The specialization in transportation planning provides students with the ability to conceive, consider, and to assess the implications of supply and demand side strategies to enhance local accessibility and regional mobility within the context of an urban system. At the heart of the student's understanding of transportation are the critical linkages with macro scale aspects of land use, urban form, and regional spatial structure and micro-scale aspects of urban design, site design, and non-motorized movement.

The transportation planning specialization is designed to address issues such as the consideration of:

• Equity, environmental, and economic trade-offs between alternative transportation investments
• Inter-governmental issues in reaching regional consensus over transportation investments
• Secondary implications of transportation investments on economic development and urban form
• Physical activity and health implications of alternative transportation investment futures
• The impact of auto dependence and the need for providing travel choices
• The role of transportation supply and demand side solutions
• Land use as a travel demand management strategy
• Benefits and burdens of alternative transportation and land development proposals for low income and minority populations.

Students who pursue the transportation planning concentration are highly competitive in the marketplace and find careers in local, regional, state, and federal agencies and within the private sector. Transportation planning tends to be amongst the highest paying areas within city and regional planning. Historically, the demand for transportation planners has been very high.