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The Transportation System in The USA: by Panteleeva Maria
The Transportation System in The USA: by Panteleeva Maria
By Panteleeva
And Otegov Alexander
Stagecoaches
Expansion & settlement into the West created
the need for fast, efficient, and economical
means of transportation & communication.
1857: Wells, Faro & Company organized a
stagecoach service from St. Louis to San
Francisco
The Pony Express
Early 1860s: Wells, Fargo & Company added the
Pony Express service
– Involved 150 stations stocked with fresh horses
– Pony Express guaranteed delivery of a letter from
Missouri to California within 10 days!
Job advertisement for the Pony Express.
Look closely at the requirements.
Telegraph
Within 18
months of the
Pony Express
Service, the
telegraph was
introduced
Pony Express
was abandoned
Pacific Railroad Act, 1862
A route was authorized from Omaha, Nebraska,
to San Francisco, California.
– Building the railroad could not have been possible
without substantial land grants from the US
government to the railroad companies
The trucking
industry
Trucks in America are
responsible for the majority of
freight movement over land
and are vital tools in the
manufacturing, transportation,
and warehousing industries.
Northern section of the Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a network of roads measuring
about 47,958 kilometers (29,800 miles) in total length. Except
for an 87 kilometers (54 mi) rainforest break, called the Darién
Gap, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a
connected highway system. According to the Guinness Book
of World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the
world's longest "motorable road".
Merchant marine
Most US exports and
imports are on
foreign ships.
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion, especially at rush hour, is a problem in many of the country's
larger cities. A 2010 study found that traffic congestion costs the US almost
$87.2 billion. The economic costs of traffic congestion have increased 63%
over the past decade, and despite declining traffic volumes, caused by the
economic downturn, Americans still waste more than 2.8 billion gallons of fuel
each year as a result of traffic congestion. Motorists also waste 4.2 billion hours
annually, or one full work week per traveler.
Airline glitches top cause of delays
Unions for pilots
and flight
attendants said
that high turnover
and low staffing
at regional
carriers
Flight delays caused by airline glitches are
contributed to
now creating longer passenger slowdowns delay problems.
than congestion in the skies.
The data call into question a long-held
notion about air travel delays — that bad
weather and heavy air traffic cause the bulk
of the waits that passengers endure. The
newspaper's analysis shows that airline Airline delays
problems, such as pilot shortages, taking
too long to refuel and mechanical
reached record
breakdowns, are as much at the root of levels this
delays as anything else. year.
New Truck Fuel Efficiency Standards
“Trucks represent only 4 percent of vehicles on the road, but they consume 20
percent of the fuel” Union of Concerned Scientists analyst Don Anair points out.
“Miles per gallon" is meaningless when you're hauling The standards will be phased in gradually
different loads. The new rules rely heavily on for the 2014 to 2018 model years, and
recommendations by a National Research Council they'll improve fuel efficiency by between
report released earlier this year to divide trucks into 7 and 20 percent, depending on the truck
three basic categories, and express the fuel standards type. That will save 500 million barrels of oil
as "gallons per thousand tons per mile" to take load into and 250 million metric tons of greenhouse
account. gas, according to EPA calculations. The cost
to implement the needed changes: $7.7
billion.
Radically Redefining the Airplane
The Brilliant Idea: A cleaner, quieter craft with a radical new
design, setting the stage for a fundamental shift in aviation.
Instead of a single-fuselage cylinder, the D The engines sit at the top rear of the fuselage, where they draw in
series melds two partial cylinders into a slower-moving air that passes over the plane, using less fuel for the
distinctive “double-bubble” shape. This adds to same amount of thrust—a technique known as boundary layer
the lift and allows for longer, skinnier wings and ingestion. To mitigate the engine stress this creates, the plane would
a smaller tail, reducing drag. travel about 10 percent slower than a 737; the researchers anticipate
making up this time through quicker loading and unloading via the
plane’s second aisle.
Boeing’s 737 is the best-selling jet airliner in history: Today, it carries 29 percent of all U.S. domestic air traffic and is
responsible for 25 percent of the industry’s fuel use. A reinvention of this commercial workhorse, called the D series,
could burn 70 percent less fuel, emit 75 percent less nitrogen oxide and dampen noise from takeoffs and landings. In
short, it could transform air travel into a more environmentally benign practice.
Significant tweaks to the 737’s basic tube-and-wing design add up “like compound interest” on the craft, says MIT
aeronautics and astronautics professor Edward Greitzer. The MIT-led team, which includes two commercial
partners, developed the D series in response to a $2.1 million NASA research program challenging engineers
to design aircraft for 2035, by which time air travel is expected to have doubled.
Economic impact
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT):
“Transportation’s vital importance to the U.S. economy is
underscored by the fact that more than $1 out of every $10
produced in the U.S. gross domestic product is related to
transportation activity. This includes all aspects of
transportation, including the movement of goods and the
purchase of all transportation-related products and services
as well as the movement of people”.
Employment in the
transportation and material
moving industry accounted for
7.4% of all employment, and
was the 5th largest employment
group in the United States.
The US invests 0.6% of its
GDP on transportation
annually.