Transportation in Knowledge Society

Abstract

The history of transportation is one ever increasing speed, comfort, convenience, safety, reliability, and continuously dropping costs of travel. Most people attribute this historical progression of transportation to technological progress in the vehicles and infrastructures. It is true that from the invention of the wheel, the harness, the sailing ship etc. in early times, the pace of technology advances in vehicles and propulsion systems quickened in recent times, as the steam engine, the electric street car and railroad, the internal combustion engine, the jet engine, containerization, and the “mega-ship” have arrived to improve the quality, and lower sharply the costs of travel. Parallel advances in transport physical infrastructures — tunnels, suspension bridges, railroads over all kinds of terrain, the U.S. Interstate System, and modern airports and marine terminals - have also contributed. Third, the development of appropriate non-material infrastructure — knowledge, technical standards, procedures, laws, and policies that guide the governance of transportation— has provided social coordination of the vehicles and the physical facilities and made possible a remarkable level of cheap, efficient, and safe transport—even as all types of travel are expanding dramatically.

“What hath God wrought!”

Samuel Morse, launching the telegraphic era, 1844