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."