Learning Resources
Lesson
Transportation is the movement of goods and people from one location to another. It involves coordination of a vast array of events, equipment, and people. A number of sub-systems are required to accomplish this.
Transportation Modes and Systems
The major modes of transportation can be categorized as land, water, air and space. Land transportation, for example, includes vehicles and roadways, railway lines and trains.
Many transportation systems operate in only one of those modes; that is it will be land based or it will be air-based (trucks and airplanes for example). Some transportation systems operate across modes. Most of these do so by coordinating the flow of goods and people from one mode to another. A few do it by having devices that operate in more than one mode, i.e. a hovercraft can work on land or water. The figure below illustrates the four modes and several transportation systems in each mode.
Figure Transportation Modes
Single mode refers to a vehicle or system that can operate in one mode only of land, water, air, or space. Multi-mode vehicles can operate in more that one mode. The multi-mode systems at the bottom illustrates transportation systems for specific purposes, such as shipping, which cut across multiple modes of transportation. In this case, the system may be operated by a company that owns fleets of trains, ships, planes and trucks.
Transportation Sub-systems
This unit is concerned with large systems such as airlines, railways, shipping companies and public transit systems
All these systems have a variety of sub-systems. Many of these are used to plan, operate, and manage the transportation system. Communications systems are an integral part of these sub-systems. The sub-systems include
- scheduling, which is a method of managing, for example
- vehicle and fleet scheduling to ensure ships, trains, planes and trucks are at the correct location at the correct time
- cargo and passenger scheduling to ensure they arrive at the proper terminals in time to embark or disembark, often to meet other modes of transport
- equipment repairs and maintenance at the proper time is critical to prevent downtime and broken equipment, loss time, and unsafe conditions
- personnel and crew shifts and rotations need to be scheduled to ensure that there are no gaps in service, to balance work loads, and to manage costs
- payroll and accounts payments to ensure employees and accounts are paid on time
- tracking, which is a method of determining, for example
- the location of equipment in real time (continuously), at scheduled times, or any time it is required
- the status of equipment, such as if it has been tampered with, if systems are in good operation
- when/where cargo (from envelopes to large containers) was accepted, its current location if not delivered and when/where it was/will be delivered
- navigation, which is a method of,, for example
- plotting courses on maps and charts from one location to one or more destinations, including time of departure, course, and time of arrival
- maintaining course over time as plotted on the map or chart
- maintaining schedules and timelines
- weather monitoring and forecasting, which is a method of, for example
- weather data collection in synoptic time (data is collected in real-time at various stations around the globe and transferred through the Global Telecommunication System).
- data assessment, including plotting the data on maps and charts to indicate changes over time
- forecasting weather conditions into the next few hours and days
- sensing and control, which is a method of, for example
- collecting data about the operation of many components of a vehicle, such as engine temperature, engine speed, and pressure in hydraulic systems
- automatically modifying a system's behaviour based on information collected by sensors, such as an autopilot changing engine speed and helm direction on a ship in order to stay on course
- remote sensing, which is a method of, for example
- collecting data from a distance
- using one or more forms of information to determine other forms of information (for example, using infrared sensitive cameras to determine ocean temperatures, and from that making other determinations about ocean life)
Activity
Assigned activities
The purpose of this activity is to develop understanding of transportation systems. Please complete all parts of the activity
- Research new developments in single and multi-mode vehicles and transportation systems
- Document your findings
- Generate and entry in your course portfolio
- Publish the portfolio to your course portfolio web
Test Yourself
There is no self test for this lesson.