Hot subjects—Civil and Environmental Engineering 679: Travel Behavior Analysis

From the moment people step outside their homes to the moment they
return, civil and environmental engineering professor Jessica Guo is
interested in where they go, how they get there, how many trips they
take in-between and why they travel the way the do.

Guo’s research interests in travel behavior prompted her to create
an upper-level engineering course devoted to bridging the gap between
engineering research and real-world policy for students.

"I think this is a very interesting course in that it really looks
at community issues and people’s behavior and has that
interdisciplinary flavor to it," she says. "Eventually, as more
students on campus know of this course, I would like to adapt and
modify it for students coming from different backgrounds."

The class, which was offered first in Fall 2006 and is currently in
its second run, is divided into three units focusing on real-world
issues in transportation; methods of modeling travel behavior and what
affects it; and looking into new ways of analyzing transportation
problems. Guo uses local, national and international examples in the
class to illustrate the types of variables that impact travel behavior,
pointing out as an example the density of European and Asian cities
compared to those in the United States and how that affects mass
transportation in each area.

The class incorporates a course project, she says, and students
work with survey data from all over the country — including Dane County — to analyze variables such as modes of travel, destination choices and
how often people travel each day.

"At the beginning of the semester, I encourage students to think
big," she says. "We do go into those projects with the intention or
hope that this could lead to publication or findings that could
influence transportation policy and investment decisions."