Transportation and the City of the Future Options Menu: Forum
Module 7 Basic Geographic Concepts
Space-Time Convergence
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Space-Time Convergence
• Space-time convergence refers to the decrease in travel time between two locations
• It implies that two locations can be reached in a lesser amount of time, which is usually the outcome of innovations in transportation and communications technology
• It is because of improvements in transportation and communications technology that the value of the distance exponent (e) in the Gravity Model tends to decrease over time
• In this Module, we will examine some of these improvements in transportation and communications technology
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Measuring Distance
• Distance can be measured in different ways
• Geographic Distance
• There are two ways we can measure geographic distance
• Euclidian Distance
• Sometimes referred to as “as the crow flies.
• It is the “straight line” distance between two points
• Manhattan metric
• The distance you travel when you use the road network to get from one place to another
• By road, it is 18 miles from the UT to Maumee Bay State PARK
University of Toledo
Maumee Bay State Park
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Measuring Distance
• Distance can also be measures by:
• Time (how long it takes to travel between two places)
• It takes 27 minutes to drive from UT to Maumee Bay State Park
• Money (how much it costs to travel between two places)
• It costs $1.80 in gasoline to drive from UT to Maumee Bay State Park
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Distance as Time
• Under what conditions would it take longer than 27 minutes to drive from UT to Maumee Bay State Park?
• Bad weather (e.g. snow)
• Heavy traffic (e.g. during rush hour) • Note traffic is “light” when the map on
the right was generated
• Road construction
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Distance as Time
• Any of the factors noted on the previous slide would cause the value of “e” to increase
• Remember, in the Gravity Model, the value “e” decreases when you can travel between two places more quickly
• Conversely, the value “e” increases when if it takes more time to travel between two places
• Bad weather, heavy traffic, or road construction would cause a temporary increase in the value of “e” for the journey between UT and Maumee Bay State Park
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Distance as Cost ($)
• Distance can also be measured in terms of how much it costs to travel between two places
• In terms of gasoline, it costs $1.80 to travel between the UT and Maumee Bay State Park
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Distance as a Cost ($)
• An increase in the price of gasoline would increase the cost of traveling between UT and Maumee Bay State Park
• It is such a short distance, however, an increase in gas prices is unlikely to reduce the number of people who make the trip
• However, an increase in the price of gasoline or an air ticket might reduce the number of people traveling over larger geographic distances
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Cost of travel
• The cost of travel varies geographically
• For example, the average cost of gasoline varies from place to place
• The map on the rights shows how gasoline prices varied among different regions of the US in 2017
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Read • Hymas, Lisa. 2012. How high do gas prices have to get to trigger behavior change? Grist.org. https://grist.org/oil/5-is-the- new-4-how-high-do-gas-prices-have-to-go- to-change-behavior/
Read the following:
Transportation and Communications Technology • In the next set of slides, we will look at how transportation and
communications technology have improved over time
• Transportation improvements make it possible for people to travel between places faster and more cheaply
• Communications improvements made it possible for people to communicate with people in other places faster and more cheaply
• All these improvements reduced the friction of distance and contributed to a decrease in the value of “e” in the Gravity Model
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Lansing to Detroit, 1840-Today
1840 and 1960
In the next slide you will see how travel time between Lansing and Detroit, MI (a distance of 90 miles) changed between 1840 and 1960
1840
In 1840 it took 20 hours to travel from Lansing to Detroit by stagecoach
19th century
Throughout the 19th century, two improvements reduce the travel time between Lansing and Detroit
•Introduction of wooden plank roads
•Introduction of the railroad
1880
By 1880, you could travel from Lansing to Detroit in 3 hours
Today
By car, it takes about 90 minutes to travel between Lansing and Detroit
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Travel Time from Lansing to Detroit, MI, 1840-1960
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10
15
20
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1840 1860 1880 1990 1920 1940 1960
H o
u rs
Year
Stagecoach
Stagecoach & Wooden Plank Road
Railroad
Automobile
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Read • Longfellow, Rickie. 2017. Back in time: Plank roads. Fhwa.dot.gov. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/ back0508.cfm
Read the following:
US Railroad Network, 1860- 1890
• In the following slide you will see maps of the U.S. railroad network in 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890
• As you look at these maps, consider the implications of the expansion of the railroad network for
• The movement of people
• The movement of goods (trade between cities and regions)
• The everyday life of Americans
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1860 1870
1880 1890
Australia to the United Kingdom (UK)
• The distance from Australia to the UK is approximately 9,455 miles
• Think about flying from Australia to the UK
• How long do you think it would take you to get from Australia to the UK?
• How many layovers would you have?
• How much do you think it would cost?
• Now think about the same trip in 1935, and think about the answers to the same two questions
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Australia to UK
Measure 1935 1947 2018
Time 12 day 4 days 17 hours
Number of stops 31 6 Non-stop
Cost (in $2018) $15,000 $29,000 $1,000
The table below shows the time, number of stops, and cost (expressed in $2018) to fly between Australia and the UK in 1935, 1947, and 2018
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Read
• Leadbeater, Chris. 2018. 31 stops, fares from £10,834 and sandwiches courtesy of the co-pilot – the first flight from Britain to Australia. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/o ceania/australia/articles/history-of-kangaroo-route- flights-from-uk-to- australia/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_fb_tmg
Read the following:
How far can you travel from NYC in 24 hours?
• This map shows how far you can travel from New York City in 24 hours for various years
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Read
• Yanofsky, David. 2013. How far you could get from New York in one day—back in the day. qz.com. https://qz.com/162061/how-far-you-could-get- from-new-york-in-one-day-back-in-the-day/
Read the following:
Cost of a 3-minute phone call
between New York and London in 2020 dollars, 1930-2000
• In this chart you can see how the cost of transferring information across space has decreased over time
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
C o
st (
$ 2
0 2
0 )
Year
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Read • O’Dell, Cary. No date. First official transatlantic phone call. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national- recording-preservation- board/documents/FIRST%20TRANSATLANTIC%20C ALL.pdf
Read the following:
Instantaneous Communication
• Today you can communicate with someone in a distant country at no or little cost using a variety of technologies such as e-mail, FaceTime, Zoom etc.
• This has reduced the cost of communicating with other people to almost zero (although you do have to have access to a computer, iPad, Smart Phone, etc.)
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Space-Time Convergence • This graphic captures the essence of time-
space convergence by showing the world “shrinking” as transportation technology improves
• Between 1500 and 1840, horse drawn carriages and sailing ships travelled at an average speed of 10mph.
• By the 1960s, we had jet passenger aircraft that could travel at between 500mph and 700mph
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The Future of Travel
• Have you thought about the future of travel?
• What types of transportation technologies will be using?
• How will these new and/or improved technologies change the speed and cost of travel?
• In the next three slides, you can see and read about one possible future transportation technology – the hyperloop.
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Watch • The B1M. No Date. Hyperloop Explained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcikLQZI5wQ&t=5s
• If you experience problems loading the above video, simply go to YouTube.com and type “Hyperlook Explained” in the search engine, and you can watch using the link shown below:
•
Watch the following:
Read • Boffey, Daniel. 2020. Amsterdam to Paris in 90
minutes? Dutch tout hyperloop as future of travel. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/a pr/10/amsterdam-to-paris-in-90-minutes-dutch- tout-hyperloop-as-future-of-travel
Read the following:
Read
• Brown, Mike. No Date. Here are the 11 Proposed Hyperloop Routes in The United States. https://www.inverse.com/article/30029-hyperloop- one-11-routes-across-the-united-states
Read the following:
Summary
• In this Module, we have examined the concept of Space-Time Convergence
• Space-Time Convergence is simply the idea that, as transportation and communication technologies improve, places become “closer together” in terms of time, cost, and convenience
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End
In the next Module, we will examine the concept of Spatial (Geographic) Diffusion
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