TRANSPORTATION MODES

Road transportation

Road infrastructures are large consumers of space with the lowest level of physical
constraints among transportation modes. However, physiographical constraints are
significant in road construction with substantial additional costs to overcome features
such as rivers or rugged terrain. While historically road transportation was developed to
support non-motorized forms of transportation (walking, domestication of animals and
cycling at the end of the 19th century), it is motorization that has shaped the most its
development since the beginning of the 20th century.

Road transportation has an average operational flexibility as vehicles can serve several
purposes but are rarely able to move outside roads. Road transport systems have high
maintenance costs, both for the vehicles and infrastructures. They are mainly linked to
light industries where rapid movements of freight in small batches are the norm. Yet,
with containerization, road transportation has become a crucial link in freight
distribution.

Rail transportation and pipelines

Railways are composed of a traced path on which wheeled vehicles are bound. In light
of more recent technological developments, rail transportation also include monorails
and maglev. They have an average level of physical constrains linked to the types of
locomotives and a low gradient is required, particularly for freight. Heavy industries are
traditionally linked with rail transport systems, although containerization has improved
the flexibility of rail transportation by linking it with road and maritime modes. Rail is by
far the land transportation mode offering the highest capacity with a 23,000 tons fully
loaded coal unit train being the heaviest load ever carried. Gauges, however, vary
around the world, often challenging the integration of rail systems.

Pipeline routes are practically unlimited as they can be laid on land or under water. The
longest gas pipeline links Alberta to Sarnia (Canada), which is 2,911 km in length. The
longest oil pipeline is the Transiberian, extending over 9,344 km from the Russian arctic
oilfields in eastern Siberia to Western Europe. Physical constraints are low and include
the landscape and pergelisol in arctic or subarctic environments. Pipeline construction
costs vary according to the diameter and increase proportionally with the distance and
with the viscosity of fluids (from gas, low viscosity, to oil, high viscosity). The Trans
Alaskan pipeline, which is 1,300 km long, was built under difficult conditions and has to
be above ground for most of its path. Pipeline terminals are very important since they
correspond to refineries and harbors.

Maritime transportation
Because of the physical properties of water conferring buoyancy and limited friction,
maritime transportation is the most effective mode to move large quantities of cargo
over long distances. Main maritime routes are composed of oceans, coasts, seas, lakes,
rivers and channels. However, due to the location of economic activities maritime
circulation takes place on specific parts of the maritime space, particularly over the
North Atlantic and the North Pacific. The construction of channels, locks and dredging
are attempts to facilitate maritime circulation by reducing discontinuity. Comprehensive
inland waterway systems include Western Europe, the Volga / Don system, St.
Lawrence / Great Lakes system, the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Amazon, the
Panama / Paraguay and the interior of China. Maritime transportation has high terminal
costs, since port infrastructures are among the most expensive to build, maintain and
improve. High inventory costs also characterize maritime transportation. More than any
other mode, maritime transportation is linked to heavy industries, such as steel and
petrochemical facilities adjacent to port sites.

Air transportation

Air routes are practically unlimited, but they are denser over the North Atlantic, inside
North America and Europe and over the North Pacific. Air transport constraints are
multidimensional and include the site (a commercial plane needs about 3,300 meters of
runway for landing and take off), the climate, fog and aerial currents. Air activities are
linked to the tertiary and quaternary sectors, notably finance and tourism, which lean
on the long distance mobility of people. More recently, air transportation has been
accommodating growing quantities of high value freight and is playing a growing role in
global logistics.

Intermodal transportation

Concerns a variety of modes used in combination so that the respective advantages of

Telecommunications

Cover a grey area in terms of if they can be considered as a transport mode since
unlike true transportation, telecommunications often do not have a physicality. Yet,
they are structured as networks with a practically unlimited capacity and very low
constraints, which may include the physiography and oceanic masses that may impair
the setting of cables. They provide for the “instantaneous” movement of information
(speed of light). Wave transmissions, because of their limited coverage, often require
substations, such as for cellular phone networks. Satellites are often using a
geostationary orbit which is getting crowded. High network costs and low distribution
costs characterize many telecommunication networks, which are linked to the tertiary
and quaternary sectors (stock markets, business to business information networks,
etc.). Telecommunications can provide a substitution for personal movements in some
economic sectors.