Abstract
Transport and Space in Socio-Economic Life. This paper deals with key issues
arising when transport is confronted with chaotic socio-economic environments. Nowadays
especially urbanised areas are facing some crucial issues concerning urban planning under
conditions of spatial chaos. Transport, having an important role in connecting the space of
social and economic life, is a mean to reduce spatial chaos but is also subjected to the impacts
chaotic socio-economic forces have. Within this research the interrelation between transport and
disordered environment in which transport has to operate is addressed in regard to: transport
infrastructure investment planning, traffic congestion management, transport accessibility,
accidents and transport safety and impact of transport on the environment. It is the expected
role of transport system to reduce chaos, especially in urban areas. But to what degree transport
is actually fulfilling this task? In fact in many places badly organized transport might add to
the problem instead of solving it. The effect the chaotic spatial organisation has on transport
accessibility influences daily economic and social activity of people. Specifically there are
numerous cost drivers activated by chaotic transport development resulting mainly in higher costs
of moving people and goods, negative impact on value of time in transport processes, direct
costs involved like more intensive fuel and material consumption or heightened depreciation
of vehicles. Transport could be also perceived as a source of many significant external effects
for society and environment, which entails valid environmental costs. The list of transport
external effects is relatively long. This is due to the fact that transport is also one of the most
important sectors of the modern industrialized economy and modern society. Poorly planned
transport system adds to the already chaotic socio-economic setup. This is especially visible
in cities where different layers of chaos can interfere and create dangerous synergies. Due to
the lack of adequate space management, and this is the case in the discussed spatial chaos,
environmental and social externalities are growing, which leads to higher social costs, which
every citizen pays for in the final bill. On the other hand well planned transport system should help to curb chaotic socio-economic environment. Thus the key problem analysed in this
paper is whether and how transport system could be an ordering force planned and enforced
in effective way in order to reduce chaos created by other activities or rather an additional
negative effect within the whole spectrum of chaos drivers.
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