Overview
The mobility of passengers and freight is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, distributing goods, or supplying energy. Each movement has a purpose, an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, and a destination. Mobility is supported and driven by transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes, and terminals. They enable individuals, institutions, corporations, regions, and nations to interact and undertake economic, social, cultural, or political activities. Understanding how mobility is linked with the geography of transportation is the primary purpose of this textbook.
The Geography of Transport Systems offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. This material is provided to practitioners, policymakers, educators, researchers, students, and individual learners and includes a wide variety of media elements such as maps, figures, and PowerPoint presentations.
Contents
The textbook is divided into ten chapters that cover a specific conceptual dimension of transport geography, such as networks, modes, terminals, and urban transportation. In addition to these conventional topics, emerging issues such as globalization, supply chain management, information technologies, energy, and the environment are also thoroughly discussed.
Chapter 1 – Transportation and Geography
- 1.1 – What is Transport Geography?
- 1.2 – Transportation and the Physical Environment
- 1.3 – The Emergence of Mechanized Transportation Systems
- 1.4 – The Setting of Global Transportation Systems
- 1.5 – Transportation and Commercial Geography
Chapter 2 – Transportation and the Spatial Structure
- 2.1 – The Geography of Transportation Networks
- 2.2 – Transport and Spatial Organization
- 2.3 – Transport and Location
- 2.4 – Information Technologies and Mobility
Chapter 3 – Transportation, Economy and Society
- 3.1 – Transportation and Economic Development
- 3.2 – Transportation and Society
- 3.3 – Transport Costs
- 3.4 – The Provision and Demand of Transportation Services
Chapter 4 – Transport, Energy and Environment
- 4.1 – Transportation and Energy
- 4.2 – Transportation and the Environment
- 4.3 – The Environmental Footprint of Transportation
- 4.4 – Transportation, Sustainability and Decarbonization
Chapter 5 – Transportation Modes
- 5.1 – Transportation Modes, Modal Competition and Modal Shift
- 5.2 – Road Transportation
- 5.3 – Rail Transportation
- 5.4 – Maritime Transportation
- 5.5 – Air Transport
- 5.6 – Intermodal Transportation and Containerization
Chapter 6 – Transport Terminals
- 6.1 – The Function of Transport Terminals
- 6.2 – Transport Terminals and Hinterlands
- 6.3 – Port Terminals
- 6.4 – Rail Terminals
- 6.5 – Airport Terminals
Chapter 7 – Trade, Logistics and Freight Distribution
- 7.1 – Transborder and Crossborder Transportation
- 7.2 – Globalization and International Trade
- 7.3 – Freight Transportation and Value Chains
- 7.4 – Logistics and Freight Distribution
Chapter 8 – Urban Transportation
- 8.1 – Transportation and the Urban Form
- 8.2 – Urban Land Use and Transportation
- 8.3 – Urban Mobility
- 8.4 – Urban Transport Challenges
Chapter 9 – Transport Planning and Policy
- 9.1 – The Nature of Transport Policy
- 9.2 – Transport Planning and Governance
- 9.3 – Transport Safety and Security
- 9.4 – Transportation, Disruptions and Resilience
Chapter 10 – Challenges for Transport Geography
- 10.1 – Transport Resilience
- 10.2 – Governance, Management and Digitalization
- 10.3 – Social and Environmental Responsibility
- 10.4 – Future Transportation Systems
Appendix A – Methods in Transport Geography
Appendix B – Applications and Case Studies
Appendix C – City Logistics
Since transport is a field of application, using methodologies is particularly relevant to assist transport operators in allocating their resources (investments, infrastructure, vehicles) or influencing public policy. Appendix A focuses on qualitative and quantitative methodologies linked with transport geography, such as accessibility, spatial interactions, and graph theory. The convergence between methodologies and information technologies has led to many new analytical opportunities, notably geographic information systems for transportation (GIS-T).
Transportation is a very active field of investigation and application to real-world issues, which are covered in Appendix B. In particular, the field of city logistics, which combines unique characteristics of transport geography adapted to the urban context, is covered in Appendix C.
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- The material, such as maps and figures, can be freely used for educational purposes, such as for classroom presentations, as long as it is not redistributed to the public. This excludes any other form of communication, such as conference presentations, business presentations, published reports, and papers.
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- PUBLISHERS: Permission requests to reproduce published materials have become abusive as publishers often ask for material (e.g. figures, maps, charts) to be granted unlimited use, in any language, on any media, for an unlimited amount of time and to have to right to grant third parties (anyone) to use the material. This means that such permissions ask the author to give his work away to the publisher to do as it pleases. Therefore, I rarely grant permission to reproduce my material. If I do, it is for a single-use and without the right for third-party use.
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- Information cited from this web site should be referred to as: Rodrigue, J-P (2024), The Geography of Transport Systems, Sixth Edition, New York: Routledge.
- Inquiries: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue.
Notice To Consultants
Over the years, some of the contents of this website have been plagiarized, often without attribution, by consultants (and professionals) in reports and presentations covering various sectors of the transport industry. Maps and figures have been a particular target. This does involve not only small firms or individual consultants but also large globally recognized firms. This is highly unethical since it involves stealing someone else’s work while being remunerated. A common practice in the consulting industry is to steal and adapt the work of academics and present it as original material. Consultants, please keep in mind the following:
- I usually do not provide interviews and advice unless compensated. The only exception is for the press.
- By default, NONE of the graphic material on this web site can be used for commercial purposes without my consent.
- Instances of plagiarism will be reported to clients and supervisors.
- Even if plagiarism is done for internal or confidential reports, this does not remove the risk of detection. I am often asked to act as a third-party reviewer for consulting reports through non-disclosure agreements. Also, on some occasions, clients will release elements of these reports to the public, thinking that they are original work.
- Consultants wishing to use some graphic elements contained in this web site, please contact me. For a reasonable fee, I can provide customized maps and graphics for unlimited use (I am also a consultant).
- On some occasions (e.g. humanitarian work, NGOs, charitable organizations), the use of some graphic elements can be authorized at no charge.