ROAD: Interactive Geometric Design Tool for Transportation Education and Training

Abstract

Traditionally, transportation engineering students have used engineering drawing techniques to manually lay out lines and curves over contour maps for highway geometric design. The design process requires numerous calculations of stopping sight distance, minimum turning radius, and curve alignments to minimize economic and environmental impact and construction costs. Students usually perform iterative computations to manually meet design criteria and environmental constraints. The traditional approach of learning geometric design is cumbersome and time consuming, limiting students from taking a broader perspective on geometric design. A new software tool, Roadway Online Application for Design (ROAD), was developed to enhance the learning experience for transportation engineering students. This tool allows students to design roadway geometry efficiently and modify the design easily within given economic and environmental parameters. The objective is to provide a comprehensive tool that can be accessed easily by students in order to help them better understand geometric design. ROAD can also generate a three-dimensional roadway geometry model at final design to allow students to place themselves in the driver's seat and maneuver through the designed roadway at maximum design speed.

A smart integrated environment for vehicular traffic simulation

“…In another similar effort, a simulation tool has been developed to teach road geometry to transportation engineering students. 14 In another study, a web-based simulation and visual analytics tool has been developed that helps domain experts in conducting different simulation-based studies. 15 MovSim provides rich set of reference microscopic models.…”

“…The tool is designed to teach various concepts of transportation engineering to undergraduate students with the help of computer simulations. In another similar effort, a simulation tool has been developed to teach road geometry to transportation engineering students . In another study, a web‐based simulation and visual analytics tool has been developed that helps domain experts in conducting different simulation‐based studies …”

Designing web‐games for transportation engineering education

“…For example, the Simulating Transportation for Realistic Engineering Education and Training (STREET) platform is composed of nine web‐based modules. STREET mainly targets road design and transportation planning [3,26]. A multi‐agent route choice (MARC) game was also developed and made available on the STREET website .…”