You transport correspond to the set of materials and technical instruments used in moving people and cargo from one place to another. In the context of the development of countries and societies, the means of transport are one of the main elements to guarantee the infrastructure, that is, the material support for such growth instrumentalize yourself.
The greater the economic growth of a given country - which is to say that there is a greater presence of industries, agrarian and commercial activities -, greater demand and pressure on the means of transport. In this case, if these means do not have an adequate structure to support this load, the development of this country will inevitably face greater challenges and will hardly be achieved. For this reason, we say that transport, along with communication, is an element strategic for any country or government.
The capitalist system itself, throughout history, needed the evolution of the means of transport to develop. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was the development of navigation techniques and the production of large caravels that allowed the colonial expansion Europe and the reproduction of its economic system to other societies, starting the process of globalization of capitalism that, today, we call for
globalization.In order to evolve this globalization process and, at the end of the 20th century, consolidate itself in the world, it required the transformation and improvement of the transport sector. And this was possible thanks to the technical instruments of different times, such as the Industrial Revolution and the implementation of the steam train and large ships, as well as the invention of the car and its popularization later. Later, the invention and spread of air transport gave a new dimension to the way people, raw materials and goods travel.
THE Technical-Scientific-Informational Revolution it gave new contours to the dynamics of transport, allowing the modernization of existing means and the creation of new forms of displacement throughout the geographic space. If, in the early days, travel over short distances took days, today the longest flights in the world take a few hours (not considering stopovers and connections) to make.
Therefore, understanding the operation and characteristics of the means of transport is also to understand the process of evolution of the societies, as every country needs an efficient transport system that is adequate to the conditions of its territory to develop. So, when we see news that the government announces the construction, for example, of a large highway, railroad or waterway, We understand that this action is the result of a latent need for growth to generate more wealth, jobs and investments.
Another necessary consideration is that the different displacement systems are articulated in networks, at transport networks, which are also often called modals. Like any network, transport is articulated by we, which are fixed points, and lines, which are the flows. This happens with road, rail, waterway, sea, air, pipeline and others.
Thus, the efficiency of these modes, as well as the interconnection capacity (what we call intermodality), it is crucial to infer the capacity of a given country to develop in a medium and long future deadline. That's why we routinely hear many people saying that transport is the “bottleneck” for the growth of any territory in the world.
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
