Modes of transport

Modes of transport

A mode of transport (or means of transport or transport mode or transport modality or form of transport) is a term used to distinguish substantially different ways to perform transport. The most dominant modes of urban transport are land transport, including road, rail, water and air transport. Other modes also exist, including pipelines, cable transport, and space transport. Transport using more than one mode is described as multimodal transport. Transportation that carries around many people and can be used by the public is known as mass transport.

Each mode has its own infrastructure, vehicles, and operations, and often has unique regulations. Each mode of transport therefore also has different security issues which should be accounted for in the design and operation processes.

Road transport

People travelling on the road are either pedestrians, cyclists or they are using a certain type of vehicle, such as automobiles, bicycles, buses, vans or trucks. Passenger transport may furthermore be public, where operators provide scheduled services, or private.

Potential risks for road transport are blocked roads and traffic accidents. Blocked roads can be prevented or the consequences can be minimized by using traffic management, such as incident management and designing a robust road network. Traffic accidents can also be minimized by these measures, and by road safety.

Non-motorized transport

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Walking

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Cycling

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Other non-motorized modes

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Light duty vehicles

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Heavy duty vehicles

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Bus

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Rail transport

Rail transport includes all transport over rails. This can be either for passenger or goods transport, and with different modes of transport, such as trains, metro and trams.

With rail transport, more people or goods can be transported within the same transport vehicle (i.e.) than with road transport. However, there is less flexibility for choosing a different route or time. A schedule is needed to manage all vehicles/trains on the railroad network. Also, disruptions can have large consequences on the schedule, since passing a standstill train is not always possible. This makes a railway system especially vulnerable for incidents or possible terrorist attacks.

Train

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Tram

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Water transport

Water transport

Air transport

Air transport includes all transport through the air. In an urban or regional context this air transport includes local air traffic such as small airplanes or helicopters. From a broader perspective air transport within urban or regional areas include passenger and freight air routes that cross urban or regional areas. In the context of urban security air transport is explicitly high impact. As experienced during 9/11 and other terrorist threats the consequences of failing security are devastating. Air traffic is therefore extremely well monitored, both in terms of passengers or freight as in terms of routing and operations management. Security enforcement primarily takes place at the airports incorporating many facets of security management.

Public transport

Public transport is passenger transport which is publicly available. This can furthermore be distinguished in collective and individual transport. Examples of collective public transport are transport by buses, tram metro, train and plane. Examples of individual public transport are taxis, and in some countries so called riksjas or tuk tuks (a bicycle or moped with a backseat for a few people).Public transport management is used to manage the public transport in order to be able to get people from A to B with public transport as efficiently as possible. If the public transport is disrupted due to a security issue, public transport management measures can be used to minimize the hindrance, such as sending temporary buses or letting trains drive over alternative routes.Public transport is very vulnerable to terrorist attacks, since many people use the same means of transport on the same time and the schedule and routes are publicly available. An attack is therefore easy and the consequences are big.

Freight transport and logistics

A special discipline within transportation is freight transport and logistics. It concerns the distribution of goods from the source to their destination, such as warehouses or terminals for further distribution to e.g. shops. This can involve different modes of transport. The total system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer is called a supply chain. Optimizing this chain is called supply chain optimization. This is mainly focused on time and cost minimization. Disruptions in the supply chain (possibly caused by security issues) mainly have economical consequences, while incidents in passenger transport also might have health consequences for people.

Multimodal transport

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Mass transport

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MAP

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