Transportation Geography

Abstract

Transportation geography is the study of the spatial aspects of transportation. It includes the location, structure, environment, and development of networks as well as the analysis and explanation of the interaction or movement of goods and people (Black 1989). In addition it encompasses the role and impacts—both spatial and aspatial—of transport in a broad sense including facilities, institutions, policies and operations in domestic and international contexts. It also provides an explicitly spatial perspective, or point of view, within the interdisciplinary study of transportation. There has been substantial progress in the development of the transportation geography subfield over the last ten years. In 1993, the Journal of Transport Geography was started in the UK, providing the subfield with its own eponymous journal. Several second editions of key textbooks were published, including The Geography of Transportation (Taaffe et al. 1996), The Geography of Urban Transportation (Hanson 1995), and Modern Transport Geography (Hoyle and Knowles 1998). The Transportation Geography Specialty Group (TGSG) instituted the Edward L. Ullman Award for scholarly contributions to the subfield; recipients have included Edward Taaffe, Harold Mayer, Howard Gauthier, William Garrison, William Black, James Vance, Susan Hanson, Morton O’Kelly, Bruce Ralston, Donald Janelle, Thomas Leinbach, Brian Slack, and Kingsley Haynes. The specialty group also began honoring students who have written the best doctoral dissertations and masters theses each year, and a TGSG web page was created. The University of Washington Department of Geography instituted the Douglas K. Fleming lecture series in transportation geography at AAG annual meetings. Finally, transport geographers have played prominent roles in a Geography and Regional Science Program organized joint National Science Foundation/European Science Foundation initiative on Social Change and Sustainable Transport (SCAST) (Leinbach and Smith 1997; Button and Nijkamp 1997). This initiative led to the development of the North American-based Sustainable Transportation Analysis and Research (STAR) network led by geographer William Black as a counterpart to the European-based Sustainable Transport in Europe and Links and Liaisons with America (STELLA) network. Together, these initiatives and research networks offer significant opportunities for geographers to contribute to a growing body of literature on the environmental, economic, and equity implications of transportation systems.

The changing tides of port geography (1950–2012)

“…The analysis strengthens the applicability of the rather 'ghettoized' dimension of transport geography (cf. Goetz et al, 2003;Keeling, 2007) in general to port geography papers given the somewhat limited impact of its core papers externally and its growing specialization within transport research moving away from mainstream geographical research, except for the top cited papers that have actually limited connections with classical port geography papers. Yet this study has identified a recent production of more innovative papers connecting both classical port geography papers and wider research fields, backed by the emergence of a connected community of port specialists.…”

Making links: On (re)engaging with transport and transport geography

“…Naturally there is some debate about what these actually are. In essence, transport geography is the study of spatial aspects of transport (Goetz et al, 2004). Rodrigue et al (2009) identify as important the geography of transport networks themselves and the impact of these networks in determining wider human geographies, and to this might be added the concept of travel spaces (Shaw et al, 2008).…”

Reexploring Transport Geography and Networks: A Case Study of Container Shipments to the West Coast of the United States

“…More recently, the inheritors of the behavioral and historical^cultural tradition (as well as its long-time practitioners) have discussed network behavior in terms of actors and strategy. This more recent writing has begun to reengage with theoretical debates across broader literatures in geography, although internal critics still feel compelled to call for greater openness towards different epistemological stances (Goetz et al, 2004;Hanson, 2000).…”