Geography 425: Geography of Transportation

Instructor: Dr. James C. Saku
Office Phone: 301-687-4724, Secretary: 301-687-4369
Office Location: FA 224
Office Hours: 9:00-10:00 MWF, 9:00-11:00 T, or by appointment
Lecture Hours: TR 11:00-12:15
Email: jsaku@frostburg.edu

Course Description: The linkages and flows of goods, services, and people from area to area. The influence of various transportation modes in the historical development of regions; the role of transportation planning in shaping future metropolitan and regional settlements.

Course Objectives

  1. Introduce students to urban and rural transportation issues
  2. Introduce students to the theory, planning, and methods of analyzing transportation problems
  3. Examine institutional policies in transportation management in United Kingdom, United States and the Netherlands
  4. Provide a practical understanding to travel patterns and behavior
  5. Examine the evolution of transportation development in developing and developed countries
Required Text: Tonney R. and Turton B. (1995) Transport Systems, Policy and Planning: A Geographical Approach. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Academic Dishonesty: Note that academic dishonesty including plagiarism and cheating during examination is a serious offense and carries severe penalty. Refer to the Pathfinder for details.

Disruptive Student Behavior: The University will not tolerate disorderly or disruptive conduct which substantially threatens, harms or interferes with university personnel or orderly university processes and function. A faculty member may require a student to leave the classroom when his/her behavior disrupts the learning environment of the class. A student found responsible for disruptive behavior in the classroom may be administratively withdrawn from the course.

Policy:  Students are expected to attend classes regularly and participate actively during class discussions. To participate actively in class, students are required to read assigned materials prior to class. Attendance will be recorded and failure to attend classes will result in the loss of marks. Students are responsible for informing the instructor of their presence if they arrive after attendance has been taken. Class assignments and term essays are to be submitted promptly on the due day. Late submission of term essays and assignments carry a penalty of 20 points per day for a maximum of 5 days. No essays and assignments will be accepted after the 5th day without a reasonable cause. A reasonable cause is defined as serious illness (doctor's report required) or tragedy within the family (a note from family member required).

Grading

All texts including the final examination will consist of short questions and essays. Prior approval is required for missing an examination. No make-up examination will be granted if you fail to seek prior approval.

The final grade will consist of the following

Class attendance = 25 points
Class assignments (2) (To be announced) = 50 points
Field Trip (March 16, 1999) = 10 points
Presentation of research paper (April 29) = 25 points
Research project (May 4 at 3:00 p.m.) = 100 points
Midterm (March 18) = 100 points
Final examination (May 17, 2:30-5:00) = 100 points
Your final grade will be determined based on the total points accumulated over 410. The scale is as follows:

A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F < 60%

Class Assignment

Each student is required to review and provide critical comments on the following articles. These materials are available on reserve in the library. Your review should be limited to four pages. Personal comments about the articles are strongly recommended

  1. Knowles R.D. 1993. Research agendas in transport geography for the 1990s. Journal of Transport Geography 1:1, 3-11 (On Reserve)
  2. Addus A.B. 1989. Road transportation in Africa. Transportation Quarterly 43:3, 421-433

Term Project

Each student is required to undertake an independent project relevant to transportation. Consult with the instructor if in doubt about the relevance of the topic to transportation. The project should be limited to 10-15 pages doubled space. Two copies of the paper should be submitted. Paper will be retained if one copy is submitted. You are encouraged to build a strong bibliography from journals and periodicals for your essay. Example of journals include Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Canadian Geographer, Economic Geography, Progress in Human Geography, Geojournal, Environment and Planning, Journal of Advanced Transportation, Transport Reviews. Note that some of these journals are not available at Ort Library. You may have to do inter-library borrowing.

The Internet is another important source of current information on transportation. The following web sites may be useful. You should be innovative by searching other web sites.

  1. www.bts.gov/virtualib
  2. www.airport.org
  3. www.house.gov/transportation
  4. www.airportnet.org/depts/environ/part150.pdf
  5. www. saferoads.org/general/scope.html

Headings and sub-headings are strongly recommended. You may lose marks if you do not use sub-headings.

  1. The purpose of the project is threefold:
  2. Provide students an opportunity to apply geographic concepts to transportation geography
  3. Familiarize students with theories and techniques of transportation geography
  4. Experience in library research and writing of projects
The project will be graded based on the following criteria:
  1. format - clear, concise and logical
  2. grammar and typos
  3. presentation - data, charts
  4. background of your work - reference to existing literature
  5. relevance of topic to course
  6. practicality and usefulness
  7. strong bibliography (at least two journal articles)

Course outline and reading (subject to change)

A. Background, Concepts and Transport Evolution

1. Introduction (Reading: Chapter 1 of text and Taaffe, Gauthier and O'Kelly 1996 Chapter 1: Transportation Geography and Spatial Organization, On Reserve)
The basis and foundation of transportation geography, transport systems and networks, transport geography in the 1980s and 1990s, approaches to transport geography

2. Transport demand and supply (Reading: Chapter 2 of text)

Patterns of demand, industrial land use and freight traffic generation, personal travel, types of movement, changes in demand
3. Transport form and structure (Reading: Chapter 3 of text) transport and morphology, route selection, quantitative approaches to transport form, transport nodes and interchanges, models and transport form, transport modes

4. The evolution of the United States transportation systems (Reading: Chapters 3 and 4 Taaffe, Gauthier and O'Kelly 1996, Transportation Geography and Spatial Organization, On reserve) transportation and economic development, politics and U.S. transportation development, the four eras of U.S. transportation development

B. Urban and Rural Transportation Issues

5. Urban transport problems (Reading: Chapter 7 of text) urban areas and transportation, modal choice, the urban transport problem

6. Transit systems in metropolitan America (Reading: Fielding G. J. 1995 "Transit in American Cities In: Hanson. S. ed. The geography of urban transportation. New York: Guild Press).

Spatial distribution, transit modes, forecasting demand, autos vs. transit, international comparison, the politics of transit

7. Urban transportation planning process (Reading: Chapter 8 of Text and Pas E. I. "The urban transportation planning process" In: Hanson. S. ed. The geography of urbantransportation. New York: Guild Press).

historical overview of transportation planning in the United States, the planning process, pre-analysis phase, technical analysis phase, modeling phase, post-analysis phase

8. Rural transport problems (Reading: chapter 9 of text)

mobility and accessibility in rural areas, rural transportation in developed and developing countries

C. Transportation Impacts

9. Transportation and land use (Reading: Giuliano G. 1995. "Land use impacts of transportation". In: Hanson. S. ed. The geography of urban transportation. New York: Guild Press).


general considerations (context, dynamics), theoretical foundations of land use and transportation, predicting land use impact, urban and national highways

10. Impacts of transportation on energy use (Reading: Aten B. H. and Hewings G. J. D. 1995. In: Hanson. S. ed. The geography of urban transportation. New York: Guild Press).

mode of transportation and energy use, transportation and energy crises (world energy consumption)

11. Transportation and the environment (Reading: Chapter 10 of text and Stutz F. P. 1995. "Environmental Impacts". In: Hanson. S. ed. The geography of urban transportation. New York: Guild Press).

types of pollution - noise, noise models, air, air quality models (effects of major pollutants on humans), heat islands, environmental impact statements and transportation

12. Transportation and the society (Reading: Chapter 11 of text)

transport-deprived (mobility gaps, the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the young, women), accidents (who, where and how), reducing the toll (prevention and protection), risk compensation, improving road safety, transportation and health, advocates for highways and auto safety.

D. Spatial Patterns

13. International transport systems (Reading: Chapter 5 of text)

freight transport, passenger traffic, international terminals
14. National transport systems (Reading: Chapter 6 of text)
transportation in advanced countries industrial countries, transportation in socialist countries, transportation in developing countries

E. Policy Issues

15. Transport policy (Reading: Chapter 12 of text)

the evolution of policy, international comparison, UK, USA and the Netherlands, policy for sustainable transportation

16. The future of transportation (Reading: Chapter 13 of text)

17. Course Review