TRANSPORTATION
WHAT IS TRANSPORTATION?
If you've ever been stuck in traffic or at the airport, you understand intuitively how important the study of transportation is to our society. If you choose to study transportation (many schools call it "transportation and logistics"), you will learn about the complexities involved in modern transportation systems, including highways, airways, railroads and waterways, transportation costs, and emerging and existing modes of transportation, as well as global transportation issues.
WHAT COURSES DO YOU NEED TO TAKE?
In addition to your liberal studies core curriculum classes and a smattering of general business classes, you will focus your education on gaining an understanding of how transportation systems work, and how to solve transportation and logistical problems, as well as the economics of moving people and materials from place to place. Some areas you might study include automobile transport, trucking, airline transportation, busing, trains, pipelines, and shipping. Some programs focus intensely on providing a given skill such as flight training or air traffic control, while others are more business oriented. Here are some classes you might be required to take:
- International Transportation
- Inventory Management
- Logistics
- Management
- Public Policy
- Technology
- Transportation and Public Policy Transportation Carrier Management
- Transportation Economics
- Transportation Marketing
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A DEGREE IN TRANSPORTATION?
Transportation companies have become increasingly complex and face enormous challenges ranging from issues of security to economic pressures. Transportation-dependent entities, too, are confronting similar issues as technology changes, fuel prices rise and fall, and consumers insist on higher and higher levels of service. As a result, opportunities abound for those of you interested in transportation issues. Students who major in transportation become logisticians, supply chain designers, managers for large carriers, traffic engineers, air traffic controllers, and pilots, among others.