Modal Competition, Complementarity and Shift along a Corridor | The Geography of Transport Systems (2024)

FAQs

What is modal competition in transportation? ›

Transport corridors usually offer a variety of modal options with a linear accumulation of infrastructure. The interactions between these modes usually take three forms: Modal competition. When one mode is directly competing with another other or with different firms on the same mode, which is often a zero-sum game.

What is it? Modal shifting is essentially shifting from one mode to another. In this case, it means to shift road, water and air transportation to the greener and more economic option of rail.

In logistics, there are four main modes of transportation: ocean, road, rail, and air. In this article we explore each of them, including when you would typically use them and their pros and cons. Let's start with ocean shipping, the backbone of international trade.

The different modes of transport include air, water, and land transport, which includes rails or railways, road and off-road transport. Other modes of transport also exist, including pipelines, cable transport, and space transport.

The complementary positive of transportation is the convenience and efficiency it provides in connecting people and goods, enabling economic growth, social interaction, and access to resources.

The modal split of transport describes the relative share of each mode of transport, for example by road, rail or sea. It is based on passenger-kilometres (p-km) for passenger transport and tonne-kilometres (t-km) for freight or goods transport.

In essence, a 'modal shift' (in this context) means a change from one form of transportation to another, for example, switching a delivery van for an e-cargo bike.

Modal shift is often raised as one of three fundamental approaches to lower the greenhouse gas emissions from freight transport, along with changing to more efficient vehicles and low carbon fuels.

Modal shifts to less carbon-intensive transport are crucial to decarbonization efforts. Promoting collective transport such as trains or ridesharing and expanding public transport networks significantly reduce emissions.

An aeroplane is the fastest mode of transport. It covers thousands of kilometres in just a few hours.

What mode of transportation is cheapest? ›

Waterways are the cheapest modes of transport.

The aircraft is the second fastest method of transport, after the rocket. Commercial jets can reach up to 955 kilometres per hour (593 mph), single-engine aircraft 555 kilometres per hour (345 mph).

Fastest and costliest mode of transportation is airways. It is very suitable for transport of valuable and precious goods and is a great time saver.

The vast majority of passenger travel in the United States occurs by automobile for shorter distances and airplane or railroad for longer distances.

Modality types are an important part of logistics, as they define the different ways in which products and materials can be moved from one place to another. They include transportation modalities such as land, sea, and air.

Flexibility: Multimodal transportation offers greater flexibility in terms of selecting specific modes of transportation for specific parts of the journey, while intermodal transportation offers less flexibility as the entire shipment is managed by a single entity or transportation provider.

Intermodal transportation combines two or more different types of transportation to provide a more excellent travel experience. For example, you can have a bus that travels between two cities and then take a train from one city to the other. The train service is an example of intermodal transportation.

In transport statistics, the modal split is the share of a mode of transport in the overall transport market. In other words, it represents the percentage distribution of transport performance or transport volume among different modes of transport.