Is traffic engineering/planning a good field to pursue?

[JSC]

I am entering my senior year of civil engineering and am very interested in traffic engineering/planning. I have the option to complete an emphasis in transportation which includes classes in traffic, transportation planning, and geometric design. I have taken one general transportation class which is what has peaked my interest in the field.

Is traffic engineering a fairly stable and growing field? I am not a opposed to a masters in engineering or planning but I would like to work a year or two before pursuing either of these. What do you like or dislike about working in this field?

[DetroitPlanner]

Transportation planning is more stable than many aspects of planning. Assets like roads and buses always wear out and the techniques used to replace them are under continuous refinement.

Some of the more 'exciting' things being incorporated into transportation planning right now include:

• Complete Streets
• Better linkages to land use
• More data being made available from the oddest sources (cell phones)
• Coordination with other agencies for water and utilities (surprisingly not much of this has happened in the past).

[Random Traffic Guy]

I like transportation engineering since it is such a varied field, and it's all out in the open where you're using it every day (especially the traffic parts). This can be bad since everyone else thinks they are experts too. And I'm constantly fascinated by how a few inches of paint and a few colored lights can confidently control humans driving multi-ton machines at 70 MPH, who you otherwise wouldn't trust at all... There's a lot of psychology behind the technical aspects, which can be interesting, and in most areas there's also a lot more dealing with the public than the typical engineering job.

I took a transportation emphasis in undergrad, then a masters at a different school. The undergrad emphasis seems rare in most programs, and was excellent for my knowledge in the field. It did leave me a little lacking in the generic parts of civil - e.g., only had one structural class, no concrete class, etc.

There are a lot of options for employment, whether private or at multiple levels of government (from the FedGov to the smallest town). Switching back and forth is very common, too. It is easy to get dependent on one type of work or client, which can cause abrupt changes when budget or client emphasis changes. So I'd say the field as a whole is pretty stable, but sectors will have wider swings. I am a consultant who does mostly traffic impact studies, parking studies, and other private-side stuff, in support of zoning and development projects. So if development isn't happening, I don't have a ton of work in that area. However, my company does a substantial amount of work for agencies, so we are pretty balanced against the ebb and flow (although there is not an exact inverse relationship between public and private work). Maybe 20% of my work is for agencies, things like large area master plans, downtown parking districts, or city-influenced development like stadiums. This is mostly traffic operations work, I have more planning-oriented colleagues who do corridor plans for cities, or long-term modelling.

Besides DetroitPlanner's list, I'd add the promotion of non-traditional tech like roundabouts, and bike stuff is very hot right now. The main interesting thing to me is the driverless car technology, and the paradigm shift in many areas that could follow its widespread adoption. I love my job, but if Google called me up...

[DetroitPlanner]

Besides DetroitPlanner's list, I'd add the promotion of non-traditional tech like roundabouts, and bike stuff is very hot right now. The main interesting thing to me is the driverless car technology, and the paradigm shift in many areas that could follow its widespread adoption. I love my job, but if Google called me up...

Driverless cars..... they scare me.

Funny, but stuff like roundabouts, single point urban interchanges don't seem all that non-traditional to me any longer. Now divergent diamonds on the other hand.....