Chapter
4
1.
Improvements
in transport efficiency and flexibility have changed the patterns of human
life.
2.
From the 16th century on transportation
has helped to open foreign markets necessary to support capitalism.
3.
‘Annihilation
of space by time’ poses the question of how and by what means space can be
used, organized, created, and dominated to facilitate the circulation of
capital.
4.
Economic
development is less dependent on relations with nature and more dependent on
relations across space.
5.
Improvements
in transportation and communication spurs specialization of location that
increases productivity and spatial interaction.
6.
Specialization
occurs as long as production cost savings exceed transport costs.
1.
Initial
assumptions of transport costs in Alfred Weber’s industrial location theory
a.
Transport
costs are a linear function of distance.
b.
For
simplicity, other factors affecting line-haul costs except distance are
ignored.
c.
Transport
costs consist of terminal costs that are fixed in the short-run plus line-haul
costs that increase linearly with distance.
2.
In
reality, line-haul costs are more complex base on typographical factors and
economies of long-haul. Transport rates
vary with carrier competition and stepped freight rates (absorption and phantom
freight), route demand, and backhauling. Terminal costs change with
innovations, including deep-water ports, containership of products at ports,
and agglomeration economies at transport nodes.
3.
Commodity
variations in transport rates depend on loading and packaging costs, damage and
risk variation of shipping, shipment size, regularity of movement, special equipment
and services required, and elasticity of demand.
4.
Freight
Rates are affected by the (a) carrier competition v. government regulation, (b)
route demand that affects traffic density, and (c) back hauling rates that meet
out-of-pocket costs, since fixed costs must occur anyhow.
5.
International
transportation is affected by the regime governing the transport mode (by air
and by water)
a.
Air
space is controlled by sovereign countries.
b.
Shipping
favors developed countries over developing countries in establishing rules of
shipping and rate structures.
Established by shipping cartels.
1.
Weber’s
model predicts an end-point location for transport-oriented firms that produce
a product with only moveable resource and one moveable commodity.
2.
Firms
will locate to minimize transport costs.
‘Weight-losing’ firms will locate at the resource site while
‘weight-gaining’ firms will locate at the market site if the transport rate is
the same and they share a constant transport route between the two sites.
3.
Non-linear
line haul costs and fixed terminal costs reinforce end point locations.
4.
Variance
in terminal costs at the two locations, transport rates between resources
versus finished goods, or production costs between the two sites can affect the
location decision.
5.
Cost-insurance-freight
pricing (freight absorption and phantom freight) can affect the geographic
market of the resulting location.
1.
Routes
and networks violate the assumption of linear, homogeneous transport costs.
2.
Route
ways do not exist by themselves, but movement of goods, people, and information
are highly channeled into organized networks.
3.
A
graph of a network consists of two elements.
a.
A
set of vertices (V) or nodes representing terminals (town, RR station, airport)
b.
A
set of connecting edges (E), lines, or links (highways, RR lines, air routes)
4.
Network
connectivity is captured by the relationship between edges (E) and vertices
(V).
a.
The
simplest measure of connectivity is the beta index= E /V.
b.
A
large number of edges indicated a well-connected network.
c.
Developed
countries have higher beta indexes than developing countries.
d.
A
beta index of one represents complete simple connection but without
interconnection.
5.
Network
accessibility measures the shortest paths from each vertex to every other
vertex.
a.
Accessibility
of a vertex is Ai = Sum dij where dij is the shortest path from
vertex i to vertex j. Each vertex has a
value A that shows up as a row on a shortest-path matrix.
b.
The
Shimble or dispersion index is defined as sum of the row sums of a
shortest-path (connectivity) matrix for all vertexes in the system.
1.
Connectivity
and accessibility measure access but not density of use of networks.
a.
Density
is the number of route miles per unit area.
Density-decay occurs around cities and decreases with city size.
b.
Population
density is strongly correlated with transport network density, but also is
higher for developed countries than for developing countries.
2.
The
shape of transport networks varies among countries.
a.
In
developing countries often reflect their colonial history with a strong
directional focus, resembling drainage systems that converge on coastal ports
(typically fan shaped).
b.
Developed
country networks are more lattice shaped, offering greater internal interchange
and a more even geographic distribution of places.
1.
Location
depends on demand-supply relationships between places that are more profitable
when they are linked together by a transport route.
2.
Fixed
and variable costs of construction depend on length of roadway and traffic
density. (Other conditions can affect
routes, such as political influence).
3.
Example
of minimum distance networks among five towns:
a.
A
branching network has low fixed costs of road construction but somewhat
higher operating costs results in least builder’s cost network that
connects to points to a central artery.
b.
A
circuit network has high fixed costs, but low operating costs, resulting
a least user’s cost network with connection among points, such as electrical
circuitry.
c.
A
hierarchy network is the shortest connection between a central city and
all other points, resulting in a hub-and-spoke configuration, such as airlines.
d.
A
Paul Revere network is the shortest distance between beginning and
ending points, such as placement of pipeline.
e.
A
traveling sales network connects the shortage distance when beginning
and ending points are identical, shopping pattern or postal delivery.
4.
Deviation
from straight-line transportation paths include
a.
Positive deviations that make a path longer to increase traffic. Common in early stages of development but
declines with development. (Interstate
highway system)
b.
Negative deviations reduce the distance traveled through high-cost areas, such
as mountains and waterways.
1.
The
development of induced settlement, industrialization, and urbanization define
and reinforce each other.
2.
Early
extension of transport in developing countries extended geographic penetration
from the coast, reflecting the following motives:
a.
The
desire to connect an administrative center on the sea coast with an interior
area of political and administrative control;
b.
The
desire to reach areas of mineral exploitation; and
c.
The
desire to reach areas of potential agricultural export production.
3.
Transport
development and urban growth are self-reinforcing in stages, according to the
Taafee, Morrill, and Gould model.
a.
In
stage one, following early colonial conquests, a system of settlements
is created along the seacoast.
b.
In
stage two, transport links are developed between key coastal cities and
interior mining, agricultural, and population centers. Export-based development stimulates growth
in the interior.
c.
In
stage three, feeder routes begin to develop between inland centers.
d.
In
stage four, lateral development enhances the competitive position of
major ports and inland centers.
e.
In
stage five, a transport network interconnects all the major centers.
f.
In
stage six (final stage), the development of high-priority linkages
reinforces the advantages of urban centers that have come to dominate the
economy.
4.
Cumulative
causation results in a concentrated and polarized pattern of development.
5.
P.J.
Rimmer identified an alternative transport development strategy in Southeast
Asia when colonial powers’ superimpose a transpose transportation and
development system on the economic and cultural system of a less developed
economy.
a.
The
precontact stage is characterized by no transportation or trade between
a developed country and an underdeveloped country that has only a rudimentary
transportation system.
b.
The
beginning of colonialism stage is an initial contact between regions but
with limited social, political, or economic influence by the developed country
except to establish permanent trading posts and garrisons.
c.
The
high colonialism stage results in the developed country (European
power) establishing inland transportation system among trading posts and adding
new capital. Diversification begins
with greater intensity of manufactured goods and natural resource exports.
d.
The
neocolonial stage enhances modernization and diversification in
transport and economic development.
6.
A
independence and codominance stage can be added to Rimmer’s model
as a colony develops into a regional economic and transport power on its own
and achieves full independence.
1.
Network
flows involve spatial interaction that experience a distance decay (negative
exponential function).
2.
A
simple gravity model defines a market boundary as the point in which
gravitational pull between two directions is identical.
3.
Gravitational
pull is directly related to relative size (economies of scale) and inversely
related to distance squared (transport cost savings)
4.
Reilly
law of retail gravitation can be used to predict the breaking point or boundary
between two cities with varying population connected by a transport
artery. The breaking point, BP,
distance from the center of a larger city, C2, to a smaller city, C1, is the distance between
the two cites divided by 1 plus the square route of the population of city 2
divided by the population of city 1.
1.
Early
‘hoof and foot’ and seashore economy confined markets and urban form to
relatively small cities.
2.
The
steam engine, invented by James Watt in 1769, paved the way for ocean liners
(1807) and railroads (1829). The era of
cheap transportation had arrived.
3.
Steam
power was most useful for movement among urban areas rather than within urban
areas because of effect on environment and economies of long haul (firing up
the furnace versus keeping it going.) The
first electric trolley system was developed in Richmond, Va. In 1888 that
significantly increased the effective area of commuting.
4.
The
internal combustion engine began the American ‘love affair’ with their
automobile and began the movement toward longer distance commuting. (Aided by Interstate highway system beginning
in the 1950s.)
5.
Steam
turbines and then diesel engines increase bulk sea carriers of
commodities. The Suez Canal in 1869 and
the Panama Canal in 1914 dramatically reduced distance for international
trade.
6.
Air
transportation has become the standard mode for long-distance travel.
1.
Transport
improvement have led to a progressive reduction in the cost of travel and
travel time between places,
2.
This
has increased the ‘hinterland’ of market cities.
3.
Larger
market increased specialization and divisibility of production, adding to
productivity. Economies of scale and
agglomeration economies associated with city size lower production costs to
help compensate for higher land costs and wage rates.
4.
Transportation
and communication infrastructures are a reflection of the level of economic
development achieved by a country or region.
1.
The
theory of contestable markets (low fixed barriers to entry) paved the way for
deregulation of the airlines and other transportation facilities.
2.
In 1978 the Airline Deregulation Act reduced
route and fare controls and phased out the CAB’s control of a ‘natural
monopoly.’
3.
Hub
and spoke networks emerged with consolidation (and bankruptcies). This system has advantages and disadvantages
that affected flight availability in some areas and flight congestion in
others. Rates have fallen and routes
eliminated in response to market demand and excess capacity.
4.
Controversy
over location and transport of nuclear wastes and the selection of Yucca
Mountain Nevada for storage of nuclear waste from commercial power plants has
resulted from NIMBY (not in my backyard) and MIMTOO (not in my term of office)
effects among over 100 temporary storage sites.
Personal Mobility in the United States
1.
New
concerns are developing over the rising levels of air pollution and expressway
congestion created in urban areas. New
technologies like intelligent vehicle highway systems (‘smart’ cars and ‘smart’
highways to monitor and report traffic flows and to automatically break to
avoid collisions) to enable greater traffic volumes; and/or strategies to slow
peak-period demand during journey-to-work trips or to encourage higher levels
of vehicle occupancy (HOV lanes) are used by cities. The best inducement is to increase the price of adding to
congestion and pollution with the use of time of day tolls.
2.
Why
the growth in demand for urban personal automobile use rather than public transportation? Low operating cost of private automobile,
increase female use, lack of flexible alternatives modes, demand for mobility,
reduced average size of households.
3.
Intercity
transportation on expressways can be reduced with high-speed trains with
magnetic levitation.
4.
Globalization
will increase demand for supersonic aircraft.
(LA to Tokyo in two hours—rather than current 12 hours)
5.
Graphical
applications relate organization of activities and resources to reach a desired
objective. Transportation planning
using GIS applications will improve coordination of system.
1.
Communication
technology based on fiber optics and digital technology has replaced the
telegraph and is making the global office a reality.
2.
Computers
are adaptive to repeatable tasks (automated bureaucracy), freeing workers to
organize and make decisions that are customer or results-oriented rather than
activity based.
3.
Firms
can outsource to gain access to management consultants, accountants, and
lawyers without having them on staff.
4.
Smart
television will increase the speed of learning for new training programs and
distance learning will come from universities throughout the country.
5.
Continuing
education programs will be fast-tracked based on profession needs as opposed to
broader, liberal arts education.
6.
Networked
computers allow for flexible factories that produce small runs of niche
products with little or no inventory and local supervision or coordination.
7.
Large
scale, low earth orbit (LEO) satellite transmission systems and wireless
communication will replace coaxial cable and copper wire infrastructure linking
households to home based shopping, banking, working, and entertainment and
businesses to hundreds of applications.
8.
IT
is changing the role of women in the workforce, allowing them to work at home
while raising children.