Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply certification or qualification, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task. Not all certifications that use post-nominal letters are an acknowledgement of educational achievement, or an agency appointed to safeguard the public interest.
Transportation engineering or transport engineering is the application of technology and scientific principles to the planning, functional design, operation and management of facilities for any mode of transportation in order to provide for the safe, efficient, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical, and environmentally compatible movement of people and goods transport.
Traffic engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on roadways. It focuses mainly on research for safe and efficient traffic flow, such as road geometry, sidewalks and crosswalks, cycling infrastructure, traffic signs, road surface markings and traffic lights. Traffic engineering deals with the functional part of transportation system, except the infrastructures provided.
Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' users. Countries and local governments have rules for design and use of parking spaces.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. Its constitution was based on the older Boston Society of Civil Engineers from 1848.
The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the network topology. Street hierarchy restricts or eliminates direct connections between certain types of links, for example residential streets and arterial roads, and allows connections between similar order streets or between street types that are separated by one level in the hierarchy. By contrast, in many regular, traditional grid plans, as laid out, higher order roads are connected by through streets of both lower order levels. An ordering of roads and their classification can include several levels and finer distinctions as, for example, major and minor arterials or collectors.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. TRB's mission is to mobilize expertise, experience, and knowledge to anticipate and solve complex transportation-related challenges. For example, committees, researchers, and staff are currently focused on advancing resilient infrastructure, exploring transformational technology, and caring for the public’s health and safety. It publishes research via four cooperative research programs and through consensus studies, which may be requested by the U.S. Congress.
The Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) is an association in the United States. ATMAE sets standards for academic program accreditation, personal certification and professional development for educators and industry professionals involved in integrating technology, leadership and design.
Complete streets is a transportation policy and design approach that requires streets to be planned, designed, operated and maintained to enable safe, convenient and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities regardless of their mode of transportation. Complete Streets allow for safe travel by those walking, cycling, driving automobiles, riding public transportation, or delivering goods.
A Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE) is a certification sponsored by the Transportation Professional Certification Board, and promulgated by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. The certification process, which has been adopted for professional traffic operations engineers, requires that the holder be a licensed professional engineer if he or she practices in the United States, Canada or any other country that provides governmental licensing of engineers. This certification process builds on and supports the practice of professional engineering registration. The PTOE is the highest leveling licensing available in the field of Traffic Engineering. As of November 29, 2022, there are 3,767 licensed PTOEs worldwide, 3,562 of whom are located in the United States.
A Traffic Operations Practitioner Specialist (TOPS) is a certification sponsored by the Transportation Professional Certification Board, Inc., and promulgated by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Prior to taking the required exam, an individual must have at least five years of related working experience, though academic experience may be substituted for this requirement. Additionally, as the certification is not intended for professionals, licensed professional engineers are not permitted to be a certified TOPS.
A traffic signal operations specialist (TSOS) is a certification sponsored by the Transportation Professional Certification Board, Inc., and promulgated by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Before taking the prerequisite examination, an individual must have at least five years of related working experience, though relevant education or training may be applied toward this requirement. TSOS certification does not substitute for appropriate professional licenses when required for specific responsibilities or jurisdictions.
A professional transportation planner is a professional engaged in the practice of transportation planning, relating to the transportation aspects of urban planning and infrastructure planning.
Wrong-way driving (WWD), also known as contraflow driving, is the act of driving a motor vehicle against the direction of traffic. It can occur on either one- or two-way roads, as well as in parking lots and parking garages, and may be due to driver inattention or impairment, or because of insufficient or confusing road markings or signage, or a driver from a right-hand traffic country being unaccustomed to driving in a left-hand traffic country, and vice versa. People intentionally drive in the wrong direction because they missed an exit, for thrill-seeking, or as a shortcut.
Portland Orange is the color of light emitted by the dont walk phase of pedestrian crossing signals in the United States and Canada. The color was chosen to avoid confusion with regular traffic lights in conditions of poor visibility.
Donald Curran Shoup is an American engineer and professor in urban planning. He is a research professor of urban planning at University of California, Los Angeles and a noted Georgist economist. His 2005 book The High Cost of Free Parking identifies the negative repercussions of off-street parking requirements and relies heavily on 'Georgist' insights about optimal land use and rent distribution. In 2015, the American Planning Association awarded Shoup the "National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer."
The Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers (CITE) is composed of more than 1,700 transportation engineers, planners, technologists and students across Canada. Its purpose and mission is to enable professionals with knowledge and competence in transportation and traffic engineering to contribute individually and collectively towards meeting needs for mobility and safety within Canada.
Ernest Payson Goodrich was an American pioneer in urban planning and engineering, the first president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the third head coach of the Michigan State Normal School football team.
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) is the medical certification, education, research, and occupational medicine wing of the Office of Aerospace Medicine (AAM) under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Aviation Safety. The Institute's primary goal is to enhance aviation safety.
Parking mandates or parking requirements are policy decisions, usually taken by municipal governments, which require new developments to provide a particular number of parking spaces.
