Transportation Studies Certificate

A Joint Offering of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the Rutgers School of Engineering

Rutgers University is a leader in transportation research and education. The focus of transportation research and educational activities is in both the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the School of Engineering. In 1998, the Board of Governors established the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center (VTC), which has grown to include the Bicycle-Pedestrian Resource Center, the Safe Routes to School Resource Center, and the New Jersey Travel Independence Program, among other research initiatives. VTC also encompasses the National Transit Institute (NTI) which was started at Rutgers as a congressional mandate under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991.The School of Engineering, through the Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, has created the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT), focusing on state-of-good repair, but encompassing safety, security, environmental impacts, and asset management of roads, bridges, and ports. Other research centers include the Rutgers Infrastructure Monitoring and Evaluation Group in the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Additional faculty throughout the university engage in transportation-related research and are active collaborators with both research center faculty and staff.

Program

The Graduate Certificate in Transportation Studies is cross-disciplinary and administered by the School of Engineering and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. The certificate is open to matriculated graduate students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and in the two graduate programs (Urban Planning and Policy Development, and Public Policy) of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. In general, students will be enrolled at the master’s level and receive the transportation studies certificate signifying completion of the program at graduation. Under some circumstances, doctoral students may be admitted to the certificate program.

Certificate Requirements

Students must apply to the program (see below) and complete the following requirements.

Required courses: Students must take five transportation courses in total, at least one each in planning and engineering. Bloustein School students must take at least one School of Engineering course, while Engineering students must take at least one transportation course in the Bloustein School. The courses taken for certificate credit will count toward the degree program in which the student is enrolled. Students must obtain a grade of B or better in all courses that count towards completion of the certificate. Transfer credits do not meet the requirements of the certificate, all courses must be completed at Rutgers.

Course offerings

Below is a listing of the core courses offered in both the Bloustein School and the School of Engineering. These may not be offered every year, so students should plan their schedule after consulting faculty in the respective programs. The courses listed below are subject to change and new courses are periodically introduced. These can also be counted towards the certificate with the approval of the certificate coordinator in your school..

School of Engineering Courses:

• 16:180:531 Traffic Engineering
• 16:180:532 Transportation Planning
• 16:180:533 Traffic Operations
• 16:180:536 Transportation System Analysis
• 16:180:537 Intelligent Transportation Systems
• 16:180:548 Infrastructure Management Systems
• 16:180:551 Railroad Transportation System
• 16:180:552 Engineering Risk Analysis in Transportation Systems
• 16:180:554 Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure
• 16:180:555 Railway Track Engineering and Safety

Bloustein School Courses:

• 34:970:550 Introduction to Transportation (Fall)
• 34:970:551 Transportation and Land Use (Spring)
• 34:970:552 Transportation and the Environment (Fall, every other year)
• 34:970:553 Methods of Transportation Planning (Spring)
• 34:970:554 Transportation Economics and Finance (Spring, every other year)
• 34:970:556 Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning (Fall, every other year)
• 34:970:558 Public Transit Planning and Management (Fall)
• 34:970:560 Freights and Ports (Spring)
• 34:970:666 Transportation and Equity (Fall, every other year)

Quantitative skills requirement: Students must exhibit proficiency in basic statistical skills and quantitative methods as demonstrated by successful completion of appropriate undergraduate or graduate courses. A course grade of B or better in a relevant course demonstrates proficiency.

Recommended courses: It is highly recommended that students take a course in Geographic Information Systems. Engineering students may substitute this for one other Bloustein School course in the list above, but must still take at least one transportation course from the Bloustein School offerings. These can also satisfy the methods requirement of the certificate.

• 34:970:591 Introduction to GIS for Planning and Public Policy
• 34:970:592 Topics in GIS

Attend events: Occasional seminars and presentations take place in both programs on transportation-related topics. Students completing the certificate are expected to attend these events.

Application

Graduate students interested in pursuing the certificate in transportation studies must apply to the certificate coordinator from their respective School. In general, students in good academic standing pursuing a degree will be admitted to the certificate program.

Certificate Coordinators

Coordinator for students at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy:

Professor Robert Noland
Director, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
33 Livingston Avenue, Rm. 449
Civic Square Building (downtown NB)
(848) 932-2859
email: rnoland@ejb.rutgers.edu

Coordinator for students in the School of Engineering:

Professor Hani Nassif
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
96 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854
(732) 445-4414
email: nassif@soe.rutgers.edu

Associated Faculty

School of Engineering – Core Transportation Faculty

Hani Nassif, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Infrastructure health monitoring, bridge engineering, reliability and structural safety

Peter Jin, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Transportation Engineering, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Traffic Operations, Traffic Sensing, Traffic Flow theory and Network Modeling, Urban Data Analytics

Xiang Liu, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Transportation safety and risk analysis, freight operations and logistics, rail transportation and engineering, transportation systems modeling

Hao Wang, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Vehicle-pavement-environment interaction, multi-scale and multi-physics modeling, sustainable infrastructure material and life-cycle assessment and analysis

Ali Maher, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Technology
Director, Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation, Soil/site improvement, soil composite materials, geosynthetics, environmental geotechnology

Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy

Robert Noland, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Director of the Voorhees Transportation Center,.
Transport policy, environmental impacts, travel behavior, non-motorized transport, safety analysis, energy and climate change, transport economics

Kelcie Ralph,  Associate Professor of Urban Planning
Travel behavior, transportation disadvantage/equity, and behavioral change

Michael Smart, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Director PhD Program in Planning and Public Policy
Urban modeling, GIS, immigrant neighborhoods

Will Payne, Assistant Professor in Geographic Information Science
Urban geography, spatial data science, critical and feminist GIS, food studies, gentrification

Wenwen Zhang, Assistant Professor in Informatics
Urban land use and transportation interaction, innovative/disruptive transportation technology, urban modeling/simulation, sustainable development, data analytics and visualization in planning