Hours from Upland City Yard
11/8/11- 1:45pm-5:30pm
1/19/11- 1:30pm-5:30pm
1/24/11- 1:30pm-5:30pm
1/26/11- 1:30pm-5:30pm
2/18/11- 2:30pm-4:30pm
2//21/11-2:30pm-4:30pm
4/27/11- 2:30pm-5:30pm
Hours from Los Angeles Department of Transportation
4/14/11- 10:30am-4:30pm
4/20/11- 10:00am-5:00pm
2. Evidence.
Pictures of my log.
Log from LADOT
Log from Upland City Yard
Total Hours: 35.75 hours
3. LIA
Literal: I April King, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work. Majority of my 30 hours was spent in Upland City Yard. Here I was able to learn the difference between traffic engineering in a big city and engineering in a small city. I noticed that my internship in Upland was totally different from my internship with LA. As stated before, my internship in LA was with a department called ATSAC where they monitor traffic in a dark room, four feet underground, from many TVs. People file traffic complaints with the city. In LA, the engineers never handle the complaints because for the most part, the complaints will go straight to the district and they handle complaints. However, with Upland the complaints go straight to the engineers and they themselves have to respond to the countless emails. While completing my independent task, the engineers became very trustworthy of me and let me answer the complaint emails. Here is an example of one I did:
Hello Michael May,
This is a response to the following complaint made about the SB #1 lane being backed up several hundred feet. Thank you for taking the time to notify the district about your personal inquiry. It has been reviewed for the past three weeks during the peak p.m hours in attempt to review the problem and see if it can be fixed. During the obeservation period, we noticed that there was not a consistant spill back problem that was caused by the S/B LT; it only occured with in two cycles. This is not a significant problem that would justify any timing modification.
Along with answering complaint emails, I was able to follow an engineer as he went out into the field to different construction sites that were happening on the street. I was able to see how important it is for a contractor to coordinate with an engineer and how engineers set up detour routes for the cars to go around the construction site. This was exciting to me because in LA, I wasn't allowed to accompany the engineers as they went out into the field because of huge liabilities. This is another perk for interning with a small city. I was also able to help scan and fold project plans and file them away. Last, the final thing that I did as my independent task was learn some basic techniques of AutoCAD. I'm just starting to learn how to use this program, but as time goes on I hope to have a full knowledge of the program, enabling me to have a head start on the things I'll be doing in college.
Interpretive: My signed log is a nice proof that my project was truly worth 30 hours. With this second independent task, I am fully able to go deeper in my knowledge of the field of engineering. Each day I made it a point to learn something new. Each new thing takes a lot of time to grasp. I also feel that my independent task will keep going, especially as I learn more about AutoCAD. I also bombarded the engineers with multiple questions and they enjoyed being with me as I sought to complete this independent task. It was a lot of hard work, but I'm confident that it will truly benefit me in the long run. With all the things I've learned it's impossible for the time to be less than 30 hours of work.
Applied: EQ: What is most important to becoming a successful traffic engineer? To be a successful traffic engineer, it is important that you understand big and small city engineering. With this independent task, I was able to explore and see the differences between the Upland style of engineering and LA style of engineering. Also part of being a traffic engineer is you have to constantly listen to driver complaints and learn how to listen to them and investigate to see if the perceived problem can be fixed. For example, while with Upland, there was a complaint about a light on Campus, where the shopping center is. I was able to ride with the engineer and got to investigate the perceived problem. With him we saw that the timing of the light was off causing traffic to spill far back into the parking lot. We then filled out a work order for it to be fixed the following day. I was able to apply this scenario to answer my EQ and say that part of becoming a successful traffic engineer is being able to listen to driver complaints. Last, the greatest benefit of this independent task was being able to gain some knowledge of AutoCAD. Knowledge of this software is essential to becoming an engineer because you will always have to use it. This is something that I will be able to learn more of in college, but it was nice to get some experience.
Grade: P
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