Q: Why is the transportation engineer always invited to parties?
A: They know how to keep things flowing.
What is Transportation Systems Engineering?
Transportation Systems Engineering is EngSci’s newest major and is the first undergraduate program of its kind in North America. As cities continue to grow, ensuring the efficient movement of people and goods has become increasingly complex. Rising populations and greater demand for transportation require new solutions to improve mobility and reduce congestion. This major helps 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.
This major is a combination of two pillars of transportation engineering:
- Transportation planning and operations (informatics, traffic and road network modelling, and transportation economics)
- Emerging technologies (vehicle automation, big data/machine learning, and sustainability)
Students can expect to work on complex transportation design projects, such as transit priority corridors, complete streets and cycling networks, or automated vehicle systems, with guidance from industry leaders.
Why Choose This Major?
If you’re interested in:
- Using informatics and big data to solve complex, real-life problems millions of people’s lives
- Working with emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles
- Using travel and mobility modeling to inform infrastructure and transit development
- Integrating micromobility options (e-scooters, bikeshare, etc.) and autonomous trucks into transportation networks
- Using advanced technology to reduce gridlock and make urban transportation more sustainable
- Helping people and goods move efficiently
- Evaluating the economic impacts of transportation policies, projects, and investments
then this major may be a great fit for you.
Where Can This Major Where Can This Major Take You?
Graduates of the Transportation Systems Engineering major have the skills needed to enter technology- and information-driven roles in transportation system planning, designing, and operation fields. They’re also well-equipped to go into research at the graduate level. This major will give you data and computational skills and specialized training in transportation systems and human travel behaviour. These skills can help graduates pursue impactful roles including:
- Infrastructure Design Engineers: Engineers who create and manage transportation networks like roads and bridges
- Urban Planners: Help develop smart and sustainable city transportation systems
- Data Analysts: Optimize traffic flow and implement intelligent transportation technologies
They can also work as policy advisors, consultants, or in environmental roles that help reduce the ecological impact of transportation systems.
There are also many opportunities in research and academia where students can contribute to innovations and advancements in the field.
Graduates from this major will be well-equipped for research areas such as travel demand and behavioural modeling, 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 economic and public policy, and finance.
Potential employers for graduates include:
- Car companies
- Management consultants
- Transportation and logistics companies
- Municipalities
- Public transportation organizations
- And more
Chair of the Transportation Systems Engineering Major
Professor Khandker Nurul Habib
Professor Nurul Habib teaches in the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering. He completed his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and M.Sc. in Civil & Transportation Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology before receiving his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto. In 2025, he was recognized as one of Elsevier’s World’s Top 2% Scientists. His current research interests include travel demand modelling and transportation planning.
Courses in Year 1 and Year 2 That Relate to Transportation Systems Engineering
Summer student tip:
When autumn starts, it might be easy to forget why some things are necessary and to feel unmotivated. Reminding yourself how each of the new skills you learn will help you in your future career can be a great way to stay focused.
Year 1
Praxis I and II build a great foundation for solving problems in teams. In past years, students in both courses have had a say in choosing the opportunity they work on. For example, in Praxis II, teams choose a community they are most interested in, which could include a transportation-related community. A few years ago in Praxis I, students explored the “Splartz” (the Praxis term for an opportunity) of improving head support for passengers sleeping on Toronto subway seats.
These courses provide a strong programming and computational foundation that can be applied to almost every area of transportation engineering. These skills are useful for traffic simulation and modelling, working with large datasets, optimizing transit routes and schedules, and data analysis and visualization. You will also build similar computational skills in ESC103: Engineering Mathematics and Computation, where you’ll work on mathematical programming.
And of course, the skills you develop in your math courses (ESC194, ESC195, ESC103, MAT185) will serve as a strong foundation for everything you do.
Year 2
Engineering and Society helps students incorporate the social, ethical, and human impacts of transportation design and policy into their work. This course reinforces how engineers must consider more than just technical performance when designing transportation-related solutions, as transportation systems directly impact accessibility, sustainability, equity, and safety. This course helps students develop the communication and ethical reasoning skills needed to evaluate how technologies like intelligent transportation systems and autonomous vehicles may impact different communities.
The probability and statistics courses provide the foundation for many Transportation Systems Engineering courses, particularly those focused on data analytics, safety analysis, and intelligent transportation systems. Concepts from MIE286 prepare students to analyze transportation datasets, make models and predictions, and evaluate system performance. Statistical methods are directly applied in courses like CIV335H1: Transportation Safety Analytics and Design and CIV334H1: Transportation Data Analytics – Advanced Statistics and Machine Learning.
Praxis III prepares students for the two collaborative design project courses by developing the teamwork, communication, and systems design skills needed to tackle the engineering problems presented in these courses. The process of identifying an opportunity, developing a complex design solution, and communicating and justifying design decisions mirrors how students will create effective and innovative solutions to complex, multifaceted transportation design problems.
Interesting Courses in This Major
The core courses focus on data analytics, optimization and simulation methods, transport system planning and operations, and economics and design. Technical electives let students explore other topics relating to transportation like robotics, sustainability, supply chain management, urban systems, and travel behaviour. We encourage you to see what courses and elective options most interest you. Please note that the major and individual course listings will not appear in the academic calendar until July, so you may not be able to find them there yet.
CIV334H1: Transportation Data Analytics – Advanced Statistics and Machine Learning
This course provides an in-depth exploration of transportation data analytics, focusing on advanced statistical techniques, artificial intelligence, and machine learning methods. It combines theoretical foundations with real-world case studies, allowing students to develop the skills needed to analyze and derive insights from complex transportation datasets.
CIV335H1: Transportation Safety Analytics and Design
This course explores transportation safety analytics with a focus on fundamental principles, geometric design considerations, crash prediction, and safety performance measurement. Students examine driving behaviour, the integration of autonomous transportation systems, and human-machine interaction as critical factors in enhancing transportation safety.
CIV336H1: Fundamentals of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Traffic Management
This course focuses on techniques for optimizing the performance of transportation systems, with an emphasis on traffic networks in congested urban areas. It introduces the fundamentals of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) engineering while covering topics such as the history of ITS, ITS system architecture, transportation control theory, static and dynamic transportation network analysis, and the application of artificial intelligence in ITS.
CIV470H1: Collaborative Design Project II
In this capstone design course, students work in teams to apply their technical knowledge and communication skills to design a solution for a transportation operations problem. Students learn to prepare a professional operational design proposal and formulate a mathematical representation of the operational design problem.
Where To Get Some Experience Before Deciding?
University of Toronto Rocket Riders – The Student Transit Forum
The University of Toronto Rocket Riders is a student club for anyone interested in public transit, transportation systems, and urban mobility in Toronto. Inspired by the TTC slogan “Ride the Rocket”, the club brings together students through transit-oriented events, discussions about transit in the university community, and advocacy initiatives about improving transportation in the city. Rocket Riders offers a fun way to explore real-world transit challenges and connect with students who are passionate about urban transportation and infrastructure. Visit the club page to learn more and follow their Instagram page.
Sustainable Engineers Association
The Sustainability Engineering Association (SEA) connects students with opportunities to learn about and contribute to sustainable solutions through workshops, industry tours, mentorship programs, competitions, and networking events. SEA explores topics such as sustainable infrastructure, transportation, energy systems, and policy while helping students build connections with industry professionals. Participation in SEA can help students develop a deeper understanding of sustainable mobility, transportation planning, and the environmental challenges shaping the future of transportation systems.
UTMIST
UTMIST is a student-run organization focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-driven problem-solving. Through technical workshops, projects, and collaborative teams, the club gives students hands-on experience working with modern AI tools and analytical methods.
You can also do transportation engineering related research. If that interests you check-out Mobility Network at the University of Toronto and University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute.
Visit the Skule Clubs and Design Teams pages to find more extracurriculars.
Check out the EngSci majors website here for more info: