Transportation engineering is at a crossroads. Although
funding for highway infrastructure improvements continues to be limited, big
advances in alternative fuels, engine design, composite materials, and IT and
wireless have the potential to transform automobile transportation.
We asked top transportation engineering experts Chris T.
Hendrickson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie
Mellon University and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation
Engineering, and Hani Mahmassani, W.A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in
Transportation at Northwestern University and director of its Transportation
Center, for their views on what the top engineering trends in the field of
transportation will be for the coming year.