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Post
by:
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member
ID 13515
Date: 08/06/2006
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Transportation
Transportation is the act of moving people or goods from one place to another. It takes people where they want to go and goods to where they are needed. Without transportation, there could be no trade and without trade, there could be no towns and cities. Therefore, transportation helps make civilization possible. Three main kinds of transportation are land, water, and air.
Land transportation is the most common kind of transportation by far. The Engine-powered land transportation such as automobiles, buses, motorcycles, trains, and trucks are the chief engine-powered land vehicles and main modern road vehicles. In areas well served by roads, they can provide a variety of transportation services. Automobiles enables people to travel whenever and by whatever route they choose. However, buses carry passengers along fixed routes between and within cities. Trucks can provide door-to-door freight service. Unlike road vehicles, trains ride on tracks. As a result, trains usually cannot provide door-to-door freight service as can trucks or convenient connecting services such as buses, but trains can haul far heavier loads than trucks can. Beside, trains can also carry many more passengers than buses can.
Water transportation depends mainly on boats, ships, and rafts. People use boats chiefly on rivers, canals, and lakes. A ship is a larger vessel sturdy enough for ocean travel. A raft is a floating platform constructed of such materials as logs or barrels. Most ships specialize in hauling cargo. Cargo ships travel mainly on ocean waters and on bodies of water linked to the ocean, such as the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea. Some cargo ships operate on large inland waterways, such as the Great Lakes. Few ships specialize in transporting passengers. However, various types of motorboats carry passengers locally. Some engine-powered boats, especially tugboats, are used in hauling freight. Tugboats have powerful engines that enable them to tow heavily loaded barges. Barges are actually large rafts. Most barges must be pushed or towed. Others have engines and so move under their own power. Barges are used mainly to haul freight along inland waterways.
Air transportation depends almost entirely on engine-powered craft, especially airplanes. Engine less vehicles, such as gliders and hot-air balloons, are used mainly for recreation. Airplanes provide the world's fastest practical means of transporting passengers and freight. Big airliners routinely fly 500 to 600 miles per hour. Most private planes and some older airliners are powered by gasoline engines and driven by propellers. Most airliners chiefly carry passengers. Even the biggest planes can carry only a fraction of the weight that a ship or train can haul. Air freight rates are high as a result. The high cost limits the shipment of goods by air too expensive, lightweight, or perishable cargo.
Indeed, transportation is a necessary demand in our lives. Without transportation mean, our society will be delayed in any aspects as the same as a human’s heart stops pumping blood to all the tissues of the body.
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