Transportation and Areal Specialization

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Transportation and Areal Specialization

• The main role of transportation is to connect
  places and move things and people (and ideas)
  from place to place
• Transportation allows places to specialize in the
  production of goods
• Places can exchange goods and no longer need to
  be self-sufficient
• Transportation reduces time and friction of
  distance

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American Culture and Mobility

• 18 of income goes to transportation
• 18 of Americans change their residence every
  year, both local and long-distance

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Transportation in the US, 1950-2000

• 1950 Already well-developed networks
• PEOPLE
• Autos dominated intercity transport (86)
• Railroads (6)
• Buses (5)
• Airlines (lt 3)
• 10.4 of GDP on passenger transportation
• Auto 83 air 7 bus/taxi/light rail 5
  rail/bus 2

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Transportation Freight Movement

• 6.1 of the GDP
• Trucks 79
• Railroads 8 (loss from 14 to 8)
• Water 5
• Air (1-4)
• oil pipelines 2

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Highway Transportation

• 1930s national network system of paved roads with
  federal dollars
• By 1950s basically complete
• but linked towns
• Truck rapidly replaces rail for freight
• 1950-95 number of cars increased by 200 trucks
  almost 800
• Buses leading form of intra-city transportation

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- Interstate System

• 1950s Eisenhower Government
• (I.H.S.)
• Federal gasoline tax to finance
• construction (Highway Trust Fund)
• After 1980 ring freeways added
• Considered circulatory system of the nation

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- Truck Transportation Location Strategy and
Traffic Patterns

• 1920s started monopolizing freight transportation
  within cities
• New locations to manufacturers, retailers and
  wholesalers
• Flexibility and reasonable, relatively low cost
  compared to rail and water
• Began to change the shape (morphology) of cities,
  and where people went to work

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Railroads

• 1950-1996 importance of rail as a method of
  transportation declined
• Number of miles of rail declined as railroad
  routes were abandoned
• 1950 393,000 miles
• 1996 136,000 miles of rail
• But freight traffic increased from 628 billion to
  1426 billion ton-miles in 1996
• Dominated by a few bulk commodities (grain and
  coal)
• Intermodal traffic involves moving a commodity
  using different modes of transport e.g. grain
  from barge to rail or containers from ships to
  rail to truck (land-bridge services)
• Container ports and break-in-bulk points

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• Gateways where traffic is exchanged between
  railroad companies e.g. Chicago,
• St Louis, Kansas City and New Orleans
• But less important today with container and truck
  freight
• Old rail stations reused in many cities for
  shopping centers or offices
• Similarly passenger rail traffic declined from 36
  to 14 billion passenger-miles
• 1970 Congress created Amtrak (federally supported
  National Railroad Passenger Corporation)
• Only Northeast corridor and a few other routes
  now possible for passengers
• Late 1990s Amtrak invested in the New Haven -
  Boston New York track allowing high speed
  trains
• Some cities have extensive commuter services
• Also subway systems

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