Best transportation engineering books according to redditors
We found 28 Reddit comments discussing the best transportation engineering books. We ranked the 9 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 28 Reddit comments discussing the best transportation engineering books. We ranked the 9 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
There is a whole book on the subject how to finance roads privately. Walter Block - Privatization of Roads and Highways. You can download it for free from the mises institute. Here is a lecture you can watch.
Privatization of Roads and Highways If only just for the ability to answer people when they ask about those damn roads.
>ll the services and infrastructure that only exist because other people paid taxes for them in the past.
There we go, the standard "what about the roads?" bullshit. It does not follow that if something is done with tax money today, that it always was so, or that it always must be so. Here's how to take care of roads, for one example: http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-Highways-Walter-Block/dp/193355004X
People want roads, and if we all got to spend our earnings on the things we choose, I'm sure we'd have no shortage of roads or schools, and we wouldn't be spending money on goons to grope old ladies in airports.
Walter Block - Privatization of Roads and Highways
>Taxes are necessary to ensure unlimited free-use of certain properties. In a free-market, who paves the roads and who owns them?
There's lots of literature out there in regard to private road systems. Walter Block wrote a whole book about it a few years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-Highways-Walter-Block/dp/193355004X
I always think its funny that, when debating libertarians, the thing people first jump to defend and are most concerned about is road building. I think most libertarians would be perfectly content living in a society in which the government did nothing but build roads.
>A government which charges only as much as it needs to maintain a public structure is preferable to a company who can charge any amount and also randomly change policy, in regards to access.
If a private company charges an unfair price, you can choose a different company. The only recourse we have to a government entity that charges too much is jail.
And you think government entities don't "randomly change policy"?
>The only problem is reality. People are going to do shady things, especially when no one is there to tell them "no".
This is the exact reason why I oppose the state.
I'm Graphic Design student, I appreciate your efforts, but unfortunately I do not believe this is too great of a job.
One thing I would like to point out is that while other people are complaining that it is not realistically proportional, I do not feel like that is an issue at all. One of the most universally acclaimed rail transport maps is of course Harry Beck's London Underground Map, which is absolutely no where near proportionate.
I'd really recommend reading this book to learn a bit more about what he did and was his, and others peoples', mistakes were. One key thing is work with a universal diagonal angle throughout (along with horizontal and vertical of course). Maybe either 45, 30 or 60, but not all three, or anything else.
Here's a link.
> Well, where do you think roads and all the other infrastructure your rely on comes from?
If you have 30min please listen to what Walter Block has to say about roads: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XUA4h8ctNWM
If you prefer reading:
https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Review-Manual-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591264391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467983879&sr=8-1&keywords=fe+civil+review+manual
Buy the best condition used one you can find! I got mine for like $75 and it's brand new.
The popular books seem to be:
Lindeburg FE Review Manual: nice if you want short concise information about each subject and topic. I hear the practice problems book are a bit harder than the exam but good prep all the same.
PPI 600 Q and A: I've been using it and like it but having the solution directly under the question makes it cumbersome trying to not see the answer when you the flip the page. Still a decent book but there are some mistakes.
Anthem Publishing Exam Book: seems similar to the NCEES Practice Exam. I bought it cause it was recommended and I wanted a another practice exam.
Bottom line the FE Reference Handbook 9.4 from NCEES, knowing your calculator, and a couple practice question books should get you where you need to be.
So one of the huge things I did was before I even started practice problems I watched Marshall University lectures on most of the subjects. The lectures were from a FE review class and the teacher would step through practice problems and where the exact equations were. The most helpful ones were probably the math and probability ones where he would explain how you could pump out most of them using calculator functions in 30 seconds. Here's a link to the series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCV9OyAY5K-VOJjVCbvlDpvni2n3dG7jl
After watching all of these I then did the diagnostic exams for all sections from this book and did more practice problems if I felt I needed it.https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Review-Manual-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591264391
Something that also helped was I used a ABC format of studying. So section A was subjects I was confident I could answer a large majority correct. B were subjects I would probably nail like 60% of the time, and C's were kinda crap shoots.
Lindeburg book is very good. Also use the NCEES practice exam. Lucky you that geotech is a big portion of the exam. For extra help on cross over topics like math, stat, statics, dynamics, economic, mech of mats, materials, ethics you can use mech/other discipline books to get more review.
I'm an aero engineer and not a CivE, but I did take the general-discipline EIT exam after college and I can tell you that it's as easy as everyone says. If you've been working with a construction company and have an engineering mentor, you could probably study ~200 hours with a companion such as Lindeburg's FE Civil Review Manual and pass the exam. Obviously YMMV depending on how good you are with math and critical thinking skills, but the caliber of the FE/EIT exam is nowhere near the PE one.
As for a second Bachelors degree, it's never too late to get one and I highly encourage you to do it if that's what interests you and it's within your financial means to do so. When I was getting my B.S. in aerospace I went to school with dudes in their 30's and 40's (military vets) and they were able to succeed in getting their degree and compete with their younger peers in the job market. I'm a big advocate of community colleges because that's what I did before transferring to an engineering college.
Last but not least, our Frequently Asked Questions page has a lot of good information on Civil/Structural engineering so I would read some of the responses there to get a sense of what engineers do for work. Even though you've had some exposure to engineering, there's quite a bit of job variety and you should investigate what direction you want to head before doing it.
If you have any followup questions, the users here and in r/engineering are more than happy to answer them.
EIT Civil Engineer from Texas. Not a PE but here's my input.
This is a good text: https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Highway-Engineering-Enhanced-Nicholas/dp/1337631027/ref=dp_ob_title_bk. What I liked is a lost of stuff are concise and easy to find unlike the big HCM. But I will bring HCM to exam as well.
also this one: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Highway-Engineering-Traffic-Analysis/dp/111938558X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=JQVW431A1I98&keywords=principles+of+highway+engineering+and+traffic+analysis+6th+edition&qid=1566861831&s=books&sprefix=principles+of+high%2Cstripbooks%2C158&sr=1-2
I think this is the key right here. Roads are already paid for by major corporation through taxes on shipping. It is argued that were it not for government monopolization of roads that there would be 1) far fewer accidents. Today, "owners" of roads are not liable for problems related to the product. 2) something else. Why does it need to be roads per say? "Corporations" / businesses need goods transported reliably and safely. Walter Block believes thee is a good chance that had government not gotten involved the country would be covered in rail rather than roads.
But ultimately we can not KNOW how it would have evolved freely, we only know how it did evolve--violent coersion. It is always people that get things done when there are problems to be solved. Big things will always require many people cooperating to get them done. Government has simply appointed itself an authority in the approval to big projects. They have had so much influence and injected so much control over everything that "we" can't imagine doing anything without them.
Government doesn't create, it permits... once it has determined the cut of it they like.
To follow up, would you recommend getting that Anthem book over this book?
>Simple trade transactions can get fucked up when one party provides false information about what they're selling, or doesn't provide what they promised
This is fraud, and can occur under any economic structure. The question of how to effectively punish/discourage it, in order to protect property rights, is a separate issue. You're confusing economic and political systems.
>or the transaction has effects on unrelated parties (think toxic waste), or when competition is impossible or detrimental (think roads or sewers).
You're talking about externalities and, in the case of roads, an unnecessary monopoly. Again, we can discuss which political system disposes of these matters in the most fair/equitable/efficient way, but this has nothing to do with trade.
>Anyone who says they have a simple solution -- whether it be "REGULATE REGULATE REGULATE" or "FREEDOM LIBERTY RON PAUL 08" -- is full of shit.
Every government intervention in trade funnels resources to where they would not be directed voluntarily, which by definition makes individuals worse off. This is epistemologically irrefutable, unless you believe that the government or another 3rd party knows your subjective valuation preferences (and can act on them) better than you.
> Audiobooks shall save you!
But there is no audiobook version! Now what?
Hey, how did you end up liking the book? I'm thinking of getting it myself. Also did the book have practice problems, or did you find them elsewhere?
edit: What do you think of this book as well? It was suggested to me by a professor: http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Review-Manual-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591264391?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
The FE review manual (https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Review-Manual-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591264391/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483628512&sr=1-1&keywords=fe+civil+review+manual) has a decent basic review of RC design. Plus this is helpful if you plan on taking the FE at some point. I think reading through the RC sections will give you enough prep to better understand the more technical literature in the textbooks you have.
Hey thanks for responding... yeah. My coworker just took the water and he said the exact same thing... a lot of chemistry/ pollution questions. Unfortunately my office only has the green book so I'm in quite the predicament.
Did you consider the transportation depth reference manual at all? It claims to have all the reference books in one, but it sounds to good to be true/ risky.
Transportation Depth Reference Manual
Thanks.
Thanks, I'll check that out, hopefully I can find a copy. Here's what I've found so far:
http://www.amazon.com/Brunel-Love-Impossible-Andrew-Kelly/dp/0955074207
http://www.amazon.com/C-Y-OConnor-His-Life-Legacy/dp/187626862X
http://www.amazon.com/Hardy-Cross-American-Leanord-Eaton/dp/0252029895
http://www.amazon.com/Paperboy-Confessions-Engineer-Henry-Petroski/dp/0375718982
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Robert-Stephenson-Engineer-Michael-Bailey/dp/0754636798
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Master-Dam-Builder-Engineering/dp/0964337851
The last 3 seem to be a little more favoured and easier to get, I've also found this book
http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Light-Edison-Westinghouse-Electrify/dp/0375758844/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374725806&sr=1-1&keywords=tesla
which also seems like an interesting read although not directly related to civil engineering. Thanks again for the reply!