Transportation systems are crucial to the economic strength, quality of life, and environmental sustainability of cities, regions, and countries. In the Toronto region alone, the economic impact of traffic congestion in 2024 is estimated at over $10 billion.
Moving people and goods efficiently has become ever more challenging as cities grow, supply chains expand, and technologies like AI-powered “smart” traffic systems, self-driving trucks, and ride-hailing platforms change the landscape. At the same time, electric vehicles, e-bikes and scooters, and the expansion of public transit are changing how we get around.
EngSci’s Transportation Systems Engineering major is the first undergraduate program of its kind in North America to address the need for experts in this growing field.
The program offers a unique combination of specialized focus, technological emphasis, interdisciplinary integration, and alignment with U of T’s research strengths.
Much like the human body, urban transportation is a system of interconnected systems. Transportation engineers work within this technical complexity and its interaction with minute-by-minute human behaviour and decision-making. They tackle congestion, safety, and climate challenges, build data-driven models and decision tools, and apply statistics, machine learning, and policy insight to solve long-standing mobility problems.
In the EngSci major, students gain the required expertise across technical and non-technical domains to work in this inherently multidisciplinary and growing field. By integrating advanced engineering with critical topics like urban planning and sustainable mobility, graduates are prepared to lead in a field in which emerging technologies such as AI-powered transportation management and autonomous vehicles play a critical role.
The major’s curriculum is a unique combination of two pillars of transportation engineering:
- transportation planning and operations (informatics, traffic and road network modelling, and economics of transportation), and
- emerging technologies (vehicle automation, big data/machine learning, and sustainability).
The core curriculum focuses on data analytics, optimization and simulation methods, transport systems planning and operations, and economics and design, providing more in-depth studies than traditional civil engineering programs.
Technical electives let students explore transportation-related topics, such as robotics, sustainability, supply chain management, urban systems and economics, travel behaviour, and more.
Students apply their theoretical knowledge in two dedicated design courses supervised by industry leaders who guide them through from initial planning to final implementation. Students can work on complex transportation design projects like transit priority corridor, complete street and cycling network plans, traffic signal coordination schemes, multimodal hub layouts, automated vehicle integration, and more.
In the final year, students complete research thesis projects supervised by faculty members from across U of T Engineering and the Faculty of Arts & Science with connections to relevant stakeholders. Topics might include improving transit reliability, modelling travel demand for new transit investments, evaluating road safety countermeasures, or assessing the equity and climate impacts of emerging mobility options.
The major's courses are taught by professors from U of T’s Departments of Civil & Mineral Engineering. Instructors have strong collaborations with industry and government, helping to ground the program in academic rigor and industry relevance.
Students benefit from U of T’s exceptional transportation research strengths. Access to research centers like the U of T Transportation Research Institute, Mobility Network, Robotics Institute, and School of Cities, along with industry and government partnerships, enrich students' experiential learning and research opportunities.
FAQs
Did you know...?
Students can further their knowledge in student clubs
like Sustainable Engineers Association and the Institute of Transportation Engineers Student Chapter.
Sample Courses
Where this major can take you
Our graduates work in a wide range of industry and research.
Graduates of this EngSci major are prepared to step into a new world of technology- and information-driven transportation system planning, design and operations, and to undertake research at the graduate level.
Graduates have a unique combination of rigorous engineering science, data and computational skills, and specialized training in transportation systems and human travel behaviour and can pursue a variety of impactful roles, including infrastructure design engineers who create and manage transportation networks like roads and bridges, urban planners who develop smart and sustainable city transportation systems, and data analysts who optimize traffic flow and implement intelligent transportation technologies. They may also work as policy advisors or consultants or engage in environmental roles focused on reducing the ecological impact of transportation systems. Opportunities also exist in research and academia, where they contribute to innovations and advancements in the field.
Potential employers for graduates include car companies, management consultants, transportation and logistics companies, municipalities, public transportation organizations, and more.
For those wishing to pursue graduate school, they will be well-equipped for research areas such as travel demand and behavioural modelling, transportation data science and AI, traffic flow theory and control, public transit planning and operations, freight and logistics analytics, sustainable and equitable mobility policy, transport economics, and public policy and finance.
Chair of the Transportation Systems Engineering major
Professor Khandker Nurul Habib (CivMin)
Professor Habib is an internationally renowned expert on transportation modelling who develops mathematical, behavioural models of how people move from one location to another, and the many ways in which they change their behaviour in response to changes in infrastructure. His models are used by municipal planners when making evidence-based planning decisions.