IHSDM - safety modelling of highway geometric designs
EEM - NZ Transport Agency project economic evaluation
ABAQUS - finite element modelling of pavements
CIRCLY - elastic analysis of pavement layers
12D - geometric road design and layout

Canterbury Accelerated Testing Indoor Facility (CAPTIF)

A full scale indoor pavement testing facility, operated in partnership with New Zealand Transport Agency

Full-time students are also provided with a range of other facilities within the Department.

The following are teaching transportation engineering courses within the department:

Dr Mehdi Keyvan Ekbatani (Programme Director)
Dr Diana Kusumastuti
Professor Alan Nicholson
Associate Professor Mofreh Saleh (Sabbatical 2021)

Previous transport staff

Dr Glen Koorey (Planning Design)
Dr Bryan Pidwerbesky (Fulton Hogan)
Dr Shane Turner (Beca).

There is some teaching teamwork with the transportation engineering staff at the University of Auckland, assisting with teaching in each other's courses.

Canterbury University is fortunate to be able to invite many respected overseas academics to visit here, many courtesy of the Erskine Programme. In recent years, the transportation programme has included teaching by:

Prof Sue McNeil (Univ of Delaware) - Infrastructure asset maintenance and management, Disaster planning
Assoc. Prof Susan Tighe (Univ of Waterloo, Canada) - Pavement design and road asset maintenance and management
Professor Essam Radwan (Univ of Centrla Florida, Orlando) - Highway geometric design, driving simulation
Professor Bhagwant Persaud (Ryerson University, Toronto) - Road safety, Statistical methods, Highway design
Professor Michael Taylor (Univ of South Australia) - Traffic engineering, Intelligent Transport Systems, Simulation modeling
Assoc. Prof Shalom Hakkert (Technion Institute, Israel) - Accident analysis, road safety systems, Treatment of hazardous locations
Professor David Boyce (Univ of Illinois, Chicago) - Urban and regional transportation planning; Dynamic transportation system models for planning intelligent transportation systems
Professor Martin Snaith (Univ of Birmingham) - Pavement design and road asset maintenance and management
Professor Nick Garber (Univ of Virginia) - Traffic operations and highway safety, Speed management
Professor Michael Bell (Imperial College, London) - Transport network reliability, Intelligent Transport Systems

A number of local industry experts also assist with the teaching in the programme. We are grateful for their time and assistance.

National Transportation Organisations

NZ Ministry of Transport (Govt transport policy agency) - Research & Statistics section
NZ Transport Agency (Govt agency for land transport planning, funding), comprising two former agencies, Land Transport NZ and Transit NZ
OnTrack (Govt agency overseeing NZ railway network)
Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) (Govt agency that investigates rail/sea/air accidents and incidents)
IPENZ Transportation Group (industry body for transport practitioners/professionals)
Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (NZ branch of transport/logistics practitioners)
Austroads (Association of Australian and NZ road transport/traffic authorities)
Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM) Australia
Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) US
Transportation Research Board (TRB) US
Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) US
Department for Transport (DfT) UK
Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) UK

Universities and Other Transport Education Providers

University of Auckland (NZ) Transportation Programme
Lincoln University (NZ) Transport Studies Group
Waikato University (NZ) Traffic & Road Safety (TARS) Research Group
NZ Institute of Highway Technology (NZIHT) (polytechnic and industry training in transportation)
Monash University (Aust) Accident Research Centre (MUARC)
University of Sydney (Aust) Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS)
Queensland Univ. of Technology (Aust) Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety (CARRS-Q)
University of Adelaide (Aust) Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR)
University of South Australia (Aust) Transport Systems Centre
University of California, Davis (US) Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS)
Texas A&M University (US) Texas Transportation Institute (TTI)
University of California, Berkeley (US) Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS)
University of Illinois Chicago (US) Urban Transportation Center (UTC)
University of California, Irvine (US) Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS)
Portland State University (US) Center for Transportation Studies (CTS)
University College London (UK) Centre for Transport Studies (CTS)
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK) Transport Operations Research Group (TORG)
Imperial College London (UK) Centre for Transport Studies
University of Leeds (UK) Institute for Transport Studies (ITS)
Universities' Transport Study Group (UTSG) UK

Traffic/transportation engineers and other transport professionals undertake a broad range of duties, all in some way related to transport. These can include:

Designing new roads and other transport networks (e.g. rail, ports/airports)
Providing for sustainable transport modes (e.g. walking, cycling, public transport)
Investigating, auditing and fixing road safety problems
Maintaining and improving existing transport networks
Predicting future effects of land use and transport changes
Planning and undertaking traffic/transport surveys
Modelling the operation of traffic networks
Planning and managing freight and public transport operations
Undertaking research into transportation problems

Transportation practitioners are in great demand by consulting firms and government bodies in both New Zealand and around the world.

To find out more about some of the opportunities and challenges of being a roading/transport engineer, check out the KiwiCareers website.

Transportation Employers in New Zealand

The list below is not exhaustive. See also our page of transportation links, which includes many national agencies. If you know of other employers feel free to let us know.

Main NZ Transportation Consultants & Researchers: