An historical perspective on the evolution of transport systems underlines the consequences of technical innovations and how improvements in transportation were interdependent with contemporary economic and social changes.

Transportation systems are composed of a complex set of relationships between the demand, the locations they service and the networks that support movements. Such conditions are closely related to the development of transportation networks, both in capacity and in spatial extent. This chapter consequently investigates the relationships between transportation and its related spatial structure.

From a methodological perspective, graph theory enables the mathematical abstraction of networks with a set of properties, measures and indices. Encoding transportation networks in information systems, notably GIS, requires network data models. Jointly, they are the foundation of network analysis, a methodology widely used to investigate transport geography problems. Examples about how transportation networks are being used by governments and transport companies are also provided.

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