Transportation Geography

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Transportation Geography

• Some Introductory Concepts

2
Transportation Geography

• Transport geography separate discipline?
• Primary concerns
• A. Networks- location, structure and evolution
• B. Flows on networks describing and predicting
• C. Significance and impact of liberalization,
  cost changes, information and other technologies
  on movements and networks

3
What is Transportation?

• Movement?
• Flow?
• Physical only?
• Useful to appreciate the French view
• Circulation very broad conceptualization of
  transportation
• Means all forms of movement and communications

4
Transportation Revolution (s)?

• What comprises such a Revolution?
• New and improved transport forms
• Broader access to forms of transport
• Basic ingredients?
• Friction of Distance- decline in this value
• Accessibility- ease and getting to and from
  places
• Collapse or Telescoping of Travel Times- concept
  of time-space convergence

5
Second Transport Revolution?

• Why? Transport in advanced capitalist economies
  entering a new era technological innovation
• Advances in info technology are creating fresh
  opportunities
• Modernizing infrastructure ERP and congestion
  pricing, intelligent systems
• Rethinking transport policies
• IT widely regarded as key to change in economy,
  environment and safety of all modes

6
Two Revolutions?

• Electronic revolution in control of vehicles and
  infrastructure and cargo
• Revolution in appreciation of assigning uses of
  space in urban areas (hubs)
• This next revolution will last well into 21st
  Century
• Economic and social institutions must adapt to
  technological progress
• Policy makers already seeking guidance and
  information

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Cumulative Modal Contribution to Economic
Opportunities
Industrial Revolution
Mass Production
Globalization
Telecommunications
Air
Roads
Railways
Economic Opportunities
Canal shipping
Maritime shipping
Horses
1750
1775
1800
1825
1850
1875
1900
1925
1950
1975
2000
2025
2050
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Economic Benefits of Transportation
Direct Supply Direct Demand Indirect Micro Indirect Macro
Income from transport operations (fares and salaries) Access to wider distribution markets and niches Improved accessibility Time and cost savings Productivity gains Division of labor Access to a wider range of suppliers and consumers Economies of scale Rent income Lower price of commodities Higher supply of commodities Formation of distribution networks Attraction and accumulation of economic activities Increased competitiveness Growth of consumption Fulfilling mobility needs
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The Share of Transportation in the GDP, United
States 2000
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Transport Impacts on Economic Growth
Transport Improvements
Commodity Market
Labor Market
Expansion
New Activities
Growth
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Employment in Transportation Occupations, United
States, 1985-2001
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Economic Production and Specialization
Region B
Region A
Self Reliance
Regional Trade
Trade and Transport
Trade and Transport
International Trade
Product A
Product B
Product C
Product D
Gateway
Product E
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Economic Integration and Interdependencies
Interdependent Groups of Nations
Independent Nations
G1
a
a
h
h
b
b
g
g
c
c
d
d
f
e
f
G2
e
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Effects of Improved Transportation

• A. Areal specialization promoted by improved
  transport
• 1. Allows producers to focus on particular forms
  of production
• 2. Creation of larger areas of particular product
  tied to distant markets- example?
• B. Improvement in transport is contradictory!
• 1. Has made places more alike-share products,
  ideas, and services
• 2. Simultaneously it has made areas diverse since
  specialization has been encouraged

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Additional Effects of Improved Transport

• Access to resources and ability to market goods
  that otherwise would have no market
• Access to raw materials and the stimulation of
  supplier development and outsourcing phenomenon
• Expands settlement spaces
• City building and supporting
• Political integration- binding together of
  diverse political units
• Social integration- allows stronger interpersonal
  communication and diffusion of information and
  ideas
• Just as commodities flow over a network so too
  do ideas and information

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Explaining Spatial Interaction

• Improvements in transport not alone responsible
  for interaction
• What are the conditions under which interaction
  develops?
• Three factor model of Edward Ullman still
  relevant
• Ingredients complementarity, intervening
  opportunity and transferability

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Complementarity

• Interaction is due to areal or regional or
  spatial differentiation
• But mere differences do not produce interaction
• Must be a demand and supply of specific good
  specific complementarity
• Toyota assembly in Georgetown and production of
  tires in Akron
• Complementarity so important that relatively low
  value bulk goods move across the globe
  Australian iron ore, Venezuelan and Iraqi oil

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Intervening Opportunity

• Complementarity generates interchange only if no
  intervening source exists
• Where alternative source exists flow or spatial
  interaction will be interrupted
• Examples grocery shopping, forest products, etc
• Occasionally IO might assist interaction by
  making construction of intermediate transport
  routes profitable

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Transferability

• Measured in real time and costs
• If distance between market and supply is too
  great and/or too costly to overcome, interaction
  will NOT take place despite perfect
  complementarity and absence of intervening
  opportunity
• Tendency here to use alternate goods
• Transform product into higher value so it can
  withstand cost of transport
• Examples?

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Summary

• Interaction based on three factors
• 1. Complementarity
• 2. Intervening Opportunity
• 3. Transferability
• System applies to movement of physical goods but
  also people
• Additional Corollaries Make This Concept Richer

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Corollaries of Spatial Interaction

• Place Utility- added economic value of a
  commodity gained by transporting it from place
  where it has little value to place where it has
  more
• Example transporting coal from West Virginia or
  Kentucky into megalopolis
• Negative place utility or disutility- pay to have
  something removed reverse logistics!

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Corollaries of Spatial Interaction

• Time Utility- transport enhances the ability of
  goods to satisfy human demand-not only WHERE they
  are needed but also WHEN
• Some Products have short shelf life fresh
  inventories needed periodically- fruits and
  vegetables Maine lobsters or Hawaiian fish
• Computer parts- ICs need air freight and other
  goods have a very brief product life cycle

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Distance Decay

• Basic geographical concept
• Toblers Law- Everything is related to
  everything else but things that are closer
  together are more related
• The negative impact of distance upon the flow of
  information or goods or services between places
• Linear and nonlinear functions
• Spatial Elastic and Non-elastic functions

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Reasons for Distance Decay

• What are impedance factors that cause a variable
  to decay over distance?
• Economic reasons- cost and time
• Non-economic reasons
• Hold economic factor constant- first class mail-
  cannot use cost as an explanation
• Information- more familiar with our immediate
  surroundings than with distant places
• Intervening Opportunities

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Location and Distance Concepts

• Geographers view space and location in several
  ways
• Absolute Location- position on conventional grid
• Relative Location- position with respect to other
  locations, i.e. really situation
• Absolute Distance- conventional distance in
  miles/kilometers between places
• Relative Distance- uses metric other than the
  above, e.g. cost, social contacts and time
  between places

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Relative Distance

• Absolute Distance AgtgtgtgtBgtgtgtgtC
• Social Contact Distance AgtgtgtgtgtgtgtBgtC
• Cost Distance AgtgtBgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtC
• Time Distance AgtgtgtBgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtC
• Why? Spaces in which people live and behave are
  much more psychological (relative) than absolute
• Important to consider what people think is the
  distance between places
• Individuals make decisions in context of relative
  rather than absolute space
• Therefore time and cost may be better predictors
  of travel behavior

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Time-Space Convergence (TSC)

• Absolute space has not changed over time
• But relative space has changed greatly
• Space adjusting techniques such as transport and
  communications enable us to restructure space by
  changing relative distances which separate places
• TSC is way of measuring relative distance by
  measuring the rate at which places approach one
  another in time distance

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Space / Time Convergence
T1 (1950)
6.2 hours
A
B
2.6 hours
A
B
?TT
Travel Time (A B)
T2 (2000)
?T
Time
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Regional Space / Time Convergence (in minutes)
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Mail Delivery Times between New York and San
Francisco, 1840-2000 (in days)
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Cost Space Convergence

• Concept of space convergence can be extended to
  other contexts
• Cost space convergence or divergence
• Divergence indicates that places actually move
  further apart in terms of cost-examples?
• Complete time-space convergence- no differences
  in time required to reach near or distant points
• Examples? USPS, cellular telephony

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Impact of Complete Cost Space Convergence

• In absence of normal distance cost relationships,
  activities can agglomerate at one location OR
  disperse equally throughout a region
• No incentive for firms to develop a hierarchy of
  merchandising centers-less costly to distribute
  direct and save building costs
• Envision a world where all activities become
  footloose?
• True or false?

33
Space / Time Convergence of the World Transport
System
1500-1840 Average speed of wagon and sail ships
16 km/hr
1850-1930 Average speed of trains 100
km/hr. Average speed of steamships 25 km/hr
1950 Average speed of airplanes 480-640 km/hr
1970 Average speed of jet planes 800-1120 km/hr
1990 Numeric transmission instantaneous
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The Transport System
Nodes
Origins Destinations Intermediacy
Terminals
Locations
Friction
People Freight Information
Flows
Linkages
Networks
Demand