Download What makes the world go round? - geo

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
American Culture and Mobility
• 18% of income goes to transportation
• 18% of Americans change their residence every
year, both local and long-distance
Transportation in the US, 1950-2000
• 1950 Already well-developed networks
• PEOPLE:
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Autos dominated intercity transport (86%)
Railroads (6%)
Buses (5%)
Airlines (< 3%)
10.4% of GDP on passenger transportation
Auto 83%; air 7%; bus/taxi/light rail 5%; rail/bus 2%
Transportation Freight Movement
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6.1% of the GDP
Trucks 79%
Railroads 8% (loss from 14 to 8%)
Water 5%
Air (1-4%)
oil pipelines 2%
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
- 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”
- 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
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 tonmiles 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
• 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