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CIVL9703: Transport Policy, Planning and Deployment (2018 - Semester 1)

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Unit: CIVL9703: Transport Policy, Planning and Deployment (6 CP)
Mode: Normal-Day
On Offer: Yes
Level: Postgraduate
Faculty/School: School of Civil Engineering
Unit Coordinator/s: Levinson, David
Session options: Semester 1
Versions for this Unit:
Campus: Camperdown/Darlington
Pre-Requisites: None.
Brief Handbook Description: This subject aims to provide an environment for students to learn essential facts and develop models and frameworks to understand the development of transportation policy, the making of transportation plans, and the deployment of transportation technologies. The course uses a mixture of traditional lectures, and interactive learning through case studies and role playing. Both the lectures and the cases allow the students to develop an inductive understanding of transportation. The course will be successful if at the end, the student has developed a worldview on transportation (not necessarily the same as the instructor's), and has an appreciation for merits and demerits of various points of view on transportation issues. The course seeks an integrative approach for transportation, and though the stories in lecture will be told mode by mode, there are a number of opportunities to see the relationships between modes, in their structure in function, and in the learning as one mode adopts successful (and unsuccessful) attributes of others.
Assumed Knowledge: CIVL9700.
Tutor/s: David Levinson
Timetable: CIVL9703 Timetable
Time Commitment:
# Activity Name Hours per Week Sessions per Week Weeks per Semester
1 Lecture-Seminar 2.00 1 13
2 Lecture 1.00 1 13
3 Independent Study 6.00 1 15
4 Presentation 1.00 1 1
T&L Activities: The classes follow the outline of the text `The Transportation Experience` by Garrison and Levinson and `The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport` by Levinson and Krizek. Case Studies will be interspersed. Student led term papers may be presented at the end of the course.

Attributes listed here represent the key course goals (see Course Map tab) designated for this unit. The list below describes how these attributes are developed through practice in the unit. See Learning Outcomes and Assessment tabs for details of how these attributes are assessed.

Attribute Development Method Attribute Developed
Plan, design, and review safe and efficient operation of transport infrastructure and services to move people. Design (Level 3)
Acquire analytical skills for an engineering design office including application and limitation of traffic and transport models. Engineering/IT Specialisation (Level 3)
Apply traffic flow theory to the design and operation of transport infrastructure, e.g. ramp metering and traffic signal control Maths/Science Methods and Tools (Level 3)
Develop ability to identify elements and approaches to analyze the transport infrastructure to interact within an engineering team. Information Seeking (Level 4)
Contributing as an individual to multidisciplinary and multicultural teams to deliver traffic related projects Communication (Level 3)

For explanation of attributes and levels see Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018.

Learning outcomes are the key abilities and knowledge that will be assessed in this unit. They are listed according to the course goal supported by each. See Assessment Tab for details how each outcome is assessed.

Communication (Level 3)
1. Explain the lifecycle model of technology diffusion (birth, growth, maturity) and its implications for current policy and investment.
Information Seeking (Level 4)
2. Compare and contrast models and simulations of network growth with historical experience.
Maths/Science Methods and Tools (Level 3)
3. Develop and test original hypotheses with original data about transport systems.
Engineering/IT Specialisation (Level 3)
4. Demonstrate the consequences of positive and negative feedback processes on transportation systems.
Design (Level 3)
5. Illustrate how technologies are innovated and identify the policy environments conducive to innovation.
Assessment Methods:
# Name Group Weight Due Week Outcomes
1 Assignment No 32.00 Multiple Weeks 1, 2, 3, 5,
2 Case Study No 18.00 Week 10 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
3 Term Paper No 25.00 Week 12 (During your timetabled class) 3,
4 Final Exam No 25.00 Exam Period 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
Assessment Description: • Assignments (32%)

o Games as Simulations - Compare outcome of transport game with historical system it reflects

o Analyze the Historic Life-cycle of a Transport Technology

o Network Design

o Surface Transport Position Paper

o Book Review

• Case Studies (18%)

• Term Paper (25%)

• Final Exam (25%)
Grading:
Grade Type Description
Standards Based Assessment Final grades in this unit are awarded at levels of HD for High Distinction, DI (previously D) for Distinction, CR for Credit, PS (previously P) for Pass and FA (previously F) for Fail as defined by University of Sydney Assessment Policy. Details of the Assessment Policy are available on the Policies website at http://sydney.edu.au/policies . Standards for grades in individual assessment tasks and the summative method for obtaining a final mark in the unit will be set out in a marking guide supplied by the unit coordinator.
Recommended Reference/s: Note: References are provided for guidance purposes only. Students are advised to consult these books in the university library. Purchase is not required.

Note that the "Weeks" referred to in this Schedule are those of the official university semester calendar https://web.timetable.usyd.edu.au/calendar.jsp

Week Description
Week 1 Lecture/Tutorial: INTRODUCTION AND PART ONE – WAVE ONE: 1790–1851

1. Rivers of Steam

2. Design by Design: The Birth of the Railway

3. The Turnpike Era
Week 2 Lecture/Tutorial: PART TWO – PHASE 1 OF THE LIFE-CYCLE

4. Inventing and Innovating
Week 3 Lecture/Tutorial: PART THREE – WAVE TWO 1844–1896


5. Maritime Modes

6. Railroads Deployed

7. Good Roads

8. Transit

9. Telegraph
Week 4 Lecture/Tutorial: PART FOUR – PHASE 2 OF THE LIFE-CYCLE


10. Magic Bullet
Week 5 Lecture/Tutorial: PART FIVE – WAVE THREE 1890-1950


11. American Shipping

12. Taking Flight

13. Railroads Regulated

14. Bustitution

15. Public Roads

16. Urban Planning: Who Controls the Turf?

17. Telephone
Week 6 Lecture/Tutorial: PART SIX – PHASE 3 OF THE LIFE-CYCLE


18. Aging
Week 7 Lecture/Tutorial: PART SEVEN – WAVE FOUR: 1939-1991


19. Logistics

20. The Jet Age

21. Railroads Rationalized

22. Interstate

23. Recapitalization

24. Lord Kelvin’s Curse
Week 8 Lecture/Tutorial: PART EIGHT – LIFE-CYCLE DYNAMICS


25. Lifecycle

26. Meta-cycles
Week 9 Lecture/Tutorial: PART NINE – WAVE FIVE: MODERN TIMES


27. Energy and Environment

28. Higher-speed rail

29. Internet

30. Technology: Hard and Soft
Week 10 Lecture/Tutorial: THE END OF TRAFFIC AND THE FUTURE OF TRANSPORT

• Preface: The Lost Joy of Automobility

• Climbing Mount Auto: The Rise of Cars in the 20th Century

• Less Traffic is a Good Thing

• What Killed America’s Traffic?

• Pace of Change

• Transitioning Toward Electric Vehicles

• Autonomous Autos

• MaaS Transport

• Transit

• Up and Out: The Future of Travel Demand and Where We Live

• Adapting the Built Environment

• Reduce, Reuse, Bicycle

• Accelerating the End of Traffic via Pricing

• Redeeming Transport
Assessment Due: Case Study
Week 11 Lecture/Tutorial: PART TEN – BEYOND THE LIFE-CYCLE


31. Policy

32. Speculations
Week 12 PART ELEVEN – AFTERWORDS: REFLECTIONS ON TRANSPORTATION EXPERIENCES


33. I-35W

34. Design of a Life

35. Commencement
Assessment Due: Term Paper
Week 13 Lecture/Tutorial: Term Paper Presentations
Exam Period Assessment Due: Final Exam

Course Relations

The following is a list of courses which have added this Unit to their structure.

Course Year(s) Offered
Master of Professional Engineering (Civil) 2015, 2016
Master of Professional Engineering (Fluids) 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Master of Professional Engineering (Geomechanical) 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Master of Professional Engineering (Structural) 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Course Goals

This unit contributes to the achievement of the following course goals:

Attribute Practiced Assessed
Communication (Level 3) Yes 18.2%
Information Seeking (Level 4) Yes 18.2%
Maths/Science Methods and Tools (Level 3) Yes 43.2%
Engineering/IT Specialisation (Level 3) Yes 10.4%
Design (Level 3) Yes 10%

These goals are selected from Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018 which defines overall goals for courses where this unit is primarily offered. See Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018 for details of the attributes and levels to be developed in the course as a whole. Percentage figures alongside each course goal provide a rough indication of their relative weighting in assessment for this unit. Note that not all goals are necessarily part of assessment. Some may be more about practice activity. See Learning outcomes for details of what is assessed in relation to each goal and Assessment for details of how the outcome is assessed. See Attributes for details of practice provided for each goal.