Developing a Good Transportation System - Case Study Example

Transportation Transportation refers to moving people, animals and goods from one place to another by the use of transporting vessels such as land vessels, air vessels and sea vessels. Ways used to transport includes pipelines, space, cable, water, road, rail and air. Transport is classified as infrastructure, operations and vehicles. Infrastructure includes the permanent installations such as waterways, canals, airways, railways and roads and uses terminals such as railway stations, airports, bus stations, warehouses, seaports and depots. The terminals act as places for maintenance, offloading and on loading cargo and the area for boarding or dropping passengers. Vehicle transport involves the use of networks such as trains, bicycles, automobiles, trucks, people and water, air and spaces crafts. On the other hand, operations involve the way transporting vessels are operated and the procedures set aside for their operation including financial support, legal and policy means. Public and private sector has contributed to the infrastructure and operations ownership in the sector of transport especially relying on the nations and mode of transport. Pros about Today’s Transport Transportation has become a non-separable part of the society today. Transport has greatly contributed to the life style of people, the range location of activities and the goods and services available for consumption. Modern transportation has made many positive changes in the living standard of people and the organization of the society hence has a great influence in the development of civilization by meeting the travel requirements of people and transportation of goods and services to areas where they are urgently required. Therefore, transportation has changed the way people live and travel in developed and developing countries where a large fraction of people travels every day to work, shop and any other social reasons. However, transport also uses many resources such as time, fuel material and land. Therefore, transport has contributed to three main roles such as economic, social and political role. a) Economic role of Transportation Economy of every country greatly depends on transport for production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. There is a massive requirement of transport of resources from one particular area to another in the society because people depend on the natural resources to satisfy their basic needs and wants in life but due to non-uniform surface of the earth and local resources, there are many differences in living standards in different societies. These resources vary from physical things such as goods to non-physical (services) such as knowledge and skills that include examples such as doctors and technicians to place where there is a need for them. Economically, transport has aided in bringing convenience in availability of goods and services at the appropriate place, time quality and utility. Since most of the production activities are carried out at a far distance from the consumption area, there is a need to bridge the gap between transportation and consumption by bringing in distribution purposes hence the need for transportation. Cost of transport influences the production cost and the consumers bear the effects as they consume the goods or services. For example, if production in done at point B and the demand for the products is at another point C the distance from B to C determines the price to sell the product(s) to the consumers. Therefore, with improved transport means, the prices products are low compared to when the infrastructure does not allow smooth flow of goods and services. The former promotes affordability of goods and services by many consumers while the latter inhibits affordability. On the other hand, transport influences time of the availability of goods and services to where they are needed for use that highly depend on the distance and the system of transportation between the area of production and consumption. Additionally, time and quality go hand in hand during transportation. For example, some of goods being transported are delicate and perishable, therefore, need proper handling and quick means of transport respectively to avoid deterioration. Fragile goods such as glasses need to be handled with intense care to avoid breaking that makes delicate goods lose their value while selling either locally or internationally. On the other hand, perishable goods such as flowers need the fastest means of transport such as airplane when being transported for long distances. Place, time and quality influence the utility of goods and services by enhancing the availability of goods and services at the right place, required form and at a particular time. Therefore, modern transportation with the use of modern technology such as an electric train, expansion of infrastructure, increased number of transporting vessels and flexibility of operations of modern transportation supported by modern transport technology has improved availability of goods in the right place, form and time for consumption locally and internationally. Additionally, modern transportation that has been expanded to connect set regions locally and internationally has promoted the exchange of goods and services via trade. For example, Boston’s citywide transportation plan during year 2000-2010 aimed to increase resident’s access to job, community facilities and culture in the city. The use of more efficient systems of supply results in an increase, in the total amount of goods available for consumption. Moreover, foreigners are also attracted to adventure while enjoying the freedom of choice on the various modes of travel to use. Therefore, foreign exchange in terms of trade via export of goods and services and quick, convenient and safe means of transport have boosted the tourism sector, therefore, supported the economy of many nations positively. b) Social role of Transportation Transportation has been involved in playing an important role in influencing the formation of the settlement such as urban societies. Although other factors such as availability of basic needs contributes settlement in terms of size and design and the development of society especially urban centers transportation has contributed the greater part. Transportation system has led to the development of social amenities such as schools, health care units, churches and development of social institutions such as banks. Most, these social institutions are found at road junctions, a port or at the intersectional of trade routes. Such examples are found in cities like New York, Mumbai and Boston. As a result, more people are attracted to moving and settle near these organizations so that they can easily access services offered by them. After some time, the size and design of the settlement grow large as the population increases hence developing into big cities and major trade centers. On the other hand, the size of the group depends on the means at which people can obtain food and other necessities by considering the distance to travel especially the journey to and from work. Increased speed of transport and reduction in the cost of transport has resulted in a variety of spatial settlement patterns. On the other hand, when growth of urban centers goes beyond walking distances, then transportation technology plays an important role to allow those far beyond the city’s outskirts to access urban centers more easily. There is construction of radial routes to allow people from the rural area to access the urban centers. Modern transport has involved increased number of vehicles to ferry people to town centers, motorcycles to ferry people and goods in congested roads, in the urban centers and construction of flyovers due to limited land for expansion in the urban centers. Additionally, there is intense establishment of traffic lights and location of traffic police all over the urban areas to control movement on the roads to avoid jams that delays movement and accidents that can cause loss of life for innocent pedestrians, passengers and drivers. c) Political role of Transportation Every country is divided to create many political units that are formed to ensure protection, economic advantages and development of general culture for the citizens. Therefore, transportation plays an important role in the functioning of theses political units. Via transport, the government can send or get information to or about its citizens in order to generate awareness. An efficient administration of a nation depends on the effectiveness of the state in communicating the laws and other regulations to all its citizens. Therefore, transportation plays an important role in the transfer of messages and information. In terms of military movements, quick modern means of transport such as high-speed airplanes are needed for rapid movement of troops in case of emergency. Modern transportation has also improved the means of shipping packages such as radioactive materials that are prone to creating a health problem to the people in case of leakages since they are transported every day. To avoid these radioactive materials from creating health hazards, subway tunnel have been constructed away from highways, rail, air and water that are used by people in everyday operations. High-speed vehicles have also been adapted by the military in order to respond instantly to the emergency cases where the public need government assistance especially in time of chaos. On the other hand, the political decision of constructing and maintenance of roads has resulted in the development of transportation system that has helped the citizens in a general way(Maxwell 137-148). The Cons of today’s Transportation On the other hand, despite the many positive contribution of transportation to the development of modern society, modern technology especially the use of transportation technology has directly or indirectly affected the modern technology in a negative manner. Transforming the transportation sector to the form it is today from the way it was a few century ago have cost dedication, sacrifice, hard work and more other effort to change to the modern society. Moreover, much money has been allocated to the transport sector neglecting other sectors that can support the economy of our country. Unfortunately, despite the government investing heavily on the transport sector for construction and maintenance of transport systems, the transport sector has failed to deliver to the expectations, therefore, failing the society. On the other hand, there have been corruption and embezzlement of funds that have been allocated to the development of the transport sector but corrupt officials have misused the fund while others put the development funds to their own pockets. Therefore, despite the far transportation has developed, there could be more advancement in transportation means. Additionally, some modes of transport and vessels of transport are subjected to wear and tear, therefore, much money is reallocated to do the same thing such as buying other transporting vessels and reconstructing and maintenance of modes and vessels of transport. On the other hand, as far as transportation is concerned, it has adversely caused environmental effects that can be categorized as follows; a) Air Pollution Pollution involves interferes of the natural setting of everything that surrounds us by human activities. Therefore, because almost all transport vessels used in modern society consumes power and the most used source of power are from the burning fossils such as diesel, petrol and coal. Currently, it shows that increase in a number of respiratory diseases that have caused death of many people in the society has a relationship with air pollution caused by the omission of gases and fumes from the transporting vessels that have a detrimental effect to the environment. When these transport vessels are being operated, the combustion of the fuel releases several contaminations into the atmosphere such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and other particulate matter that remain suspended in the atmosphere. Particulate matters include dust particles, smoke and aerosols. When these omissions are released to the environment, they incorporate with the uncontaminated air of the surrounding and when inhaled by people they contain viral carrier that cause respiratory diseases to the people. b) Energy Consumption For transport vessels to operate, they need energy to enable them move. Therefore, there has been overexploitation of sources of fossils to meet the high demand of energy locomotion of transporting vessels. As a result, there is depletion of sources of fossils hence shortage of fuel and people have to shift to cheaper public transport system that is sometimes unreliable. The price of available little fuel hikes resulting in an increase in cost of transportation such as bus fare. Because of this major challenge, there is increased search for energy efficient and environmental friendly alternative sources of energies such as bio-fuels, hydrogen fuels and solar energy. c) Noise Pollution Transport sector has highly been attributed with emanating of unwanted and unpleasant sound that are released to the environment by vibrating or moving transporting bodies hence causing noise pollution. Transportation acts as the major source of noise pollution especially in the urban center where noise is produced during construction and operation. For example, during operation, engine and exhaust systems of the vehicle, interaction between the vehicle and the support system and aerodynamic friction generates loud sound causes noise pollution. Continuous exposure to excessive sounds has resulted to physical and psychological damage. Furthermore, noise sometimes causes annoyance and disturbance that causes stress and fatigue to some people. d) Safety Though the growth of transportation has contributed positively to the people in the society, it has adversely caused many losses to the society due to many death incidences. Transport sector has been attributed to the increased death and injuries especially from road accidents that have reached an epidemic level killing almost 10million people and 13 million people are left injured annually. Many accidents have resulted from increased variation in the speeds of the vehicles and lack of bumps in road areas that are prone to accidents. Transport sector has resulted in the loss of life, permanent disability, injury and damage to property. Accidents also makes the indefinable loss of time, grief of those near the victims of accidents and inconvenience to the public as an accident scene inhibits public from operating their daily chores to rescue and sympathize with the injured, disabled and deceased. It is unfortunate that accidents from a transport sector have become widespread with the growth of transportation and occurs with high frequency regardless of precautions that the state in the global nations is trying to put in practice. Although there has been improvement in the reduction of accidents due to improved road design, maintenance, modern vehicle designs, educating the drivers and strict law being enforced, accidents have not totally ceased since there have been a small number of accidents occurring worldwide due to carelessness of the public. Moreover, transport vessels are not natural but man-made, therefore, they are subjected to errors. On the other hand, roads are often worn out forming potholes that contribute to the occurrence of road accidents often (Winston 170-182). Therefore, from the view of how transportation has moved in the current direction, we can support our argument that in a few years to come it is either we achieve total modernization or continue suffering other problems associated with expansion of the transportation sector. Growth of the transport sector has continuously demanded space for construction of transport ways such as roads. In the future, there are possibilities of inadequate land for settlement of performing other work such as farming because increased travel requirement also require additional land for transport facilities. Developing a good transportation system requires allocating a considerable size of land from the society possibilities of increased displacement of people in the society for expanding transport sector. Moreover, there are possibilities of depletion of natural aesthetics in the society because of creating more land for transportation. Additionally, continuous release of detrimental omission gases from the exhaust system is likely to cause permanent depletion of the Ozone layer that allows ultra-violet rays to drop to the earth surface hence increased cause of skin cancer. On the other hand, neglecting other sectors of the economy by allocating huge finance budget only to the transport sector is likely to cause a detrimental effect to other sectors hence remaining behind in terms of promoting the economy. Contrary, future advancement in transportation may contribute positively to the development of the society. There will be ease in transportation of goods and services, therefore, promoting the high level of trade. There will be no need of value addition purposes such as preservation since fast transportation will avail goods to the consumer at the standard form and convenient time. There are also increased job opportunities, as more urban centers will continue developing while construction of transport ways requires manual labor. Therefore, there was increased demand for workforce in construction of urban centers and the construction of roads. There will be also increased adventure by both foreign and local tourists in different parts of the countries due to increased accessibility of transportation means. Moreover, transportation advancement is likely to boost countries economically by improving exchange rate and creating job opportunities, socially by increasing settlement pattern and politically by ensuring information gets to the citizens in the right time as fast as required to avoid distortion of the message. Therefore, future transportation result depends on the way the society is going to react on the modem transportation especially with the use of modern transportation technology. Works Cited Lay, Maxwell. Growth of Transportation Sector in Modern Society. New York: Rutgers University Press, 1994. Print Clifford Winston. Advancement in Boston’s Transportation System by use of Modern Technology. New York: Journal of American Transportation System, 2010. {"status":"TOOLBAR_READY","toolbarId":205320000} © 2014 Grammarly, Inc. Read More