Transport

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Transport, or transportation, is the movement of people and things from one place to another place. Transport can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles and operations.

Infrastructure includes roads, railways, airways, canals and pipelines. The infrastructure is the network where things are carried. Infrastructure also includes airports, railway stations, bus stations and seaports. Infrastructure is usually designed by civil engineers and urban planners.

Vehicles usually travel on the infrastructure. Vehicles include cars, trains and airplanes. Vehicles are usually designed by mechanical engineers.

Operations control the system. Operations include traffic signals, railway signals and air traffic control. Operations also include the policies used to control the system, such as tolls and fuel taxes.

[edit] Transport and communications

Transport and communication can be used instead of each other (someone could telephone a person rather than visit them). But the growth in traffic is only possible because of communication (for example, air traffic control means more airplanes can fly). So an increase of either transport or communication usually leads to an increase in the other one.

[edit] Transport, energy, and the environment

Transport uses a lot of energy. Most transport uses hydrocarbons (oil and gas). This can create pollution. Environmental regulations (laws) and low-pollution fuels (for example liquified natural gas) can reduce pollution. But as more vehicles are used, more pollution is created.

[edit] Kinds of transportation

There are 3 main kinds of transportation. they are:

  • land transportation
  • water transportation
  • air transportation