Mode of transport

A mode of transport is a method or way of traveling, or of transporting people or cargo.

animal-powered transport

are sometimes regarded as distinct modes, but they may lie in other categories such as land or water transport.

In general,

transportation refers to the moving of people, animals, and other goods from one place to another, and means of transport refers to the transport facilities used to carry people or cargo according to the chosen mode. Examples of the means of transport include automobile, airplane, ship, truck, and train. Each mode of transport has a fundamentally different set of technological solutions. Each mode has its own infrastructure, vehicles, transport operators and operations

.

Animal-powered

Animal-powered transport is the use of working animals for the transport of people and/or goods. Humans may use some of the animals directly, use them as pack animals for carrying goods, or harness them, alone or in teams, to pull watercraft, sleds, or wheeled vehicles.

Air

London Heathrow Airport

A

airships

, are not a significant portion of air transport.)

Air transport is the fastest method of transport, Commercial jets reach speeds of up to 955 kilometres per hour (593 mph) and a considerably higher ground speed if there is a

aviation's impacts to the environment and particularly the global climate require consideration when comparing modes of transportation.^[4] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates a commercial jet's flight to have some 2-4 times the effect on the climate than if the same CO₂ emissions were made at ground level, because of different atmospheric chemistry and radiative forcing effects at the higher altitude.^[5] U.S. airlines alone burned about 16.2 billion gallons of fuel during the twelve months between October 2013 and September 2014.^[6] WHO estimates that globally as many as 500,000 people at a time are on planes.^[3] The global trend has been for increasing numbers of people to travel by air, and individually to do so with increasing frequency and over longer distances, a dilemma that has the attention of climate scientists and other researchers,^[7]^[8]^[9] the press,^[10]^[11] and the World Wide Web.^[12] The issue of impacts from frequent travel, particularly by air because of the long distances that are easily covered in one or a few days, is called hypermobility

and has been a topic of research and governmental concern for many years.

Human powered

Human powered transport, a form of

physical exercise, and environmentalism

; it is sometimes the only type available, especially in underdeveloped or inaccessible regions.

Although humans are able to walk without infrastructure, the transport can be enhanced through the use of roads, especially when using the human power with vehicles, such as

watercraft rowing and skiing; even the air can be entered with human-powered aircraft

.

Land

Land transport covers all land-based transportation systems that provide for the movement of people, goods and services. Land transport plays a vital role in linking communities to each other. Land transport is a key factor in urban planning. It consists of 2 kinds, rail and road.

Rail

trackside systems. Alternatively, some or all the cars can be powered, known as a multiple unit. Also, a train can be powered by horses, cables, gravity, pneumatics and gas turbines. Railed vehicles move with much less friction than rubber tires on paved roads, making trains more energy efficient

, though not as efficient as ships.

box cars, requiring manual loading and unloading of the cargo

. Since the 1960s, container trains have become the dominant solution for general freight, while large quantities of bulk are transported by dedicated trains.

Road

Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80) near Berkeley, California

, United States

A road is an identifiable route of travel, usually surfaced with gravel, asphalt or concrete, and supporting land passage by foot or by a number of vehicles.

The most common road vehicle in the developed world is the

pedestrians, and special provisions are sometimes made for each of these. For example, bus lanes give priority for public transport, and cycle lanes

provide special areas of road for bicycles to use.

Automobiles offer high flexibility, but are deemed with high energy and area use, and the main source of noise and air pollution in cities; buses allow for more efficient travel at the cost of reduced flexibility.^[14] Road transport by truck is often the initial and final stage of freight transport.

Water

Water transport is the process of transport that a watercraft, such as a bart, ship or sailboat, makes over a body of water, such as a sea, ocean, lake, canal, or river. If a boat or other vessel can successfully pass through a waterway it is known as a navigable waterway. The need for buoyancy unites watercraft, and makes the hull a dominant aspect of its construction, maintenance and appearance. When a boat is floating on the water the hull of the boat is pushing aside water where the hull now is, this is known as displacement.

In the 1800s, the first

bunker fuel. Some ships, such as submarines, use nuclear power to produce the steam. Recreational or educational craft still use wind power, while some smaller craft use internal combustion engines to drive one or more propellers, or in the case of jet boats, an inboard water jet. In shallow draft areas, hovercraft

are propelled by large pusher-prop fans.

Although slow, modern sea transport is a highly effective method of transporting large quantities of non-perishable goods. Commercial vessels, nearly 35,000 in number, carried 7.4 billion tons of cargo in 2007.

short sea shipping and ferries remain viable in coastal areas.^[17]^[18]

Other modes

Micromobility is the collective name for small electric powered vehicles.

crude oil from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field to Valdez, Alaska

.

Pipeline transport sends goods through a pipe, most commonly liquid and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes

can also send solid capsules using compressed air. For example, liquids/gases, any chemically stable liquid or gas can be sent through a pipeline. Short-distance systems exist for sewage, slurry water and beer, while long-distance networks are used for petroleum and natural gas.

Cable transport is a broad mode where vehicles are pulled by cables instead of an internal power source. It is most commonly used at steep gradient. Typical solutions include aerial tramway, elevators, escalator and ski lifts; some of these are also categorized as conveyor transport.

Space transport is transport out of Earth's atmosphere into outer space by means of a spacecraft. While large amounts of research have gone into technology, it is rarely used except to put satellites into orbit, and conduct scientific experiments. However, people have landed on the moon, and probes have been sent to all the planets of the Solar System.

Amazon.com

and other transportation companies are currently testing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in parcel delivery. This method will allow short-range small-parcel delivery in a short time frame.

Components of a mode of transport

A transport mode is a combination of the following:

bus terminals, airport terminals
), etc.

automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, wagons, trains, ships, and aircraft

A stationary or mobile workforce

Propulsion system and power supply (

traction

)

Operations: driving, management, traffic signals, railway signalling, air traffic control, etc.

Comparison of the transport mode by distance travelled

Worldwide, the most widely used modes for passenger transport are the Automobile (16,000 bn passenger km), followed by Buses (7,000), Air (2,800), Railways (1,900), and Urban Rail (250).^[20]

The most widely used modes for freight transport are Sea (40,000 bn ton km), followed by Road (7,000), Railways (6,500), Oil pipelines (2,000) and Inland Navigation (1,500).^[20]

Passenger km per capita in different regions^[20]
	EU 15 ^{[clarification needed]}	US	Japan	World
GDP (PPP) per capita (€) (for comparison)	19,000	28,600	26,000	7,500
Private car	10,100	33,200	6,200	2,700
Bus/coach	1,050	150	740	1,200
Railway	750	78	2,900	32
Air (domestic except World)	860	2,800	580	480

References

^ "mode of transport". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
^ Cooper et al., 1998: 281
^ ^a ^b Swine flu prompts EU warning on travel to the US. The Guardian. April 28, 2009.
^ The Future of Air Transport White Paper (2009), HMSO "The aviation industry is encouraged to take account of, and where appropriate reduce, its contribution to global warming...The impact of aviation on climate change is increased over that of direct CO₂ emissions alone by some of the other emissions released and their specific effects at altitude".
^ IPCC, Aviation and the Global Atmosphere: A Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2000), Cambridge University Press
^ Why airfare keeps rising despite lower oil prices Archived 2014-11-20 at the Wayback Machine, by Scott Mayerowitz, Assoc. Press Airlines Writer. Houston Chron., November 17, 2014.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2011.01.013
.

S2CID 154791383
.

S2CID 8242255
.

^ Jenkins S. (2009). Hypermobility is now the opium of the people, an obsession that wrecks communities and planet. The Guardian. 22 Dec. 2009.

^ Rosenthal E. (2010). Can we kick our addiction to flying? Guardian, UK. 24 May 2010.

^ Internet search for travel addiction.

^ Cooper et al., 1998: 279

^ Cooper et al., 1998: 278

^ United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2007, p. x and p. 32.

^ Stopford, 1997: 4–6

^ Stopford, 1997: 8–9

^ Cooper et al., 1998: 280

^ "Zipline - Lifesaving Deliveries by Drone". flyzipline.com. Retrieved 2019-04-11.

^ ^a ^b ^c "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-11. Retrieved 2006-05-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Authority control databases: National

Germany

Israel

Czech Republic

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mode_of_transport&oldid=1211700464"

[1] "mode of transport". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

[2] Cooper et al., 1998: 281

[guardian.co.uk-3] Swine flu prompts EU warning on travel to the US. The Guardian. April 28, 2009.

[4] The Future of Air Transport White Paper (2009), HMSO "The aviation industry is encouraged to take account of, and where appropriate reduce, its contribution to global warming...The impact of aviation on climate change is increased over that of direct CO₂ emissions alone by some of the other emissions released and their specific effects at altitude".

[IPCC-5] IPCC, Aviation and the Global Atmosphere: A Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2000), Cambridge University Press

[6] Why airfare keeps rising despite lower oil prices Archived 2014-11-20 at the Wayback Machine, by Scott Mayerowitz, Assoc. Press Airlines Writer. Houston Chron., November 17, 2014.

[7] :10.1016/j.annals.2011.01.013
.

[8] S2CID 154791383
.

[9] S2CID 8242255
.

[10] Jenkins S. (2009). Hypermobility is now the opium of the people, an obsession that wrecks communities and planet. The Guardian. 22 Dec. 2009.

[11] Rosenthal E. (2010). Can we kick our addiction to flying? Guardian, UK. 24 May 2010.

[12] Internet search for travel addiction.

[13] Cooper et al., 1998: 279

[14] Cooper et al., 1998: 278

[15] United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2007, p. x and p. 32.

[16] Stopford, 1997: 4–6

[17] Stopford, 1997: 8–9

[18] Cooper et al., 1998: 280

[19] "Zipline - Lifesaving Deliveries by Drone". flyzipline.com. Retrieved 2019-04-11.

[uni-mannheim.de-20] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-11. Retrieved 2006-05-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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