Specialization: Transportation and Land Use

Core faculty: Professors Gulsah Akar and Catherine Ross (emeritus).  Faculty in Civil and Environmental Engineering include: Professors Randall Guensler, Pat Mokhtarian, and Adjo Amekudzi.  

The goal of the transportation and land use specialization is to enable students to design land use and transportation systems that complement one another and support fundamental city and regional planning goals such as sustainability, equity, and resilience.  Planning the transportation system involves issues including

  • equity, environmental, and economic trade-offs between alternative transportation investments;
  • inter-governmental issues in reaching regional consensus over transportation investments; secondary implications of transportation investments on economic development and urban form; 
  • physical activity and health implications of alternative transportation investment futures; 
  • impact of auto dependence and the need for providing travel choices; 
  • role of transportation supply and demand side solutions; 
  • land use as a travel demand management strategy; and 
  • benefits and burdens of alternative transportation and land development proposals for low income and minority populations. 

Planning for the transportation and land use system has emerged as one of the key factors for furthering sustainability, equity, and resilience. These decisions have direct and significant impacts on water quality, air quality, biodiversity,  energy consumption, and nearly every other aspect of sustainability. The interactions between transportation investment, land use and other planning considerations including urban design, environmental quality, and economic development, are central to planning.  This specialization has been historically supported through faculty resources in the School of City and Regional Planning combined with those in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.   

The specialization requires two courses: 

CP 6112  Introduction to Land Use 
CP 6332/8883  Transportation Planning Methods and Investment Decisions 

In addition, students must take two courses (12 credit hours total) from the following list: 

CEE/CP 6701 Urban Transportation Planning 
CEE/CP 6702 Urban Transportation Planning Laboratory 
CP 6331 Land Use and Transportation Interaction 
CP 6341 Urban Design and Non-Motorized Accessibility 
CP 6351 Transportation and Economic Development 
CP 6361 Regional Transportation Planning and Administration 
CP 6542 Transport & GIS 
CEE 6601 Statistics in Transport Travel 
CEE 6622 Demand Analysis 
CEE 6625 Transportation, Energy, and Air Quality 
CEE 6632 Simulation in Transportation 
CEE 6642 Transit Systems Planning 
CP 6105 Land Conservation 
CP 6190 Introduction to Climate Change Planning 
CP 6213 Urban Environmental Planning & Design 
CP 6233 Sustainable Urban Development 
 

Transportation and land use courses available at Georgia State include:  

PAUS 8611 Transportation Management 
PAUS 8621 Transportation and Land Use 
Econ 8300 Economics Urban Economics  
Law 7320 Land Use Law  
PAUS 8031 Urban Political Economy 
PAUS 8351 Local Governance/Local Government  
Geog 6768 Metropolitan Atlanta 

There is also a dual degree program with Civil and Environmental Engineering in the area of transportation.