The Geography of Transport Systems

This expanded and revised sixth edition of The Geography of Transport Systems provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. It explores the spatial aspects of transportation and focuses on how the mobility of passengers and freight is linked with geography.

The book is divided into ten chapters, each covering a specific conceptual dimension, including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation, and environmental impacts, and updated with the latest information available. The sixth edition offers new and updated material on information technologies and mobility, e-commerce, transport and the economy, mobility and society, supply chains, security, pandemics, energy and the environment, and climate change. With over 140 updated figures and maps, The Geography of Transport Systems presents transportation systems at different scales ranging from global to local.

This volume is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transportation, as well as those interested in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering. A companion website, which contains additional material such as photographs, maps, figures, and PowerPoint presentations, has been developed for the book and can be found here: https://transportgeography.org/

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Transportation and Geography

CONCEPTS

1. What is Transport Geography?

2. Transportation and Space

3. Historical Geography of Transportation

4. Transportation and Commercial Geography

CASE STUDY: Transportation and its Bottlenecks

Chapter 2 – Transportation and the Spatial Structure

CONCEPTS

1. The Geography of Transportation Networks

2. Transport and Spatial Organization

3. Transport and Location

4. Information Technologies and Mobility

CASE STUDY: The Digitalization of Mobility

Chapter 3 – Transportation, Economy and Society

CONCEPTS

1. Transport and Economic Development

2. Transportation and Society

3. Transport Costs

4. The Provision and Demand of Transportation Services

CASE STUDY: Tourism and Transport in a Post-Covid Era

Chapter 4 – Transport, Energy and Environment

CONCEPTS

1. Transport and Energy

2. Transportation and the Environment

3. The Environmental Footprint of Transportation

4. Transportation, Sustainability and Decarbonization

CASE STUDY: Climate Change and Transport Infrastructure

Chapter 5 – Transportation Modes

CONCEPTS

1. Land Transportation

2. Maritime Transportation

3. Air Transportation

4. Intermodal Transportation

CASE STUDY: High Speed Rail Systems

Chapter 6 – Transportation Terminals

CONCEPTS

1. The Function of Transport Terminals

2. Transport Terminals and Hinterlands

3. Port and Rail Terminals

4. Airports

CASE STUDY: Mega-Airport Projects.

Chapter 7 – Trade, Logistics and Freight Distribution

CONCEPTS

1. Globalization and International Trade

2. Freight Transportation and Value Chains

3. Logistics and Freight Distribution

CASE STUDY: Inland Ports and Logistics Zones

Chapter 8 – Urban Transportation

CONCEPTS

1. Transportation and Urban Form

2. Urban Land Use and Transportation

3. Urban Mobility

4. Urban Transport Challenges

CASE STUDY: E-commerce and Home Deliveries

Chapter 9 – Transport Planning and Policy

CONCEPTS

1. The Nature of Transport Policy

2. Transport Planning and Governance

3. Transport Safety and Security

4. Transportation, Disruptions and Resilience

CASE STUDY: The Challenge of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Transport Systems

Chapter 10 – Challenges for Transport Geography

CHALLENGES

1. Improving Transport Infrastructure

2. Governance and Management

3. Social and Environmental Responsibility

4. Future Transportation Systems

Appendix – Methods in Transport Geography

METHODS

1. Methods in Transport Geography

2. Definition and Properties of Graph Theory

3. Measures and Indices of Graph Theory

4. Geographic Information Systems for Transportation (GIS-T)

5. Transportation and Accessibility

6. Network Data Models

7. Technical and Economic Performance Indicators

8. The Gini Coefficient

9. Spatial Interactions and the Gravity Model

10. Market Area Analysis