Social and Policy Perspective on Transport Geography

Abstract

Transport Geography has had a long history from the mid-19th Century onwards, being imported to Japan in the 1920's. In spite of such a long history, however, geographers' contributions in the form of comment or criticism on current transport problems have been rather few in Japan. The introduction of quantitative methods into transport geography after the 1960's has not changed the situation. There have seldom been discussions or coordinations with persons belonging to other related fields of study such as economics, sociology, engineering, and so on. In this paper, the author analyzes the stagnation of transport geography in regard to the study of current transport problems.The author points out the existence of two different types of transport geography. They are: (1) the analysis of transport phenomena through regional environment, and (2) the explanation of other phonomena using transport as indices or factors. While the first type remains a minority, the second type has played the leading role in transport geography in Japan after the 1950's, being of little use in analyzing or criticizing current transport problems, and some transport geographers have had little interest in current transport problems.The author suggests the importance of study for transport facilities and transport enterprises through regional environment, in both physical and social view-points, in the area of the former type of transport geography. The most important stress in such studies should be placed on the historical processes of decision-making for transport facilities and transport enterprises through an integrated system of technology, administration and policy, economics, and culture, each including its historical development. Through such an integrated system of study, transport geography will be able to contribute to practical analysis and criticism of current transport problems, and lead the study in the direction of policy-making. In other words, a transport geographer must become a transport generalist.The author also refers to the current study of transport geography in English-speaking regions, trying to analyze the process of decision-making in transport facilities and transport enterprises.