What is Transport Geography?

Author: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue

1. The Purpose of Transportation

"The ideal transport mode would be instantaneous, free, have an unlimited capacity and always be available. It would render space obsolete. This is obviously not the case. Space is a constraint for the construction of transport networks. Transportation appears to be an economic activity different from the others. It trades space with time and thus money" (translated from Merlin, 1992).

As the above quotation underlines, 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. However, these constraints and the friction they create can only be partially circumscribed. The extent to which this is done has a cost that varies greatly according to factors such as the distance involved and the nature of what is being transported. 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, people or information, from an origin to a destination, conferring them an added value in the process. The convenience at which this can be done - transportability - varies considerably.

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.

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. 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. Urbanization, multinational corporations, the globalization of trade and the international division of labor are all forces shaping and taking advantage of transportation at different, but often related, scales. Globalization invovles its own space of flows.

Consequently, the fundamental purpose of transport is geographic in nature, because it facilitates movements between different locations. Transport thus 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 coverage, and create and consolidate 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. 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.

2. The Importance of Transportation

Transport represents one of the most important human activities worldwide. It is an indispensable component of the economy and plays a major role in spatial relations between locations. Transport creates valuable links between regions and economic activities, between people and the rest of the world. Transport is a multidimensional activity whose importance is:

Historical. Transport modes have played several different historical roles in the rise of civilizations (Egypt, Rome and China), in the development of societies (creation of social structures) and also in national defense (Roman Empire, American road network).
Social. Transport modes facilitate access to healthcare, welfare, and cultural or artistic events, thus performing a social service. They shape social interactions by favoring or inhibiting the mobility of people. Transportation thus support and may even shape social structures.
Political. Governments play a critical role in transport as sources of investment and as regulators. The political role of transportation is undeniable as governments often subsidize the mobility of their populations (highways, public transit, etc.). While most transport demand relates to economic imperatives, many communication corridors 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 it is also a political tool.
Economic. The evolution of transport has always been linked to economic development. It is an industry in its own right (car manufacturing, air transport companies, etc.). 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 geographic specialization of regions. Transport is both a factor shaping economic activities, and is also shaped by them.
Environmental. Despite the manifest advantages of transport, its environmental consequences are also significant. They include air and water quality, noise level and public health. All decisions relating to transport need to be evaluated taking into account the corresponding environmental costs. Transport is a dominant factor in contemporary environmental issues.

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. The last 50 years have seen a considerable growth of the transport demand related to individual (passengers) as well as freight mobility. This growth is jointly the result of larger quantities of passengers and freight being moved, but also the longer distances over which they are carried. Recent trends underline an ongoing process of 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 the last decades. This has made it possible to overcome larger distances and further exploit the comparative advantages of space. 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 adding capacity to existing networks. Transportation infrastructures are thus a major component of the land use, notably in developed countries.

Facing these contemporary trends, an important part of the spatial differentiation of the economy is related to where resources (raw materials, capital, people, information etc.) are located and how well they can be distributed. Transport routes are established to distribute resources between places where they are abundant and places where they are scarce, but only if the costs are lower than the benefits.

Consequently, transportation has an important role to play in the conditions that affect global, national and regional economic entities. It is a strategic infrastructure that is so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that it is often invisible to the consumer, but always part of all economic and social functions. This is paradoxical, since the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. If transport is disrupted or ceases to operate, the consequences can be dramatic.

3. Transportation in Geography

Transportation interests geographers for two main reasons. First, transport infrastructures, terminals, equipment and networks occupy an important place in space and constitute the basis of a complex spatial system. Second, since geography seeks to explain spatial relationships, transport networks are of specific interest because they are the main support of these interactions.

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. Traditionally, transportation has been an important factor behind the economic representations of the geographic space, namely in terms of the location of economic activities and the monetary costs of distance. The growing mobility of passengers and freight justified the emergence of transport geography as a specialized field of investigation. In the 1960s, transport costs were recognized as key factors in location theories and transport geography began to rely increasingly on quantitative methods, particularly over network and spatial interactions analysis. However, from the 1970s globalization challenged the centrality of transportation in many geographical and regional development investigations. As a result, transportation became under represented in economic geography in the 1970s and 1980s, even if mobility of people and freight and low transport costs were considered as important factors behind the globalization of trade and production.

Since the 1990s, transport geography has received renewed attention, especially because the issues of mobility, production and distribution are interrelated in a complex geographical setting. It is now recognized that transportation is a system that considers the complex relationships between its core elements. These core elements are networks, nodes and demand. Transport geography must be systematic as one element of the transport system is linked with numerous others. An approach to transportation thus involves several fields where some are at the core of transport geography while others are more peripheral. However, three central concepts to transport systems can be identified:

Transportation nodes. Transportation primarily links locations, often characterized as nodes. They serve as access points to a distribution system or as transshipment / intermediary locations within a transport network. This function is mainly serviced by transport terminals where flows originate, end or are being transshipped from one mode to the other. Transport geography must consider its places of convergence and transshipment.
Transportation networks. Considers the spatial structure and organization of transport infrastructures and terminals. Transport geography must include in its investigation the infrastructures supporting and shaping movements.
Transportation demand. Considers the demand for transport services as well as the modes used to support movements. Once this demand is realized, it becomes an interaction which flows through a transport network. Transport geography must evaluate the factors affecting its derived demand function.

The analysis of these concepts relies on methodologies often developed by other disciplines such as economics, mathematics, planning and demography. Each provides a different dimension to transport geography. For instance, the spatial structure of transportation networks can be analyzed with graph theory, which was initially developed for mathematics. Further, many models developed for the analysis of movements, such as the gravity model, were borrowed from physical sciences. Multidisciplinarity is consequently an important attribute of transport geography, as in geography in general.

The role of transport geography is to understand the spatial relations that are produced by transport systems. This gives rise to several fallacies about transportation. A better understanding of spatial relations is essential to assist private and public actors involved in transportation mitigate transport problems, such as capacity, transfer, reliability and integration of transport systems. There are three basic geographical considerations relevant to transport geography:

Location. As all activities are located somewhere, each location has its own characteristics conferring a potential supply and/or a demand for resources, products, services or labor. A location will determine the nature, the origin, the destination, the distance and even the possibility of a movement to be realized. For instance, a city provides employment in various sectors of activity in addition to consume resources.
Complementarity. Locations must require exchanging goods, people or information. This implies that some locations have a surplus while others have a deficit. The only way an equilibrium can reached is by movements between locations having surpluses and locations having demands. For instance, a complementarity is created between a store (surplus of goods) and its customers (demand of goods).
Scale. Movements generated by complementarity are occurring at different scales, pending the nature of the activity. Scale illustrates how transportation systems are established over local, regional and global geographies. For instance, home-to-work journeys generally have a local or regional scale, while the distribution network of a multinational corporation is most likely to cover several regions of the world.

Consequently, transport systems, by their nature, consume land and support the relationships between locations.