LAB OBJECTIVES
To provide hands-on experience with transport planning, analysis, and design and to present Geographical Information Systems (GIS) fundamentals.

TERM PROJECT
Homework assignments and the course project will utilize TransCAD, a PC-based GIS for transportation which is installed in the Civil Engineering Computer Lab in EG3141. A formal lab will be held every week; typically on Fridays but occasionally on Mondays and Wednesdays (a discussion section often may be held as part of the lab). Individual copies of TransCAD are not available, but additional formal lab time will be scheduled as needed. TransCAD manuals will be available in the Lab, and may be checked out from the TA or the main CEE office. The course project will be completed individually (or perhaps in teams of 2). There will be intermediate reports due during the quarter, and a comprehensive final report will be due during exam week (tentatively, June 16, 2004). Incorporated into the final report will be one or more network design solutions. It is highly recommended that each person/team keep all project material in a 3-ring binder to facilitate management of project documentation. All project reports must be prepared professionally. Given the importance of technical writing in the Civil Engineering profession, each submitted project will receive two equally weighted grades: one for technical content, one for report quality. Formal report preparation guidelines are included in the course notes. Sample projects from prior years are available from the instructor or TA.

LAB REFERENCES

• Caliper (1996) TransCAD User's Guide Version 4.0
• Additional material focusing on GIS will be available in the lab or on-line.
• Project Report Style Guide

SCHEDULE

See Overall Course Schedule

What is TransCAD?
TransCAD is a full-featured Geographic Information System (GIS) designed specifically for managing analyzing, and presenting data related to transportation systems and facilities. It contains a comprehensive set of transportation analysis models that are commonly used by transportation professionals in their daily work.

What is a GIS?
Different definitions of a GIS have been used in different disciplines. For the newcomers to GIS, consider this relatively simpler definition: A computer software designed to manage and display data that describe features on the Earth's surface. Examples of such features with transportation relevance are: freeways, streets, bus routes, intersections, bus stops, etc.

Why GIS for transportation system analysis?
GIS make it possible to display and visualize phenomenon such as traffic. For example, GIS can display on a map streets with various widths to represent different amount of traffic on these streets. In addition, GIS can be used to prepare data for analysis in ways not possible with traditional transportation modeling software.

Fundamentals of GIS
To be able to use TransCAD efficiently, it is necessary to understand some fundamentals of GIS. Two of the most important GIS concepts are introduced here to facilitate the understanding of the tutorial materials. More GIS concepts will be introduced throughout the quarter.

• Maps are generated from a database
  Although GIS display maps, in most cases these maps are not stored in computers as image files. Maps are generated by GIS from a database with different tables. For example, each node in the map (Figure 1) is generated based on the coordinates in the Nodes table (on the upper right hand side). Each street link is generated by linking the two end nodes (see the Highways/Streets table).
  
  
• Features are organized into layers
  A map can be regarded as a set of overlaying transparencies. Each transparency is drawn with one type of feature. For example, in Figure 1, the map consists of two layers: Nodes and Highways/Streets. Each layer is associated with a data table and each feature is linked to a record in the table.

TransCAD Tutorial
See page 15 to 23 of the TransCAD User's Guide

Figure 1 Map and Database