Transportation and the Environment 4/15/08 7:20 PM

Transportation has made environmental and societal impacts since man made the first footpath.

Navigation across the terrain of Pennsylvania has proven difficult but not insurmountable. When land or water navigation proved to difficult in an unaltered environment innovative engineers designed canal systems. In it’s heyday the Schuylkill River Navigation system had 120 locks on its 108-mile span.

Before the industrial revolution many people depended on less sophisticated forms of transportation and often relied on early versions of “mass transit” such as stagecoach or large boats. The industrial revolution brought trains and eventually individual automobiles. Trains still represented a form of mass transit. There was a big environmental impact that came with construction of the rail systems and running of the coal-powered trains. People were now able to transport goods and themselves across land in large quantities. This permitted expansion of homes and industry beyond the traditional paths that often followed waterways.

With the advent of the automobile roadways began to spread like varicose veins across the landscape. This new form of transportation encouraged people to move from the cities and commute. Businesses and industries no longer needed to stay in urban areas because their workers could now get to and from work without the limits of train or trolley systems.

The taste of transportation independence so many grew to know is perhaps the biggest obstacle for people trying to convert back to more fuel-efficient public transportation. Other obstacles include loss of rail infrastructure and lack of public support.


Photo emphasizing use of mass transit. Note the separate lanes. Also note the congestion on the
http://www.itdp.org/











Section of Schuylkill River Trail that was built along old canal paths and rail beds. Many now use these sites for recreation. Critics of this recreation system state that the conversion from mass transit to recreation has prevented reinstatement of the rail system as a form of public transportation.



Cover from the Philadelphia Directory, 1861. This was one of the first places “coal dealers” were listed in the Philadelphia area.
http://www.philageohistory.org/citydir/










PRR Swing Bridge in Philadelphia
http://ruins.wordpress.com/category/schuylkill-river/

Additional Readings and Resources:
The Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network
http://www.philageohistory.org/citydir/

The Schuylkill Canal:
http://www.canal.org/

http://www.racc.edu/Library/canal/History/history.html

Publication from the Transportation Research Board (1994)
www.trb.org/publications/millennium/00120.pdf

GIS in Transportation
http://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/

Teaching with these resources:

Transportation serves a theme tree with many branches for classroom investigation.

Some lines of investigation may include
• Historical tracking of transpiration routes paired to settlement rates
• Changes in transportation and increased energy consumption
• “If you build it they will come syndrome” What influence does creation of additional transportation routes such as roads have on land use rates. Is this influence greater than the that exerted by population growth rate on development
• How has the environment dictated placement of transportation systems/ How as the environment changed our transportation systems (e.g. floods)
• What are the economic impacts of current transportation infra structure
• Would a change in the dominant transportation form effect the local economies in a positive, negative, or neutral manner
• What current and historic goods depend(ed) on our regional transportation systems
• How do roadways affect migration of land animals
• What prevents the government from imposing mandates for public transportation initiatives

PA Academic Standards potentially addressed by the above investigation strands:

Civics and Government:
5.2 Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
5.3 How Government works
5.4 How International Relationships Function

Environment and Ecology:
4.1 Watersheds and Wetlands
4.4 Agriculture and Society
4.8 Humans and The Environment
4.9 Environmental Laws and their Impact

Economics:
6.2 Scarcity and Choice
6.3 Markets and the Functions of Governments
6.4 Economic Interdependence

Geography:
7.2 The Physical Characteristics of Places and Regions
7.4 The Human Characteristics of Places and Region

History:
8.1 Historic Analysis and Skills Development
8.2 Pennsylvania History
8.3 US History
8.4 World History