The geography of transportation in the quantitative revolution

In American geography, since the 1950s, profound debates have taken place that culminated in the so-called quantitative revolution. One of the most prominent geographers of this movement was Edward L. Ullman, who made extensive contributions to the renewal of transportation geography. Ullman coined the idea of ​​geography as the study of spatial interactions between areas, making transportation phenomena of central importance. For Ullman, regions (differentiated under economic criteria) "specialize functionally" and this generates movements of goods and people through complementarity. His ideas were reflected in a pioneering and later quite influential work, “American Commodity Flow” (1957).

Ullman's work was joined by that of William L. Garrison, one of the first promoters of graph theory in network analysis in geography. Mathematical techniques were progressively perfected to perform more dynamic analyses. Taaffe"), Morrill") and Gould in 1963 carried out, based on empirical studies in various African countries, a model of the evolution of transport networks in an ideal sequence of six stages. Quantitative ideas soon spread outside the United States primarily to the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Poland. Already in 1973, a classic manual appeared that gathered all the experience of this tradition, the work of Taaffe and Gauthier “Geography of Transportation”. This work deals with transport and spatial structure, transport and spatial processes), gravity models, network analysis and network allocation models.

The geography of social and humanist transportation

Various criticisms, both internal to quantitative geography and external from classical or compromised traditions, caused the emergence of radical and humanist geographies. Hurst proposed a step from mathematical models to the analysis of the political, economic and military interests that shaped transport networks and flows; In short, the relationships between transportation and the economic-political context had to be taken into consideration.

Subsequently, studies carried out under these new perspectives examine differential mobilities between social groups according to economic, age or gender differences. The objective of many of these works will be to denounce the marginality in terms of mobility of many social groups. There is also a move from studies at a state or regional scale to much larger scales such as local, preferably urban, scales.

The geography of transport in the 21st century

The various traditions explained above (classical or historicist, quantitative and social) have not replaced each other, but have coexisted and currently coexist as schools or paradigms within the geography of transportation. Without a doubt, the quantitative tradition has had a special impact on transportation geography compared to other geographic disciplines due to the possibility of having enormous amounts of quantitative data and the existence of predictive and regulatory models already developed by other disciplines (mainly transportation economics). But very important contributions are also made from other traditions, especially from the classical tradition that involves almost a century of research and methodological development.

The geography of circulation

After the institutionalization of geography in German universities, it can be said that transportation geography properly began, although the most common name at that time to name the discipline was circulation geography in a clear organic metaphor. Alfred Hettner in 1897 published an article on this branch and assigned it as the main subject of study the system of flows of the regions that were metaphorically understood as their blood circulation.

F. Ratzel will be the first to build a systematic approach to the study of regional transportation and circulation. Ratzel, from a biologizing point of view, understood circulation as another aspect of man-environment relations. He also formulated an evolutionary theory "Evolutionism (archaeology)") on the development of communication routes based on the idea or “law” of minimum effort.

In France Ratzel's ideas will be received and criticized. Vidal de la Blache with the doctrine of possibilism") in the society-environment relationship highlights the contingent in the evolution of transport and promotes a historicist and inductive path of study always focused on a specific space. Vidal's disciples will follow this path and already in the 1930s, chorologically oriented studies on railway transport were carried out. For example, Pierre Brunner's thesis "(1935) directed by Raoul Blanchard"): “Railways in struggle with nature" alpine" where he studied the development of the railway in the Alps through field work and first-hand data. By the 1940s, enough empirical research had already been carried out to produce the first synthesizing attempts within French geography ("such as those of Henri Cavailles") and Max Sorre"). In the 50s Raymonde Caralp") (Railways in the Massif Central) and Maurice Wolkowitsch") (The regional economy of transport in Central and Central – Western France) presented doctoral theses on transport and we can speak of the first geographers fully specialized in transport within the French geographical tradition.

The geography of transportation in the quantitative revolution

In American geography, since the 1950s, profound debates have taken place that culminated in the so-called quantitative revolution. One of the most prominent geographers of this movement was Edward L. Ullman, who made extensive contributions to the renewal of transportation geography. Ullman coined the idea of ​​geography as the study of spatial interactions between areas, making transportation phenomena of central importance. For Ullman, regions (differentiated under economic criteria) "specialize functionally" and this generates movements of goods and people through complementarity. His ideas were reflected in a pioneering and later quite influential work, “American Commodity Flow” (1957).

Ullman's work was joined by that of William L. Garrison, one of the first promoters of graph theory in network analysis in geography. Mathematical techniques were progressively perfected to perform more dynamic analyses. Taaffe"), Morrill") and Gould in 1963 carried out, based on empirical studies in various African countries, a model of the evolution of transport networks in an ideal sequence of six stages. Quantitative ideas soon spread outside the United States primarily to the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Poland. Already in 1973, a classic manual appeared that gathered all the experience of this tradition, the work of Taaffe and Gauthier “Geography of Transportation”. This work deals with transport and spatial structure, transport and spatial processes), gravity models, network analysis and network allocation models.

The geography of social and humanist transportation

Various criticisms, both internal to quantitative geography and external from classical or compromised traditions, caused the emergence of radical and humanist geographies. Hurst proposed a step from mathematical models to the analysis of the political, economic and military interests that shaped transport networks and flows; In short, the relationships between transportation and the economic-political context had to be taken into consideration.

Subsequently, studies carried out under these new perspectives examine differential mobilities between social groups according to economic, age or gender differences. The objective of many of these works will be to denounce the marginality in terms of mobility of many social groups. There is also a move from studies at a state or regional scale to much larger scales such as local, preferably urban, scales.

The geography of transport in the 21st century

The various traditions explained above (classical or historicist, quantitative and social) have not replaced each other, but have coexisted and currently coexist as schools or paradigms within the geography of transportation. Without a doubt, the quantitative tradition has had a special impact on transportation geography compared to other geographic disciplines due to the possibility of having enormous amounts of quantitative data and the existence of predictive and regulatory models already developed by other disciplines (mainly transportation economics). But very important contributions are also made from other traditions, especially from the classical tradition that involves almost a century of research and methodological development.