Transport Geography

Meaning, Scope and Importance

Dr. Sabiha Khan

• Transport geography is a sub-discipline of
geography concerned about movements of
freight, people and information.
• It seeks to link spatial constraints and
attributes with the origin, the destination, the
extent, the nature and the purpose of
movements.
• Transport geography, as a discipline, emerged
from economic geography in the second half
of the twentieth century.
Defination:
• It investigates the movement and connections between
people, goods, ideas and information on the Earth’s
surface.
• Transportation is a measure of the relations between
areas and is therefore, an essential aspect of
geography” (Ullman, 1954).
• This term is an apt reminder that "communication", the
movement of ideas and "transportation", the movement
of goods and people, are not rigidly separated, but
rather grade into each other (Eliot Hurst, 1972).
• According to "New Standard Encyclopedia (1990),
Transportation means "all means of travel and of
moving persons and goods from place to place".
Purpose of Transport Geography
The unique purpose of transportation is to
overcome space, which is shaped by a variety of
human and physical constraints such as
distance, time, administrative divisions and
topography.
Jointly, they confer a friction to any movement,
commonly known as the friction of distance (or
friction of space
In an ideal world, transportation would come at no
effort in terms of cost and time and would have
unlimited capacity and spatial reach.
Under such circumstances, geography would not
matter.
In the real world, however, geography can be a
significant constraint to transport since it trades
space for time and money and can only be partially
circumscribed.
The extent to which this is done has a cost that
varies greatly according to factors such as the
length of the trip, the capacity of modes and
infrastructures and the nature of what is being
transported.
 Transport geography can be understood
from a series of core principles:
• Transportation is the spatial linking of derived demand.
• Distance is a relative concept involving space, time, and
effort.
• Space is at the same time the generator, support, and a
constraint for mobility.
• The relation between space and time can converge or
diverge.
• A location can be central, where it generates and attract
traffic, or an intermediate element where traffic transits
through.
• To overcome geography, transportation must consume space.
• These principles underline that there would
be no transportation without geography, and
there would be no geography without
transportation.
• The goal of transportation is thus to transform
the geographical attributes of freight,
passengers, or information, from an origin to a
destination, conferring them an added
value in the process.
• There are substantial operational differences
between transportation modes, particularly
between passengers and freight, which often
operated separately.
• The specific purpose of transportation is to fulfill
a demand for mobility since transportation can
only exist if it moves passengers, freight, and
information around. Otherwise, it has no
purpose.
• This is because transportation is dominantly the
outcome of a derived demand; it takes place
because other activities are taking place.
• Distance, a core attribute of transportation, can
be represented in a variety of ways, ranging from
a simple Euclidean distance – a straight line
distance between two locations – to what can be
called logistical distance.
Any movement is linked to spatial flows and their patterns. The
concept of flow has four major components:
• Geographical. Each flow has an origin and a destination and
consequently, a degree of separation. Flows with high degrees of
separation tend to be more limited than flows with low degrees
of separation.
• Physical. Each flow involves specific physical characteristics in
terms of possible load units and the conditions in which they can
be carried. Flows, depending on the transportation mode, can
be atomized (smallest load unit) or massified (moving load units
in batches).
• Transactional.: Commonly, a flow is related to a monetary
exchange between a provider of transportation services and the
user.
• Distribution. Flows are organized in sequences where the more
complex are involving different modes and terminals. Many
transport flows are scheduled and routed to minimize costs or
maximize efficiency, often through intermediary locations.
• Urbanization, multinational corporations,
economic globalization are all forces shaping and
taking advantage of transportation at different
but often related scales.
• Consequently, the fundamental purpose of
transport is geographic in nature, because it
facilitates movements between different
locations.
• Transport plays a role in the structure and
organization of space and territories, which may
vary according to the level of development.
 Transport is a multidimensional
activity whose importance is:
• Historical.
– Transport modes have played different historical roles in the rise
of civilizations (Egypt, Rome and China), their trading networks,
in the development of societies, and in national defense.
– As such, transportation offers a valuable perspective to
understand historical processes at any scale; from a local to a
nation.
• Social.
– Transport modes facilitate access to healthcare, welfare, and
cultural events, thus performing a social service.
– They shape social interactions by favoring or inhibiting the
mobility of people.
– Higher mobility implies the potential for extended social
interactions.
• Political.
– Governments play a critical role in transport as sources of transport
investments and as regulators of transport operations.
– The political role of transportation is undeniable as governments often
subsidize the mobility of their populations, such as providing highways
and public transit.
– Many transport infrastructures have been constructed for political
reasons such as national accessibility or job creation. Transport thus
has an impact on nation-building and national unity but is also a tool
shaping policy.

• Economic.
– The evolution of transport has been linked to economic development.
– The transport sector is also an economic factor in the production of
goods and services. It contributes to the value-added of economic
activities, facilitates economies of scale, influences land (real estate)
value, and the specialization of regions.
– Transport is both a factor shaping economic activities and is also
shaped by them.
• Environmental.
– Despite the apparent advantages of transport, its
environmental impacts are also significant. They
include negative impacts on air and water quality,
noise level, and public health.
– All decisions relating to transport need to be
evaluated considering the corresponding
environmental costs and how they can be
mitigated.
– Transportation is, therefore, a dominant factor in
contemporary environmental issues, including
sustainability and climate change.
The Importance of Transportation
• Transport represents one of the most important human
activities worldwide as it allows us to mitigate the constraint
of geography.
• It is an indispensable component of the economy and plays a
major role in supporting spatial relations between locations.
• Transport creates links between regions and economic
activities.
• It is composed of core components, which are
the modes, infrastructures, networks, and flows. These
components are fundamental for transportation to take place,
but they also underline that geography, in spite of significant
technological, social, and economic changes, remains a salient
force shaping transportation.
There are twelve key concepts related to transport
geography among which are at its core:
• transportation networks
• transportation nodes and
• transportation demand
They are closely linked to economic, political,
regional, historical and population geography,
among others.
• Demand for the movement of people, freight
and information is a derived function of a
variety of socio-economic activities.
• Nodes are the locations where movements
are originating, ending and being transferred.
The concept of nodes varies according to the
geographical scale being considered, ranging
from local to global (poles of the global
economy ).
• Networks are composed of a set of linkages
derived from transport infrastructures.
The three core relationships and the impedance (friction) they
are subject to are:
• Locations. The level of spatial accumulation of socio-
economic activities jointly defines demand and where this
demand is taking place. Impedance is mostly a function of the
accessibility of nodes to the demand they service.
• Flows. The amount of traffic over the network, which is
jointly a function of the demand and the capacity of the
linkages to support them. Flows are mainly subject to the
friction of space with distance being the most significant
impedance factor.
• Terminals. The facilities enabling access to the network as
terminals are jointly characterized by their nodality and the
linkages that are radiated from them. The capacity of
transport terminals to handle flows is the main impedance
factor.
Substantial empirical evidence indicates that the importance of transportation is growing. The
following contemporary trends can be identified regarding this issue:
• Growth of the demand.
– Considerable growth of the transport demand related to individual (passengers) as well
as freight mobility.
– the longer distances are carried.
– Mobility growth, which has led to the multiplication of the number of journeys
involving a wide variety of modes that service transport demands.
• Reduction of costs.
– Even if several transportation modes are very expensive to own and operate (ships and
planes for instance), costs per unit transported have dropped significantly over recent
decades.
– Overcome larger distances
– As a result, despite the lower costs, the share of transport activities in the economy has
remained relatively constant in time.
• Expansion of infrastructures.
– The above two trends have obviously extended the requirements for transport
infrastructures both quantitatively and qualitatively. Roads, harbors, airports,
telecommunication facilities and pipelines have expanded considerably to service new
areas and add capacity to existing networks.
– Transportation infrastructures are thus a major component of land use, notably in
developed countries.
 Access is not accessibility
• Many transport systems have universal access; no specific
user can have a competitive advantage over others since
access is the same for anyone.
• For instance, a public highway system can in theory be
accessed by anyone, for example by a major trucking
company having a large fleet, its competitors, or by an
individual driving an automobile.
• Thus, access is uniform wherever one is located in regard to
the transport system as long as there is a possibility to
enter or to exit.
• On the other hand, accessibility varies according to one’s
location within the transport system.
• Access is thus uniform while accessibility is not; the latter is
a relative concept.
Location b appears to be more accessible than the other two
due to its central location in relation to the network.
 Distance is not time
Distance often tends to be interchanged with
time when measuring the performance of
transport systems, which is a conceptual error.
While distance remains constant, time can vary
due to improvements in transport technology or
because of congestion .
Distance is thus a uniform attribute of the
geography, while time is relative.
 THANK YOU

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