Development and Formation of Transport Geography - Admission/Application Essay Example

Transport Geography The important purpose of transportation is overcoming space that is shaped by various physical and human constraints like time, topography, distance and administrative divisions. These constraints discuss a friction to one movement, mostly referred to the friction of space. However, the friction and constraint created can be moderately circumscribed (Rodrigue, Claude and Brian, 2004). The extent to which these things are done have a cost varying greatly according to different factors like mode capacity, infrastructure, distance involved and the nature of the commodities being transported. The objective of transportation is to change the freight geographical attributes, individuals or information, for a point of origin to an endpoint, conferring them an increased value in the whole process. The convenience of transportability can change considerably. Transportability is related to the costs of transport and the attributes of the commodities being transported. Transportability may be influenced by political factors such as tariffs, regulations, laws and borders. Distance constraints activities when transportability is high. The main objective of transportation is to fulfill demand mobility, because transportation can only be in place if it moves individuals, information and freight worldwide. If this is not done, transportation has no purpose (Hesse and Jean-Paul, 172). Distance, an essential characteristic of transportation can be represented in different ways that range from a simple Euclidean distance, a straight line found between two locations, to a logistical distance, a complete set of tasks needed to be completed so that distance can be completed. Specific movements done need to reflect its geographical setting, which is connected to their patterns and spatial flows (Rodrigue, Claude and Brian, 2004). The flow concept has four major components. Physical; whereby every flow involves particular physical attributes in terms of the conditions and likely load units whereby they can be carried. Flows, varying on the mode of transportation, can be massified or atomized. Geographical; whereby every flow has its own origin and endpoint. Therefore, there is a separation degree. Distribution; every flow is organized in series where the complex flows involve different terminals and modes. A lot of transport flows are routed and scheduled to increase efficiency and reduce costs, mainly by using intermediary locations. Trade globalization, multinational corporations and urbanization are all factors that shape and take advantage of transportation at more related scales. As a result, the ultimate purpose of transport is geographic in nature. This is because it enables movement between various locations (Hesse and Jean-Paul, 176). On the other hand, transport plays a big role in the organization and structure of territories and space that may differ according to the development level. During the 19th century, the aim of introducing modern transportation forms such as maritime and railway was to increase coverage with the development of consolidation national markets. During the 20th century, the purpose changed to prioritizing modes of transport, selecting itineraries, replying to the mobility needs and increasing the capability of the present networks. During the 21st century, transportation needed to cope with an international oriented economic system in a cost effective and timely way, but also with different local problems like capacity constraints and congestion. Transport is seen to be an important human activity across the world. It is an essential constituent of the economy and plays a big role in spatial relations in locations (Graham, 87). In addition, it creates important links between economic activities and regions, between individuals and the rest of the world. Transport systems are seen to have a relation with socio-economic changes. The mobility of freight and people and different territorial accessibility levels are at the essential of this relationship. These economic opportunities are expected to be seen when infrastructures in transportation have the capability of answering mobility needs and cover access to resources and markets (Graham, 90). Moreover, even if there are positive impacts of transportation on socio-economic systems, negative impacts like accidents, mobility gaps and congestion are also seen. On the other hand, urbanization has been among the dominant contemporary processes as an increasing share of the population living in cities. The issues of urban transportation are of primary importance in supporting the freight and passengers mobility necessities of large urban masses. In urban areas, transportation is very difficult due to the different modes involved, the amount of traffic and various destinations and origins (Rodrigue, Claude and Brian, 2004). Urban transportation focuses mainly on passengers as towns were seen to be locations of extreme human interactions with difficult traffic patterns connected to cultural activities, leisure activities, commuting and commercial activities. Moreover, these cities are seen to be locations of distribution, production and consumption. In areas with high population, urban transit is a significant mobility dimension. Importance of Transportation Transport has led to the rise of civilizations in nations such as China, Rome and Egypt. It has also led to creation of societies and national defense. Various modes of transport used have facilitated healthcare access, artistic or cultural and welfare events. Through this, transport has shaped social interactions by inhibiting or favoring the mobility of individuals (Hall, 21). Social structures have also been supported by transportation. Many governments play a vital role in transport as regulator and investment sources. Transportation’s political role is irrefutable as governments mainly support the mobility of their populations. Transport is seen to impact the nation and is used as a political tool. Transportation has been related to economic development. It is seen to be an economic factor in goods and services production (Hall, 22). It leads to increased economic activities, accelerates economies of scale, impacts land value and impacts the geographic specialization of different locations. Economic activities shape transportation and the vice-versa (Rodrigue, Claude and Brian, 2004). Transportation is seen to have significant environmental consequences. These include water quality, air, level of noise and public health. All decisions that relate to transport require to be assessed putting into consideration the equivalent environmental costs. In modern environmental issues, transport is seen to be a prevailing factor. Transportation geography Geography seeks in understanding the spatial order of different things and their interactions. One spatial order’s element is transportation which is influenced by geography. There are two main reasons as to why transportation is important to geography (Van Klink and Geerke C, 5). The first one is that network; equipment; transport infrastructures and terminals have a vital place in space and are found on the basis of an intricate spatial system. The second reason is that because geography is seen in explaining spatial relationships, various networks seen in transport are of a particular interest as they are the foremost physical support for these connections. Moreover, transport geography concerns itself more with movements of information, freight and individuals. It tries to find the spatial organization by connecting spatial attributes and constraints with the origin, the endpoint, the nature, the purpose and the extent of movements. In the second half of the 20th century, transport geography came from economic geography (Graham, 92). In previous considerations, specifically in commercial geography, transportation was seen to be a significant factor behind the Geographic’s space economic representations, namely in terms of the distance monetary costs. These cost concerns turned out to be the cause of different geographical theories like locational analysis and central places. The increasing mobility of freight and passengers justified the beginning of transport geography. In the 1960’s, the costs of transport were dignified as important factors in location theories. This made transportation geography to start depending on quantitative methods, specifically spatial and over the network interaction analysis. In the 1970’s centrality of transportation was challenged by globalization in a lot of regional and geographical development investigations. This made transportation not to be fully represented in economic geography (Graham, 96). After the 1990’s, transport geography gained renewed attention, particularly because distribution, mobility and production issues were connected in a difficult geographical setting. There are three transport system concepts that are core to transportation geography. The first one is transportation nodes; locations referred to nodes are linked by transportation. Transport geography needs to consider its transshipment and convergence places. The second one is transportation networks; transport geography needs to include its survey on structures that shape and support movement (Farrington, 320). The third concept is transportation demand; transport geography needs to assess the factors that affect its resulting demand function. Analyzing these concepts depends on methodologies mainly formed by other disciplines like planning, economics, demography and mathematics. Each of this discipline offers a different perspective to transport geography. Transport geography needs to be efficient as a single transport system element is connected to different elements; thus transport systems are difficult (Farrington, 322). The big role of transport geography is to recognize the spatial relations that transport systems produce. This leads to various misconceptions on transportation in terms of the corresponding relations between time, accessibility and distance. Conclusion There are three simple geographical considerations related to transport geography. The first one is location; it determines the origin, nature, destination and distance of a movement. The second one is complementarity; locations need people, exchanging of goods and information. This means that specific locations have surplus while others have deficit (Rodrigue, Claude and Brian, 2004). In reaching equilibrium, locations that have surplus need to be moved near locations having high demands. The third consideration is scale; movements made by complementarity take place at different scales. Scale shows how transportation systems are created over regional, local and international geographies. As a result, by their nature, transport systems consume land and support connections between locations. Works Cited Farrington, John H. "The new narrative of accessibility: its potential contribution to discourses in (transport) geography." Journal of Transport Geography 15.5 (2007): 319-330. Graham, Brian. "Liberalization, regional economic development and the geography of demand for air transport in the European Union." Journal of Transport Geography 6.2 (1998): 87-104. Hall, Derek R. "Impacts of economic and political transition on the transport geography of Central and Eastern Europe." Journal of Transport Geography 1.1 (1993): 20-35. Hesse, Markus, and Jean-Paul, Rodrigue. "The transport geography of logistics and freight distribution." Journal of transport geography 12.3 (2004): 171-184. Rodrigue, Jean-Paul, Claude Comtois, and Brian Slack. "Transport Geography on the Web." Dept. of Economics & Geography, Hofstra (2004). Van Klink, H. Arjen, and Geerke C. van Den Berg. "Gateways and intermodalism." Journal of transport geography 6.1 (1998): 1-9. Read More