Transport and society

1
Transport and society

• Lecture 1
• The transport task and the history of transport
• Transparencies

2
The transport task

• Everybody travels (work, shopping, leisure,
  business)
• All raw materials must be conveyed to the
  manufacture or usage
• All goods must be moved from the factory to the
  consumer
• Transport is the means by which these activities
  occur
• Meeting these needs is the transport task
• Solutions to transport problems can have major
  influences on peoples lives
• Transport engineering applies technological and
  scientific principles to the planning, design,
  operation and management of transport facilities
  to provide for safe, rapid, convenient,
  economical and environmentally compatible
  movement of people and goods

3
The purpose of transport

• The ideal transport mode would be
• instantaneous
• free
• have unlimited capacity
• always available
• Would render space obsolete
• Purpose of transport is to overcome space
  reduce friction of distance fulfil the demand
  for movement
• Transportability the ease of movement of
  people, freight or information

4
Transport a derived demand

• Direct derived demand direct outcome of
  economic activities
• Indirect derived demand movements created by
  other movements

5
The importance of transport

• Historical the rise of civilizations,
  development of societies, national defence
• Social access to social service, shape social
  interactions
• Environmental significant negative effects on
  air and water quality, noise level, public
  health, climate change
• Economic linked to economic development,
  transport industry, facilitates economies of
  scale, influences land values and geographic
  specialisation, shaping and being shape by
  economic activities

6
The importance is growing

• Growth of the demand both people and goods are
  moved in larger quantities over longer distances
• Reduction of costs cost per unit transported
  has dropped significantly total time spent on
  travelling relative constant
• Expansion of infrastructures roads, harbours,
  airports, railways, telecommunication, pipelines

7
The transport system a strategic infrastructure

• If disrupted the consequences can be dramatic
• Access is not accessibility
• Distance is not time

8
The transport system
9
Transport and space

• Topography mountains, passes, valleys, plains,
  are important
• Hydrography availability of navigable rivers,
  lakes, shallow seas (Mississippi, Rhine, Mekong,
  Yangtze)
• Climate temperature, wind, precipitation (snow,
  heavy rainfall, ice, fog, jet streams)
• Absolute and relative barriers

10
Transport and spatial structure

• All locations are relative to one another
  reflecting the relationships between transport
  infrastructure, economic activities and the built
  environment
• Costs friction of distance in time and monetary
  terms
• Accessibility
• Agglomeration to take advantage of economies of
  scale

11
The land-use transport feedback cycle(Wegener,
1995)
12
Infrastructure changes slowly

• Though rapid development of transport
  technologies the spatial structure of many
  networks has not much changed
• Physical attributes natural conditions that
  affected road construction in the past are still
  in force today (the structuring role of rivers in
  northern Sweden)
• Historical considerations new infrastructure
  generally reinforce historical patterns of
  exchange (the highway network of France)

13
New technologies transform existing networks

• Container shipping, jumbo aircraft, information
  technology are creating a new transport
  environment and a new spatial structure
• Regional specialisation in production, increased
  trading, globalisation of production
• Segregation spatial competition through
  economies of scale
• Concentration and dispersion (shopping centres
  versus housing location)

14
Space/time relationship

• Space/time convergence (1700-1800 railways, 1900
  road and air transport systems, 2000 information
  technologies?)
• Speed however recently use of faster modes
  rather than the modes becoming faster
• Economies of scale larger volumes at lower
  costs
• Expansions of transport infrastructures also
  larger average distance of transport
• Efficiency of transport terminals has reduced
  door to door transport time
• However also increased road congestion and air
  transport delays

15
Historical evolution of transportThe
pre-industrial era (pre-1800s)

• The wheel was invented in Mesopotamia 5000 BC
  come into wide usage 1000- AD
• The first manufactured roads in Ur 4000 BC
• No motorised transport Animal labour for land
  transport, wind for maritime transport (8-15
  km/h)
• Civilisations emerged along river systems
  (Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Ganges, Huang He)
• The first road system the Roman road network
• Trade local, city radius lt 2.5 km (Rome, Beijing,
  Constantinople, Venice)
• Inland passenger and freight transport very
  limited
• International trade for luxury goods (the Silk
  Road used for 1500 years)

16
Cart the battle of Ur (circa 2600 BC)
Source Wikipedia
17
The Silk Road and the Arab sea routes
18
A camel driver in Dunhuang on the Silk Road
19
Roman road network, 200 AD
20
Maritime transport

• Its geopolitical implications were recognised
  very early
• The discovery by the Portuguese of the North
  Atlantic wind pattern (? 1400)
• Fall of Constantinople to the Turks ? Necessary
  to find maritime routes between Europe and Asia
  (Columbus, Vasco da Gama)
• Vave of European exploration and colonisation
  Triangular trade pattern Europe ? Africa ?
  America ? Europe
• Collapsed with the steamships, end of slavery,
  independence of colonies of the Americas

21
Colonial trade pattern, North Atlantic, 1700s
22
The industrial revolution (1800-70)

• Massive change of the transport systems based on
  the steam engine
• Canal systems (a short-lived era)
• Capital for road building in Great Britain
  through road tolls (turnpikes) 1750 1850
  (travel time from London to Edinburgh down from
  12 to 4 days in 50 years)
• Railway networks 1850-, flexible, high carrying
  capacity toll roads and canal systems couldnt
  compete
• Transcontinental line in USA 1869 (travel time
  down from six months to one week), Canada 1886,
  trans-Siberian railway 1904

23
The industrial revolution (1800-70) Maritime
transport

• Regular maritime routes linking harbours
  worldwide
• First regular services for transatlantic
  passenger transport by steamships in 1838
• Establishment of large distribution networks of
  raw materials and energy

24
Modern transport systems (1870-1920)Maritime
transport

• Improvements in engine propulsion technology
• Gradual shift from coal to oil
• Increased speed, capacity reduced energy
  consumption for maritime transport
• Infrastructure the Suez (1869) and the Panama
  (1914) canals major reductions in distances
• Increasing size of ships, massive investments in
  port infrastructures
• Regular international passengers transport
  services

25
Impacts of the Panama and Suez canals
26
Modern transport systems (1870-1920)Rail and
urban transport

• Railway networks expanded tremendously
• Became the dominant land transport mode for
  passengers and goods with dedicated services
• First public urban transport systems enabled
  urban sprawl
• Tramways (streetcars)
• Underground metro systems (London from 1863)
• Bicycle became the commuting mode for the
  working class
• Developments in telecommunications (from 1850)
• Led to standard time zones

27
The Fordist era (1920-70)

• The assembly line, the internal combustion
  engine, the pneumatic tyre enabled competitive
  motor vehicles
• The T-Ford from 1913
• Further increasing size of ships
• Beginning of air services (mail distribution and
  passengers)
• First commercial jet plane in 1958
• Mass introduction of radio and telephone
• Large diffusion of the car, especially from 1950s
• Implied a drastic change of lifestyles and the
  structure of cities (radius gt 50 km)

28
The post-Fordist era (1970-)

• Massive development of telecommunications (fibre
  optic cables, satellite communication, Internet,
  mobile telephones)
• Globalisation of trade (international division of
  work, the container system, principle of
  just-in-time)
• Expansion of passenger (and later valuable goods)
  air traffic (outperformed maritime passenger
  services)
• Emergence of high-speed (300 km/h) train networks
  (Shinkansen, TGV)
• Car the main mode of individual transport
  mobility, congestion, waste of energy, climate
  change

29
The change of the transport system

• Transport innovation new technology makes an
  existing mode more efficient and competitive or
  obsolete
• Technological innovation faster and more
  efficient transport systems space-time
  convergence (new modes, higher speeds)
• Technological evolution transport and economic
  development are interlinked

30
Development of operational speed, 1750-2000 (km/h)
31
Future transport

• Peak oil production, higher energy prices,
  environmental concern question the car and truck
  dependency
• Alternatives?
• Maglev (magnetic levitation) no friction, 500-600
  km/h (in Shanghai from 2003)
• Automated transport systems
• Fuel cells (electric generator using catalytic
  conversion of hydrogen and oxygen), possible
  energy source for light vehicles