Go to ACMS CEC 2026 Conference homepageTeaching transportation engineering to promote flourishing communities
Keywords: Transportation Engineering, Engineering Education, Christian Engineering
TL;DR: This paper describes changes to a transportation engineering course with a focus on teaching nuance and values behind street and road design
Abstract: Traditional transportation engineering courses in the civil engineering curriculum focus mostly on highway design. While useful for fulfilling the required material needed to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, it fails to account for the detrimental effects of focusing on unimodal transport in cities, leaving cities to be built only considering car-based infrastructure. This results in segmented cities that struggle to build healthy, flourishing community, require dependency on a personal vehicle which limits the opportunities of the multiple vulnerable populations (i.e., the poor, disabled, and elderly), and endangers anyone trying to navigate a city without the use of a personal vehicle.
Using the text “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” by Charles Marohn Jr. and the organization Strong Towns, we have worked to provide a different perspective; one that encourages students to observe how design of streets and roads can reflect the values of a community. We encourage students to consider how values can influence design, and using a Crash Analysis Studio, how students can design streets to promote safety and encourage the flourishing of all community members. Through these methods, Christian institutions can encourage their students to see streets as conduits for community building, and how engineers can use their technical skills to promote cities that reflect the desired values of all people, both inside and outside of cars.
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Submission Number: 19
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