Professional course Transport Modelling and Scenario Planning

This course can count towards the MSc Transport Engineering and Planning

National and local governments need to make decisions about how to efficiently invest public money in transport interventions to address policy goals. This module introduces you to transport modelling and scenario planning as two contrasting approaches to supporting decision making in the transport sector.  

Transport models involve understanding, quantifying and predicting people's travel choices (e.g. whether, where, when and how to travel) and assessing the outcomes of these choices for transport networks and for society in general. The purpose of models is to estimate the likely impacts of an intervention more quickly and at a lower cost and risk than is possible through scheme implementation and monitoring. A transport model, for example, might be used to assess the impacts of a road widening scheme or the introduction of a city-wide light rail system.

It has become clear in recent years that predictions from transport models can diverge greatly from outcomes. Emphasis is now being placed on recognising uncertainty in forecasting and employing other methods, alongside modelling, which explicitly recognise uncertainty like scenario planning.

Entry requirements

There are no formal entry requirements if you wish to undertake this course as a stand-alone CPD course without the optional course assessment.

If you wish to complete the course assessment you are expected to have a first degree at 2.2 level or above (or equivalent) or alternatively have industrial experience.

We strongly recommend that you speak to the course tutor prior to the course if you are unsure about your suitability to complete the assessment.

If you are a non-UK student you will need to show your passport on entry to the UK. Please check your eligibility to visit and study in the UK here. If you are a non-Irish EU national currently resident in Ireland please contact us directly for further advice.

If English is not your country's first language, you will be required to provide evidence to show you meet the UK Border Agency and the University's minimum English Language requirements. Further details are available on our English Language Requirements webpage

Careers / Further study

This module can be taken as a stand-alone CPD course, or used to build up credits towards the following named postgraduate qualification by completing the module assessment:

- PG Diploma or Masters in Transport Engineering and Planning