The Geography of Transport Systems - Softcover

Rodrigue, Jean-Paul; Comtois, Claude; Slack, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415483247 ISBN 13: 9780415483247

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities, including commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this textbook.

The second edition of The Geography of Transport Systems maintains the overall structure of its predecessor, with chapters dealing with specific conceptual dimensions and methodologies, but the contents have been revised and updated. The second edition also offers new topics and approaches that have emerged as critical issues in contemporary transport systems, including security, energy, supply chain management and GIS-T. Relevant case studies have also been included in the second edition to underline real world issues related to transport geography.

Some key points of the second edition:

• updated and revised conceptual and methodological material to reflect the most current issues in transport geography.
• a case study for each chapter addressing a real world transportation geography issue.
• reorganization of the text to improve readability and continuity.
• updated and improved figures and maps.
• continuously updated and revised supporting web site.

Mainly aimed at an undergraduate audience, this 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 is highly illustrated and a companion web site has also been enhanced for the book. It contains PowerPoint slides, exercises, databases and GIS datasets and can be accessed at http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans

About this title

Review

The Geography of Transport Systems provides an up-to-date and thorough text for introductory courses in Transportation Geography. With both conceptual and methodological elements, this book provides students with qualitative and quantitative tools for approaching analyses of transport systems. Whether their interests are economic, social, or environmental, students will find material in this accessible text to meet their needs.
Kevin Curtin, George Mason University, USA

This is a well-structured textbook for transportation geography. It effectively covers almost all geographical aspects of transportation systems. For each chapter, the concept-method organization is very useful for students to understand the theoretical aspects of transportation and how these theories can be applied in practice. The contents covered in this book are highly relevant to current research and practice.                                                                                                                                                                Dr. Changshan Wu, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

This textbook, written by three well-known transport geographers, is a good example of the vitality and vibrancy of contemporary work in transport geography, especially in terms of its relevance to directly related subfields such as economic geography.

Andrew R. Goetz, University of Denver, USA and the Journal of Economic Geography

About the Author

Jean-Paul Rodrigue is an Associate Professor in the Department of  Global Studies and Geography at Hofstra University, New York.

Claude Comtois is Professor of Geography at the University of Montreal, Canada, and is affiliated with the Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation of the same institution.

Brian Slack is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0415483247
• ISBN 13: 9780415483247
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 368