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/
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
Biography
Jean-Paul Rodrigue is Professor in the Department of Maritime Business Administration at Texas A&M University-Galveston.
