Transport hubs and terminals

The time that the average citizen spends for his life on the road, for example, from home to work and back, is terrifying. Even more impressive is the figure, if he is a resident of a metropolis, twice a day dying in the so-called traffic jams. This is one of the most important problems in the organization of a comfortable environment in the city. And it can be, if not completely solved, then significantly reduce the severity, if correctly create transport nodes and terminals. So, what are they for and what are they?

What are transport nodes

There are a variety of modes of transportation: buses, trams, trolleybuses, cars, airplanes, ships, trains, etc. As a rule, you can get from one point to another in several ways. But often, especially if the route is rather complicated, you have to change several modes of transport in order to reach your destination. And although, for example, you can change from the bus by metro or car in several places within any large city, sometimes it happens that you can leave one point at once in many ways. And then we will apply the term "transport node". This place is constantly boiling with life, hundreds and thousands of passengers are rushing about their business, trains arrive, planes fly away, in general, at first glance, there is complete fuss and confusion. In fact, everything is different. With a good organization, transport nodes are slender systems, where each part is a well-established mechanism that interacts with all the other elements. And in this case, their value is difficult to overestimate.

What are they needed for

Time costs for a trip or delivery from one point to another in the conditions of a modern rhythm of life should be minimized. People, tired of waiting, have made a lot of inventions that allow you to get instant information, establish communication. But, unfortunately, as long as there is no teleport, we have to spend quite a lot of time on the road. And sometimes you have to go, for example, to the airport or station. The concentration of several modes of transport in transport hubs partially solves this problem. First, in order, for example, to change from a train to a ship or an airplane, it takes a minimal amount of time - everything is literally within walking distance. Secondly, with proper location, even one hub can unload other transport arteries. As a result, all are left to win.

So one more aspect of the functioning of any node is revealed: it not only accumulates, but also regulates transport flows according to the principle of valve operation. If necessary, to avoid congestion and inconvenience, some passengers or cargo can be detained at any stage. In a word, there are analogues of roads and traffic lights.

Hubs are not only passenger, but also cargo. Even if we take the postal services industry - in every major city there will be a place that can be described as a central transport hub - it will receive correspondence, which later, after sorting, will go to smaller territorial units. And here letters and parcels will come to then go, say, abroad. Do you still have questions, do you need transport hubs?

Organization and structure

Logistics is not a simple, but very promising direction. It helps to correctly and efficiently organize the operation of any more or less large node. When building the structure of its work, it is important to take into account both the most basic things, for example, how to transport cargo from one type of transport to another and the necessary infrastructure, and very small nuances like convenient and intuitive navigation for passengers.

To simulate the work of the hub, even at the stage of its design, special software is used, showing what will happen when changing certain parameters.

Accommodation

The right place is another important point in planning traffic flows. If the wrong choice is made, this can only worsen the situation. Inconvenient access roads will create in the vicinity of traffic jams, a shortage of parking spaces will be a serious problem for motorists. The airport built in the lowland will repeatedly cancel flights due to a strong fog. In general, it's very easy to make a mistake. And here, the same science comes to the rescue, helping to simulate the situation in certain variants. In the end, a transport junction is not a place where people appear out of nowhere - they come in one way or another, and you need to watch to make it convenient for them to do it.

Advantages and disadvantages

Properly organized transport hubs, at first sight, are completely devoid of shortcomings. But, unfortunately, this is not entirely true. Firstly, it is obvious that their work is not noiseless, and placing away from the main streams is meaningless, so they in any case interfere with someone. Secondly, due to the fact that there is a huge number of people engaged in their thoughts, it is in the hubs there are many thefts, despite the large number of security measures. Moreover, and this is much more terrible, transport hubs often become a place of major terrorist acts. With sufficient density of passenger traffic, this can result in a huge number of casualties and casualties. However, such a danger exists for all places where a large number of people are gathered at the same time.

Examples

Almost any large European city is an international transport hub. Amsterdam, London, Berlin: flights with transfer at local airports are common. In the East, this is Doha, Shanghai, Dubai, hosting a huge number of transit passengers. Moscow with its three only passenger airports, as well as nine railway stations, can also be included in this list.

At lower levels, nodes, respectively, are less significant in scale. As an example, you can bring the same Simferopol in the Crimea. Well, quite local hubs can be called any metro station in Moscow. But they are also very important - you just need to remember what happens when there are sudden malfunctions.

Efficiency

As it has already become obvious, the work of a large transport hub depends on very many factors. And one more, without which high efficiency is simply unattainable - technical equipment. Without modern electronic systems and devices, any calculations of convenient location and flow planning are useless. Transport tapes, automatic recognition services and many more things that passengers even encounter are important and necessary for smooth operation and proper interaction of the modes of transport involved, especially if there are more than two.

And, perhaps, the universal indicator of the effectiveness of the hub can be called passenger traffic. The number of people he manages to serve per unit of time is an indicator that perfectly characterizes the quality of the work of the transport hub at its level.

Further development

The significance of transport nodes is undeniable. Moreover, any hub is a potential primarily economic and industrial. In places of congestion people can accommodate hotels, shops, restaurants, vending machines. Almost any goods and services will be in demand, for example, if people want to pass the time during the transplant.

If the angle of view is somewhat widened, it is easy to understand that large transport hubs and cities are interrelated and interdependent. On the one hand, hubs ensure uninterrupted supply, which creates conditions for the development of industry, and on the other hand, megacities require the solution of logistical problems. So one without the other simply can not exist.

In addition, new modes of transport are gradually developing, and it is required to integrate them into existing flows. For example, helicopter transport for several decades was something of a fantasy field, and today they are available to almost every traveler. And this direction is just one of many.