Students specializing in transportation planning focus on the planning for the movement of goods and people
and their relationship to other elements of the urban system.  This systems view requires that students
understand the motivators for travel and the downstream impacts of travel on other elements of the urban
system.  As a result, students will learn how physical, social, planning and personal factors affect travel.
This is done through coursework, applied research and internships.  Most transportation research is
conducted through the Carolina Transportation Program.

Rather than an engineering oriented approach to transportation planning, DCRP students begin their study of
transportation understanding that most travel is derived from the need to get to places.  Freight needs to be
delivered to manufacturers, retailers and consumers.  People travel to get to jobs, shops and health clinics.
Then, students take complementary courses at DCRP, elsewhere at UNC, or at NCSU or Duke (at no
additional charge) that strengthen their interests in related areas (from land development, climate change, and
energy, to safety and environmental quality).

The need to get to places that underscores the philosophy of the transportation specialization at DCRP.
One implication is that the specialization is not limited to planning for automobile travel.  Although the
challenges and concerns of planning for automobilemobility are covered, the specialization is multimodal.
For example, in addition to the basic transportation planning courses, DCRP offers courses in transit
planning and pedestrian-bicycle planning.

A second implication is that understanding the consequences of travel by different modes is paramount.  It is the
secondary effects of transportation on land development, congestion, water quality, air quality and personal health
that will continue to guide how transportatio planning practice is conducted. In the transportation specialization
students will understand the impacts of technology and travel patterns on other elements of the urban system.


Career Opportunities
Students that have completed the transportation specialization now work in a variety of private and public
organizations at the local, regional, state, national and international levels.  Students currently work as
transportation planners for municipalities and metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, specialized
consulting firms, foundations, US and sates department of Transportation, and the Inter-American Development
Bank and the World Bank.

In addition to succesful job placement, students routinely garner awards and recognition for their research work
at DCRP.  Furthermore, to expose students to other transportation practitioners, the Carolina Transportation
Program partly funds all transportation students to attend the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in
Washington DC in January, where more than 10,000 professionals and researchers converge to discuss how
practice and research can address today's pressing transportation problems.