Factors affecting transport

Geography glossary

Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 6 "Tertiary and Quaternary Activities"

Meaning

Factors affecting transport are the things that decide how much transport a place needs and where routes are built. Demand for transport grows as population grows. Where routes run depends on several things:

  • where cities, villages, industries and raw materials are located;
  • the pattern of trade between these places;
  • the landscape and climate between them;
  • how much money is available to get past obstacles such as mountains and rivers.

Together these explain why some regions have dense networks and others have very few routes.

Example

The Ganga plains of north India are flat and crowded with people, towns and farms, so they have a dense web of roads and railways. In Ladakh, high mountains, a harsh climate and few people mean only a few routes, and those are costly to build and keep open.

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