- Transportation engineering is the science of safe and efficient movement of people and goods (transport).
- The planning aspects of transportation engineering relate to urban planning, and involve technical forecasting decisions and political factors.
- Technical forecasting of passenger travel usually involves an urban transportation planning model, requiring the estimation of trip generation (how many trips for what purpose), trip distribution (destination choice, where is the traveler going), mode choice (what mode is being taken), and route assignment (which streets or routes are being used).