UNDERSTAND TRANSPORT GEOGRAPHY SYSTEM

Is a sub-discipline of geography concerned about the mobility of people, freight and information.

It seeks to understand the spatial organization of mobility by considering its attributes and constraints as they relate of the   origin, destination, extent, nature and purpose of movements.

Transport geography can be understood from a series of core principles:

-Transportation is the spatial linking of a 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 a central, where it generates and attract traffic, or an intermediate element where traffic transits through.

-To overcome geography, transportation must consume space.

-Transportation seeks massification but is constrained by atomization.

-Velocity is a modal, intermodal and managerial effort.

Transportability refers to the ease of movement of passengers, freight or information. it is related to transport costs as well as to the attributes of what is being transported (fragility, perishable, price).

-Political factors can also influence transportability such as laws, regulations, borders and tariffs. when transportability is high, activities are less constrained by distance.

-Transportation is not necessarily a science, but a field of application borrowing concepts and methods from a wide variety of disciplines.

-The specific purpose of transportation is to fulfill a demand for mobility, since transportation can only exists if it moves people, 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 between two locations - to what can be called logistical distance; a complete set of tasks required to be done so that distance can be overcome.

Any movement must thus consider its geographical setting which in turn 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.

The realization of each flow has to be negotiated with providers of transport services, such as booking a slot on a containership or an air travel seat. commonly, a flow is related to a monetary exchange between provider of transportation 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.

In the 19th century, the purpose of the emerging modern forms of transportation, mainly railways and maritime shipping, was to expand spatial coverage with the creation, expansion and consolidation national markets.

 In the 20th century, the objective shifted to selecting itineraries, prioritizing transport modes, increasing the capacity of existing networks and responding to the mobility needs and this at a scale which was increasingly global, with its own space of flows.

In the 21st century, transportation must cope with a globally oriented economic system in a timely and cost effective way, but also with several local problems such as congestion and capacity constraints.