Transport and its impact on cities (by Grace Abou Abdallah)

I think that it is of no surprise to us urban history students that transport has a major impact on cities. Be it public or private, transportation has proven to impact cities physically, socially, and economically. Certain elements in a city can hint to whether it was built around the car, the railway, or a canal and we can therefore understand, through this subject, the implications each mode promised its surrounding society.  We can even consider that urbanisation stemming from a specific mode of transportation can be a translation of the society's priorities and what it hoped to achieve at the time.

 

In our readings this week, we are able to study the result of two modes of transport-canals and the railway system- on their surrounding areas and what the achievement of both meant to their relevant societies. Kellett (1969) extensively runs us through the effects of the railway system on the Victorian inner districts and suburbs. He highlights that the number of people living in inner suburbs is the result of the growth in urban density, particularly an increase in the number of individuals who can only afford what those suburbs had to offer (Kellett, 1969). However, railway companies played a substantial role in this phenomena. The companies exacerbated the situation by increasing the departure of those who did not own property from the central district without compensating with other residence or affordable fares (Kellet, 1969). The result was the limited expansion of the mid-Victorian city and its overcrowding. Railways, however, were valuable to the location of industry. Growing businesses demanded larger space which can only be acquired by leaving the city district and the railways made that possible (Kellet, 1969). Even though the railways offered a link between manufacturers and the market, they cannot be praised for the success of a business or blamed for the failure of another (Kellet, 1969).

 

When thinking about urban trade, we cannot overlook the mode in which the trade was made. Kinds of good were allocated to certain kinds of transportation. Goods that were not sold locally were transported via railway as it was the mode of transport used for far destinations (Kellet, 1969). Canals and coastal shipping were used to transport industrial materials over short distances (Kellet, 1969).

 

Kellet (1969) managed to highlight the importance of the canal in this week’s reading which helps us further understand the reason behind the determination to build Canal du Midi that ran from Toulouse to the Mediterranean and which we were introduced to in Cartography, Entrepreneurialism, and Power in the Region of Louis XIV (Mukerji, 2013). The successful completion of the canal promised that products could be sold at more profitable markets as a result of transporting them across the Mediterranean (Mukerji, 2013). According to Kellet (1969), canals were basically a magnet to manufacturing industries in the nineteenth century. Canals even overshadowed the railways in Midlands and North as their location was convenient enough for the traffic of factories that established themselves on the bank of those canals (Kellet, 1969). What is also striking about canals is their ability to earn their revenue from selling their water (Kellet, 1969) which adds on to their economic importance. 

 

Finally, it is important not to overlook the importance Canal du Midi had in introducing the multidisciplinary approach to solving a problem. Not only were engineers, entrepreneurial investors, and politicians stakeholders, but hydraulic engineers, fountainiers, surveyors, militants, and mathematicians were involved in the construction process of Canal du Midi (Mukerji, 2013). I think this highlights the impact of transportation on cities from an intellectual sense. Building this mode of transport also required acquiring the region’s history and myths to fully understand what the landscape has to offer (Mukerji, 2013).  

 

“The engineering of the Canal du Midi or Deux Mers constitutes a good science studies story about social learning, scientific expertise, and state power”

 

This quote portrays the impact of just one transportation project on urban development as it managed to target the social, technological, and political aspects of urbanisation. Those who were involved in building the infrastructure at that time, managed to be a part of “transforming places into states, and made them something politically and economically new” by transforming the landscape.   

 

When thinking of the impact of transport on cities, we cannot limit ourselves to thinking about what that meant with respect to the displacement of civilisation or with respect to altering landscape. After all, cities are not only defined by their location and their citizens, they are also defined by their economies (among other things) and transport in both readings has proven to provide a lot of economic promise. 

 

 

References

Chandra Mukerji ‘Cartography, Entrepreneurialism, and Power in the Reign of Louis XIV’ in Pamela and Smith and Paula Findlen, eds Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science  and Art in Early Modern Europe Hoboken: Taylor and Frances, 2013 pp. 248-276

 

John R. Kellett The Impact of Railways on Victorian Cities Oxon: Routledge 1969 pp. 337-353